Dangling a free Cybertruck in front of an employee is one way to get results.
Elon Musk made the unusual offer when xAI’s engineers were setting up new GPU racks, according to then-technical staff member Sulaiman Ghori.
“Elon’s like, ‘OK, you can get a Cybertruck tonight if you can get a training run on these GPUs in 24 hours,'” Ghori said on “Relentless.”
The engineer — whom Ghori only referred to by their first name, Tyler — won the bet. Now, Ghori said he sees Tyler’s Cybertruck outside his lunch window.
It’s yet another example of Musk’s drive for efficiency in execution. Employees at his companies are known to accept lower salaries but higher stock grants, betting their compensation on the company’s performance. That’s partly because of Musk’s track record of growing startups into highly valued companies.
Four days after the podcast was published, Ghori revealed that he left xAI. “Nothing but love to my former team and coworkers!” he wrote on X.
Some famous faces popped in to question the timing of his exit. “Is it because of the podcast?” MrBeast replied, adding a popcorn emoji.
Musk has been known to make bets with his employees. Almost two decades ago, he reportedly wagered against early SpaceX employee Steve Davis. Davis put up $20; Musk put up the possibility of a SpaceX frozen yogurt machine. Davis won, and employees on the Hawthorne campus enjoyed their free fro-yo.
It helps that Musk’s companies tend to have a flat org structure, giving Musk one-on-one contact with many of his employees. In the interview, Ghori said that there were three levels at xAI: individual contributors, cofounders, and Musk himself.
“No one tells me ‘no,'” Ghori said. He explained that, if he has a good idea, he can pursue it that same day and show it to Musk or the relevant customer.
There are also few deadlines, Ghori said, because projects are pitched and completed quickly.
“We don’t have due dates,” he said. “It’s always yesterday.”
The fast-paced, individualistic culture may take some getting used to. Ghori came to xAI after years as a startup founder. There was little guidance.
“Nobody told me what to do,” Ghori said. “My first day, they just gave me a laptop and a badge.”
Ghori had no team and wasn’t assigned a desk. He sought out cofounder Greg Yang, who had been instrumental in his hiring. He soon started working on the Ask Grok feature in X.
As for the free Cybertruck, it’s not Musk’s first time promising to give one away. In March, he offered a Cybertruck to anyone who could find out who was behind a social media campaign from Democratic senators.
Sen. Cory Booker responded: “It was me. Keep your truck.”
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