'US benefited from talented Indians': Elon Musk on Nikhil Kamath's podcast

Speaking on Nikhil Kamath's podcast, Elon Musk said that while the H-1B visa programme has supported innovation in the US, certain companies have taken advantage of it

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the US gained enormously from skilled Indians who moved there and contributed to its growth. Speaking on Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath’s 'WTF is' podcast, Musk praised Indian engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs for their strong role in building America’s technology and business sectors.

 

"I think America has benefited immensely from talented Indians who have come to America. I mean, America's been an immense beneficiary of talent from India," he said.

 

People of Indian origin, he noted, continue to make major contributions across industries.

 

Some firms have 'gamed the system', says Musk

 

Musk said that while the H-1B visa programme has supported innovation in the US, certain companies have taken advantage of it. Speaking about concerns around the work visa, he pointed out that the issue lies in misuse, not in the programme itself.

 

"I think there's been some misuse of the, you know, H-1B programme. It would be accurate to say that there's, you know, like some of the outsourcing companies have kind of gamed the system on the H-1B front, and we need to stop the gaming of the system. But I'm certainly not in the school of thought that we should shut down the H1B programme," he said.

 

Musk stressed that eliminating the visa would be harmful to the US economy. "I think they don't realise that would actually be very bad," he said.

 

In September, US President Donald Trump said new H-1B applications would cost $100,000. This was a sharp jump from the earlier costs of roughly $2,000 to $5,000 that employers typically paid to hire foreign workers.

 

Criticism of Biden-era immigration approach

 

Musk also spoke about US immigration policies and called for stronger border controls. He criticised the Biden administration’s handling of immigration, saying it had allowed illegal entries to rise.

 

"I think there are different schools of thought. It's not unanimous, but under the Biden administration, it was basically a total free-for-all with like no border controls... you had massive amounts of illegal immigration under Biden," he said, adding that this created a “negative selection effect".

 

According to Musk, open borders allow even criminals to enter the country. "If there's a massive financial incentive to come to the US illegally and get all these government benefits, then you're going to necessarily create a diffusion gradient... It's an incentive structure that obviously made no sense," he said.

 

Skilled immigrants fill gaps, says Musk

 

Addressing concerns in the US that immigrants steal jobs from locals, Musk said his experience showed otherwise. He believes companies often struggle to find highly skilled people, and foreign talent helps bridge that gap.

 

"On the right, you've got a perception that somehow their jobs are being taken by talented people from other countries. I don't know how real that is. My direct observation is that there's always a scarcity of talented people," he said.

 

He added that his companies look for the best talent globally, not cheaper labour. "From my standpoint, we have a lot of difficulty finding enough talented people... we are just trying to get the most talented people around the world," he said.

 

Musk also shared guidance for aspiring Indian entrepreneurs, encouraging them to focus on contributing to society rather than chasing money. "I'm a big fan of anyone who wants to build... anyone who wants to make more than they take has my respect," he said.

 

The Tesla CEO stressed that creating useful products and services leads to financial success. "Aim to make more than you take. Be a net contributor to society... If you want to create something that's financially valuable, you don't pursue that... If you do that, then money will come as a natural consequence," he said.

 

Expect failure but keep building

 

Musk said the journey to building a company is tough and requires long hours and resilience. "Generally, if somebody's trying to make a company work, they should expect to grind super hard... there's like some meaningful chance of failure. But just focus on making the output worth more than the input. Are you a value creator? That's what really matters," he said.