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Billionaire businessman and newly appointed government austerity minister Elon Musk has called for increased immigration of highly skilled foreign workers to the US in a series of anti-immigration communications.
In a post on X, Musk criticized the “persistent shortage of great engineering talent” in America, calling it “a fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Mario Nawfal, an entrepreneur and influencer on X, cited Musk’s post and said the US semiconductor industry alone needs more than 160,000 engineers by 2032, citing McKinsey & Company.
“No, we need twice as much as yesterday!” Musk replied. “The number of talented AND highly motivated engineers in the USA is very low.”
Musk then drew an analogy between the US economy and a high-profile sports team. “If you want your TEAM to win the tournament, you need to recruit top talent wherever they are,” he wrote.
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SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk speaks at an American PAC town hall on October 26, 2024 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Photos by Samuel Corum / Getty Images)
His argument sparked a backlash from anti-immigration activists, who responded that tech companies should be looking to America’s 330 million people for top talent instead of calling for more foreign workers to move to the United States.
“Your understanding of this situation is upside down and backwards,” Musk said in response to a user who wanted to know why he was denying jobs to Americans.
“Of course my companies and I would like to hire Americans and we do, as it is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful work visa process.
“However, there is a huge shortage of talented and motivated engineers in America,” explained Musk.
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Elon Musk posed for a photo with President-elect Donald Trump in Florida. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images/Getty Images)
“If you force the best talent in the world to play for the other side, America will LOSE. That’s the end of the story,” Musk said.
His comments come as some immigration activists voiced opposition to President-elect Trump’s appointment of Indian-American investor Sriram Krishnan to the position of Artificial Intelligence (AI) adviser to the incoming administration. Krishnan had previously urged Musk, who is close to Trump and will head the Department of Government Employment (DOGE), to persuade the president to remove caps on green cards for foreign-born high-skilled workers.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), center, holds Elon Musk, left, holding his son X Æ A-Xii with Vivek Ramaswamy, right, co-directors of the new Department of Government Operations, US. Capitol on Dec. 5, 2024 in Washing (Jack Gruber / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images / IMAGN)
“Anything to remove country caps on green cards/open up skilled immigration would be huge,” Krishnan wrote on X. In another post, Krishnan added, “simple logic – we need the best, regardless of where they were born (another strange quirk – the country cap is where you were born, not even citizenship).”
David Sacks, who said Trump contacted the White House AI once cryptocurrency czardefended Krishnan’s opinion in X’s post this week.
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“Sriram still supports a merit-based process for getting a green card, not limiting the program. In fact, he wants to make the program completely merit-based,” Sacks wrote in part of his post.
“It makes sense,” Musk replied.
FOX Business’ Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.
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