Elon Musk has described the United States as an “immense beneficiary” of skilled Indian talent, expressing strong backing for the H-1B visa programme and warning that shutting it down would “actually be very bad” for the country.
As per Outlook India, the SpaceX CEO remarks came during a discussion with investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath on the podcast People by WTF, released on Sunday.
Musk noted that the contributions of Indian professionals have played a significant role in strengthening the US. “Yes, I think America has benefited immensely from talented Indians who have come to America... America has been an immense beneficiary of talent from India,” he said.
Commenting on the H-1B system, he acknowledged that certain loopholes have been exploited.
“It would be accurate to say that... some of the outsourcing companies have gamed the system on the H-1B front. And we need to stop the gaming of the system,” he said.
However, he rejected the idea of scrapping the programme altogether saying, “I'm certainly not in the school of thought that we should shut down the H-1B programme. That's where some on the right are. I think they don't realise that that would actually be very bad.”
His comments come amid a major US crackdown on H-1B visa misuse, a programme heavily used by American tech companies to hire skilled workers from abroad. Indian professionals remain among the largest group of H-1B recipients.
In September, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation titled Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, presented as an early step in reforming the visa system. It included a one-time USD 100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, a measure expected to significantly affect Indian applicants.
