AI Engineer Salaries Raised by Musk: "The Craziest Talent War"

"This is the craziest talent war I have ever seen." Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is raising the salaries of AI engineers to survive the artificial intelligence (AI) competition. Analysts suggest that the lawsuit he filed against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is also closely related to this talent acquisition battle.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 4th (local time), citing a post Musk made on X (formerly Twitter). Musk explained, "OpenAI is aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers by offering large compensation packages," and said that Tesla is raising the salaries of its AI engineers to prevent talent drain. He also described this AI talent acquisition battle as "the craziest talent war I have ever seen."

Since the boom of generative AI, including ChatGPT, major companies have accelerated their technology development, intensifying the talent competition within Silicon Valley. Musk previously commented on Tesla’s AI key talent, machine learning scientist Ethan Knight, joining his startup xAI, saying, "He was going to join OpenAI, so I had no choice but to bring him to xAI."

This indicates how fierce the competition is among big tech companies for the relatively small pool of AI specialists. WSJ reported, "Tech companies are recruiting entire teams by offering compensation packages worth millions of dollars annually," and added, "To cover the enormous costs of AI technology development, resources are being reallocated, leading to layoffs in other technology sectors."

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

These remarks are particularly notable as they come amid rising tensions following Musk’s recent lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Musk’s comments about Ethan Knight joining xAI suggest that conflicts during the AI competition partly contributed to the lawsuit’s background. Musk cited in last month’s lawsuit that OpenAI broke its original agreement as a 'nonprofit research institute for the benefit of humanity' and is now pursuing profits.

WSJ also highlighted that while OpenAI is leading the AI boom with ChatGPT, Musk, once a co-founder of OpenAI, established xAI to catch up. The outlet analyzed, "Tesla’s AI efforts have so far focused on autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots," and noted, "The unveiling of a humanoid robot at Tesla’s 2022 event was part of an effort to be recognized by the public as more than just an electric vehicle manufacturer."