Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has urged the United States not to clamp down on H-1B visas, arguing that the country continues to face a serious shortage of high-skilled talent. Speaking on Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath’s latest WTF is podcast episode, released on Sunday, Musk said America has long benefited from India’s deep pool of engineers and tech workers.
“America has been a beneficiary of talent coming in from India,” he said, adding that the current debate around foreign workers often ignores the reality that “there’s always scarcity of talent”.
Musk also weighed in on the political climate around immigration. Commenting on how “the scenario has now changed”, he criticised the Biden administration for what he termed a lack of border control, which he claimed had encouraged illegal immigration and created a “negative selection effect”.
According to him, the backlash from parts of the political right stems from a belief that foreign workers take away domestic jobs. “But my observation is that we have a lot of difficulty finding talented people to get these difficult tasks done,” he said.
While acknowledging “some misuse” of the H-1B programme — particularly by outsourcing firms that have “gamed the system” — Musk stressed that the answer is reform, not closure. “We need to stop that, but we shouldn’t shut down the H-1B programme,” he said.
Social media was awash with jokes about the duo’s chemistry — “The way they look at each other… it’s a business romance,” one user wrote, while another quipped, “Stop calling this a podcast; this is literally a date.” Memes also poked fun at their “rich laugh”, with users asking at what net worth people unlock it.
Musk also delivered a brief message for Indian audiences, praising “builders” — people who “make more than they take”.
“Be a net contributor to your society. It’s best to pursue providing useful products and services… Money will come as a natural consequence,” he said.
Kamath’s `WTF is' (People by WTF) has previously hosted guests including Bill Gates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vinod Khosla, cementing its reputation as one of India’s most prominent platforms for long-form conversations on tech, business and entrepreneurship.
