Elon Musk fights anti-immigration sentiment in posts decrying ‘severe shortage’ of tech talent

Billionaire businessman and recent government appointee to cut costs Elon Musk called for increased immigration of highly skilled foreign workers to the US in several social media posts fighting immigration restrictions.

In a post on X, Musk decried a “persistent lack of great engineering talent” in America, calling it “the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Mario Nawfal, a businessman and influencer on X, cited 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 more like double that number yesterday!” Musk replied. “The number of people who are super talented AND super motivated engineers in the US is far too small.”

Musk then drew an analogy between the US economy and a pro sports team. “If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they are,” he wrote.

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His argument drew backlash from immigration restrictionists, who responded that tech companies should look to America’s 330 million people for top talent instead of asking more foreign workers to immigrate to the United States .

“Your understanding of the situation is backwards and backwards,” Musk said in response to a user who demanded to know why he would deny employment opportunities to Americans.

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

“YET, there is a huge shortage of highly talented and motivated engineers in America,” explained Musk.

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

His comments come as some immigration partisans voiced their opposition President-elect Trump’s nomination of Indian-American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan to an Artificial Intelligence (AI) adviser position in the new administration. Krishnan previously urged Musk, who is close to Trump and will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to convince the president to remove limits on green cards for foreign-born high-skilled workers.

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“Anything to remove country caps on green cards/unblock skilled immigration would be huge,” Krishnan wrote on X. In another post, Krishnan added, “simple logic – we need the best, regardless the place where he happens to be born (another bizarre one). strange – the country cap is where you were born, not even citizenship).”

David Sacks, whom Trump tapped for White House AI and the czar of cryptocurrencydefended Krishnan’s view in an X post this week.

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“Sriram still supports the skill-based criteria for receiving a green card, without making the program open-ended. In fact, he wants to make the program entirely merit-based,” Sacks wrote in part of his post.

“Makes sense,” Musk replied.

FOX Business’ Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.