By helping to instigate a heated debate over H-1B visasElon Musk speaks both from personal experience and as an entrepreneur. That’s because his company, electric car maker Tesla, is among the American companies that bring thousands of foreign engineers and other skilled workers to the US each year.
After not ranking among the top 25 H-1B visa employers in previous years, Tesla now ranks No. 16, according to the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), a nonpartisan think tank focused on issues of trade and immigration
Although far behind tech giants such as Amazon, IBM, Microsoft and Google, Tesla in 2024 significantly increased its number of employees hired through the visa program, with its 742 H-1B petitions approved for the initial employment more than double the 328 it had. registered in 2023, found NFAP. Tesla also had 1,025 H-1B petitions approved to continue working. 2024.
“I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk, who earlier in his career worked in the U.S. United States with an H-1B visa. published On his social media site on Friday, X. Musk also vowed to “go to war against this subject that you cannot understand.”
Musk and his companies are certainly not alone in using the H-1B program to fill their employee ranks. The tech industry has long pushed to expand the number of H-1B visas granted by the government to bring skilled workers to the US from India, China, Canada, Korea, the Philippines and other countries.
The program is capped at 65,000 news visas each year, although an additional 20,000 can be issued to employees with a master’s degree or higher, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Here’s a summary of the top 20 companies, based on the number of H-1B petitions for initial US employment approved in FY 2024, according to NFAP:
- Amazon. The e-commerce company had the most approved H-1B petitions for initial employment in 2024, with 3,871. That number is down from more than 4,000 H-1B visas in 2023 and nearly 6,400 in 2022.
- connoisseur. The information technology services company had the second most H-1B petitions approved in 2024, with 2,837.
- Infosys. The digital services and consulting company had 2,504 requests approved in 2024.
- TCS. Tata Consultancy Services ranked fourth, with 1,452.
- IBM. The tech company nicknamed Big Blue had 1,348 requests.
- Microsoft. The technology conglomerate approved 1,264 requests.
- HCL America. The computer programming solutions provider had 1,248 H-1B visas approved.
- Google. The searcher ranked No. 8, with 1,058 H-1Bs.
- capgemini. The information technology company had 1,041 H-1B visas last year 2024.
- Metaplatforms. Formerly known as Facebook, Meta was behind 920 approved requests.
- Deloitte. The audit and tax consulting company had 891 requests approved.
- Apple. The iPhone and laptop maker accounted for 864.
- Intel. The semiconductor company’s count reached 851.
- accent. The IT company got 833 requests approved.
- LTIIndtree. Global technology consulting had 798.
- Tesla. The electric car manufacturer had 742 approved requests.
- Ernst & Young. The accounting firm counted 741.
- Goldman Sachs. The investment bank and financial services company scored 678.
- Wipro. The IT service provider number was 609.
- Walmart. The retail giant is behind 654 approved H-1B petitions.