The giants are in an "AI talent war", Musk exclaims "the craziest in history"

Source: Hard AI

Author: Fang Jiayao

With the continuous deepening and increased investment of technology companies in the field of AI, a talent war for AI professionals has erupted within the tech industry.

On Wednesday night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a series of posts on the social media platform X, stating, "As OpenAI lures Tesla engineers with high salaries, Tesla is increasing compensation in response."

He said that the competition among major companies for AI engineers is "the craziest talent war I have ever seen."

Silicon Valley's AI Talent War

The prosperity of AI has intensified the competition among tech giants, with startups and established tech giants vying to create the next great AI product. Therefore, the AI talent war in Silicon Valley is particularly fierce, as attracting and retaining AI technical personnel is seen as one of the key factors for success among current tech giants.

The tech industry is undergoing a transformation, with tech companies reallocating resources, cutting redundant businesses, continuing layoffs, and focusing more funds on major tracks such as AI, increasing their bets on AI talent.

Naveen Rao, Head of Generative AI at Databricks, recently pointed out, "The tech industry is undergoing a fundamental shift in the pursuit of talent, with an oversupply of talent in technical positions and a scarcity of AI-specific talent."

Rao emphasized that while recruiting for regular software engineering positions is not a problem, when it comes to experts in training large language models (LLMs) or solving challenging AI problems, qualified candidates are few, estimated to be no more than two hundred globally.

At the same time, sales talents with advanced skills and deep industry understanding are becoming scarce. Rao noted that the salaries of these specialized sales professionals with unique skills can be double that of traditional enterprise software sales personnel.

Temptation of Million-Dollar Salaries

It is reported that tech companies are using means such as million-dollar salaries, accelerated stock cash-out plans, and poaching entire engineering teams to compete for AI expert talents. Even when compared to the relatively generous salary and benefit standards in the industry, these offers stand out.

Rao stated that amid layoffs in other tech fields, the annual salary offers for frontline AI talents easily exceed one million US dollars.

According to data from over 1500 employers surveyed by WTW, from April 2022 to April 2023, the basic salary increase for management-level employees in the AI and machine learning industry ranges from 5% to 11%, while for non-management employees, the increase ranges from 13% to 19%.

Zuhayeer Musa, co-founder of the career and salary information platform Levels.fyi, stated that the average salary for six candidates consulting about job opportunities at OpenAI on the platform is $925,000, including bonuses and equity Although the basic salaries of startups are often lower than those of established tech companies, they offer unique conditions to attract AI talents.

On one hand, some AI talents believe that they can better realize their value in startups. For example, former Google employee Arthur Mensch left the company and founded the startup Mistral AI. In less than a year since its establishment, the company's valuation has rapidly increased to over $2 billion.

On the other hand, Justin Kinsey, the CEO of semiconductor recruitment company SBT Industries, stated that many startups promise AI talents autonomy at work to win candidates' favor.

Therefore, there are still many professionals choosing to leave stable job positions and join startups with higher risks but tremendous growth opportunities