Elon Musk combats anti-immigration sentiment in posts denouncing a “severe shortage” of tech talent

A billionaire businessman who was recently appointed to cut government costs Elon Musk He has called for increased immigration of highly skilled foreign workers to the United States in numerous social media posts to combat immigration restrictions.

In a post on X, Musk criticized the “perpetual shortage of excellent engineering talent” in America, calling it “the primary limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Mario Novel, an entrepreneur and X influencer, quoted Musk’s post and said that the US semiconductor industry alone needs more than 160,000 engineers by 2032, citing McKinsey & Company.

“No, we need double that number from yesterday!” Musk answered. “The number of people who are highly talented, highly motivated engineers in the United States is very low.”

Musk then made an analogy between the American economy and a professional sports team. “If you want your team to win a championship, you need to recruit the best talent wherever they are,” he wrote.

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His argument sparked a backlash from immigration advocates, who countered that tech companies should look to America’s 330 million people for top talent rather than inviting more foreign workers to immigrate to the United States.

“Your understanding of the situation is upside down and backwards,” Musk said in response to a user who demanded to know why Americans are deprived of job opportunities.

“Of course my companies and I prefer to hire Americans, and we do, because it is much easier than going through the painful and incredibly slow work visa process.

“However, there is a severe shortage of talented, highly motivated engineers in America,” Musk explained.

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“If you force the best talent in the world to play for the other side, America will lose,” Musk said. “End of story.”

His comments come as some immigration hard-liners have expressed opposition Appointment of President-elect Trump From Indian-American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan to an artificial intelligence (AI) advisory position in the next administration. Krishnan had previously urged Musk, who is close to Trump and will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to persuade the president to remove caps on green cards for highly skilled workers born in foreign countries.

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“Anything to remove the cap on states’ green cards/open up skills migration would be huge,” Krishnan wrote on X. In another post, Krishnan added, “Simple logic – we need the best, no matter where they were born (another weird one) Quirk – the country limit is where you were born, not even nationality).”

David Sachs, Trump’s pick for artificial intelligence in the White House and Cryptocurrency czarHe defended Krishnan’s point in this week’s X post.

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“Sriram still supports skills-based criteria for a green card, and is not making the program unlimited. In fact, he wants to make the program entirely merit-based,” Sachs wrote in part of his post.

“That makes sense,” Musk replied.

FOX Business’ Alex Netsberg contributed to this report.