Elon Musk reportedly sought to absorb OpenAI's leadership, including Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever, into Tesla around 2016-2017. This critical period followed OpenAI's establishment in late 2015 as a non-profit dedicated to AGI.

Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever opted to remain with OpenAI, choosing to maintain its independent path and research direction rather than integrating into Tesla's internal AI capabilities. This decision was pivotal in shaping both entities' futures in AI development.

The founders' decision meant Tesla continued to develop its in-house AI, focusing on real-world data and neural networks for autonomous driving (FSD) and robotics like Optimus. It missed an opportunity to potentially command an unparalleled lead in both embodied AI and generalized AI research.

After maintaining independence, OpenAI eventually pivoted from its non-profit origins to a capped-profit model. This enabled the development of groundbreaking generative AI models such as GPT-3 and GPT-4, establishing its lead in large language models and the broader pursuit of AGI.

Tesla's AI strategy focuses on real-world data and neural networks for specific applications like Full Self-Driving (FSD) and humanoid robotics (Optimus). In contrast, OpenAI leads in broad foundational models and generative AI, pursuing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) with models like GPT-4.

xAI is an AI company established by Elon Musk in 2023, directly competing with OpenAI. Its creation further emphasizes his unwavering belief in the critical importance of AI and his desire to shape its future, following his earlier attempt to poach OpenAI's founders for Tesla AI.