Furthering his view on the contentions H-1B visa, Elon Musk cited the example of Nikola Tesla who was an immigrant to America and said “we named Tesla after Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest engineers ever”. To this, X users corrected him and added that Elon Musk did not name the company Tesla as he joined the company in 2004, a year after the company was founded by Eberhard and Tarpenning in 2003.
Some social media users even claimed that Nikola Tesla was middle class and his uncle was a high-ranking army member and can not be called “penniless”.
Elon Musk also shared a Grok (X’s AI) note on Nikola Tesla’s contribution.
Born in a Serb family in the village of Smiljan, Nikola Tesla studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. Then he worked at Continental Efiroe and immigrated to the United States in 1884. Later on, he became a naturalized American citizen.
What is the H-1B row?
H-1B is the American visa that allows companies to hire foreign workers. As of now, every country has an equal cap on the number of H-1B visas. Donald Trump’s pick for the AI advisor Sriram Krishnan said the cap should be removed to allow more foreign workers to come to the US. While Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy supported the idea, MAGA old-timers said this is against the America First policy. The controversy boiled down to an Elon Musk versus Laura Loomer fight on X in which Elon Musk said the GOP should get rid of these voices.
Were Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Sriram Krishnan born in the US?
Only Vivek Ramaswamy among these three technocrats were born in the US and thus a natural US citizen. Elon Musk was born in South Africa and became a US citizen in 2002. Sriram Krishnan was born and brought up in India and moved to the US on an L-1 visa in 2007 to work at Microsoft. He became a US citizen in 2016.
