Tesla Engineer Publicly Calls Out Meta Recruitment Pitch - Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Tesla Vs. Meta: Engineer Says He's Staying At EV Giant — 'No Amount Of Money Can Sway Me From Elon'

by Chris Katje Benzinga Staff Writer

Zinger Key Points

A Tesla employee shares a story of trying to be lured away to work for Meta Platforms.
The employee shares the reasons why he choose to stay at Tesla.
Get access to the leaderboards pointing to tomorrow’s biggest stock movers.

The launch of robotaxis in Texas by Tesla Inc TSLA has put an emphasis on the company's AI technology and engineers. Those same Tesla workers are also being contacted by rival companies, which want to lure them away.

What Happened: Tesla senior staff engineer Yun-Ta Tsai shared details of Meta Platforms Inc META trying to poach him, which follows reports that Meta was aggressively trying to win over top AI talent.

Tsai shared an email from a Meta recruiter that said it was "one last try" to get him to work at the social media and tech company.

"Sorry we are busy at [sic] launching Robotaxi and our devotion to the sustainable abundance," Tsai captioned the post.

Working at Tesla and with CEO Elon Musk may be a dream job for some and a tough task for others. Tsai shared more details on this in comments to people who replied to the original post.

One user asked Tsai, "What attracts talent to Tesla?"

Tsai shared a response that highlighted Musk's leadership and working for a company with a clear purpose.

"No amount of money can sway me away from Elon. That's once in a lifetime (probably history) opportunities. I enjoyed [missing word] in tough environments. Making money without a sense of purpose would drive me crazy," Tsai said.

Another user told Tsai that Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg was "out there with pallets of cash" trying to "buy his way to AGI."

"That's what I heard. But money cannot buy a sense of purpose," Tsai responded.

Why It's Important: A LinkedIn profile for Tsai shows a work history that includes working at Tesla for four years and nine months along with past stints at Google, Nvidia and Nokia.

In other posts from Tsai, the Tesla engineer praises the teamwork of the AI units and their accomplishments.

"Everyone was working before the dawn to make history. One team," a post reads.

Another X user shared Tsai's post and said it should be shown off when the media says that top talent doesn't want to work with Musk, which caught the CEO's attention.

"It is an honor to work with such a great team," Musk said.

The positive comments from Tsai come after a recent interview of former Tesla employees highlighted the challenges and pressures of working for Musk, but also the rewards, with some employees going on to found their own companies.

A recent report from OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth suggested the company was seeing its employees targeted by Meta.

Bosworth said Meta was trying to lure away top employees from OpenAI, which followed comments from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman commenting on the same.

"The market is setting a rate here for a level of talent which is really incredible and kind of unprecedented," Bosworth said.

Bosworth said Altman failed to mention that he has countered many of the offers OpenAI employees were getting from Meta.

The push to get exceptional employees is likely to continue with demand in the sector, which will lead to companies needing to treat employees well, offer strong compensation and as Tsai has said, a "sense of purpose."

Read Next: