Some of his own followers expressed displeasure at X owner Elon Musk on Christmas after he signaled support for importing more "super talented engineers" from overseas.
On Wednesday afternoon, Musk responded to a post on X about a purported dearth of American-born engineering talent in Silicon Valley, which he argued was holding back the industry's potential.
"The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low," he wrote. "Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win."
This drew some objections from some of Musk's own followers who argued that Silicon Valley wasn't doing enough to hire native-born American engineers.
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"There are over 330 million people in America," wrote one follower. "Surely, there must be enough among them to build your ultimate team? Why would you deny real Americans that opportunity by bringing foreigners here?"
"Your understanding of the situation is upside-down and backwards," Musk replied. "OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process. HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America."
Another Musk follower said that he should "open a school" to better train Americans, and then added, "We have brains."
"If you need a school, you’ve lost already," Musk replied.
Other followers accused Musk of simply not wanting to pay top talent what it's worth.
"There is plenty of us talent, maybe you are not offering enough," wrote Eben Plettner. "I work Almost 60 hours most week And have been a lead system's engineer on several defense projects and yet every time I turn a resume in to your companies they get rejected. I've been told it's because of my salary."
"Because wages are too low," replied Joshua Fontanilla. "Because they are being systematically replaced by foreigners. You’re going to lose a lot of political capital on this issue bro."
"I see tech company's laying off tech high skilled tech workers all over the place the past couple years," wrote another Musk follower. "I am an engineer of 10 years with plenty of friends that can't even get an interview after months and months. Where are you getting this imformation (sic)?"