The poaching wars between Tesla Motors and Apple appear likely to continue escalating into the foreseeable future, based on recent moves made by both companies.
Of particular note is the fact that Apple is apparently now offering signing bonuses as large as $250,000 and pay raises as high as 60% to Tesla engineers of interest to the company.
Substantial offerings. But apparently not enough to catch much, according to Tesla reps. Tesla on the other hand has to-date poached at least 150 former Apple employees — which is to say, they appear to be winning this war for talent. Well, appears to be is the key, as we don’t have official data on this.
Elon Musk has previously commented on this subject, as noted in a recent Bloomberg article, having stated: “Apple tries very hard to recruit from Tesla. But so far they’ve actually recruited very few people.”
That’s not to say that Musk doesn’t appear to have respect for the company, despite the disparity in success with regard to poaching from one another, having stated: “From a design philosophy, (Apple) is relatively closely aligned.”
That said, watching the industry these past few years, you can’t help but get the impression that Apple has mostly ossified “creatively” and is potentially going to enter a decline at some point in the relatively near future, while Tesla appears to be firmly on the ascent (though is certainly still something of a gamble in many ways).
Over the longer term, my bet would be on Tesla. How many iPhones can people possibly want?
Image Credit: Tesla Motors