09:09 AM EDT, 04/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Tesla (TSLA) is increasing compensation for its artificial intelligence engineering team to counter recruitment efforts by competitors like OpenAI, Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, late Wednesday.

Musk said OpenAI has been "aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers with massive compensation offers."

Responding to a report from The Information that Tesla machine-learning scientist Ethan Knight had joined Musk's AI startup xAI, the Tesla CEO posted, "Ethan was going to join OpenAI, so it was either xAI or them."

Tesla did not immediately respond to MT Newswires' request for comment.

Shares of the automaker were up 1.3% in Thursday's premarket activity.

Price: 170.53, Change: +2.14, Percent Change: +1.27