Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, announced that late on Friday evening he would start a “war” to defend the US visa program for foreign technology workers called H-1B as a result of a dispute between longtime supporters of US President-elect Donald Trump and his has recently gained supporters from the technology industry.
In a post on the social media platform X, which he owns, Musk said: “The reason I'm in America along with so many of the critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B.”
“I will go to war on this issue that you cannot understand,” he added.
Musk, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Africa, holds an H-1B visa, and his electric car company Tesla has been granted 724 visas this year. H-1B visas are typically issued for three-year terms, although holders can extend them or apply for permanent residence.
Musk's tweet was aimed at Trump supporters and hard-line immigration advocates who are increasingly calling for an end to the H-1B visa program amid a heated debate over immigration and the place of skilled immigrants and foreign workers brought into the country on work visas.
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Trump is silent on this matter for now. Trump's transition team did not respond to a request for comment on Musk's tweets and the H-1B visa debate.
In the past, Trump has expressed a desire to grant more work visas to skilled workers. He also promised to deport all immigrants in the U.S. illegally, impose tariffs that would help create more jobs for American citizens, and severely restrict immigration.
The issue highlights how tech leaders like Musk — who played an important role in the president's transition by advising on key hires and policy areas — now enjoy control from their base.
The U.S. tech industry relies on the government's H-1B visa program, which allows it to hire skilled workers from abroad to help run companies. This is a workforce that critics say undercuts the wages of American citizens.
US President-elect Donald Trump continues to fill his team with hard-line MAGA supporters, including Mike Waltz, the Florida congressman and outspoken critic of Justin Trudeau, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, and entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump's former rival Marco Rubio is expected to become secretary of state.
The spat was sparked earlier this week by far-right activists who criticized Trump's selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American venture capitalist, as artificial intelligence adviser, saying he would influence the Trump administration's immigration policy.
On Friday, Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump confidant, criticized “big tech oligarchs” for supporting the H-1B program and considered immigration a threat to Western civilization.
In response, Musk and many other tech billionaires have drawn a line between what they consider legal immigration and illegal immigration.
Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump elect president in November. He has been posting regularly this week about the lack of homegrown talent to fill all the needed positions at U.S. tech companies.