A technical Tesla patent unexpectedly set off a political and cultural firestorm on X this week, not over artificial intelligence itself, but over the inventors behind the technology. Elon Musk praised the Tesla AI team for their groundbreaking work, which included four Indian-origin engineers. This comes at a time when there is much speculation around the H-1B row. The post that kicked it all off declared, in all caps: “TESLA HAS PATENTED A ‘MATHEMATICAL CHEAT CODE’ THAT FORCES CHEAP 8-BIT CHIPS TO RUN ELITE 32-BIT AI MODELS AND REWRITES THE RULES OF SILICON.”The user shared a long breakdown of the patent, along with screenshots showing the listed inventors. Out of five names, four appeared to be of Indian origin: Ritvik Rawat, Rohan Dhesikan, Srihari Sadhu Sampathkumar, and Alex Nihal Singh.Elon Musk, never far from the discourse, reposted the thread and praised Tesla’s AI division in his trademark tone.“Necessity is the mother of invention. The @Tesla_AI team is epicly hardcore. No one can match Tesla’s real-world AI.”The endorsement pushed the post further into the spotlight. and that’s when the conversation took a sharp turn. One user zeroed in on the names listed on the patent and reposted the screenshot with a pointed comment: “And what does woke right say? cheap labor, ofcourse”The dig directly calls out critics who routinely dismiss immigrant engineers, especially those on H-1B visas, as expendable or undercutting American workers.The implication was clear: the same people praising breakthroughs in AI often turn around and devalue the engineers behind them when immigration enters the conversation.The exchange landed at a tense moment in the US immigration debate. Indian engineers make up a large share of H-1B visa holders, particularly in tech and AI, the same fields driving patents like Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software.Yet they are frequently targeted in political rhetoric as “cheap labor,” accused of depressing wages or replacing domestic workers, despite working on some of Silicon Valley’s most advanced systems.That contradiction is exactly what X users were pointing to: cutting-edge innovation celebrated at the top, while the people building it are reduced to talking points.
Why this resonated now
The posts gained traction against the backdrop of renewed restrictions on legal immigration. Under the Trump administration’s latest plans, new H-1B visa petitions are set to face a $100,000 fee, a move widely seen as limiting employers’ ability to hire foreign workers.The administration has also announced that it will reduce legal immigration, increase deportations, and further restrict the hiring of H-1B visa holders in 2026, reigniting anxieties among immigrant tech workers.
Who are the Indian-origin engineers credited for the patent?
Ritik RawatRitik Rawat is a software engineer with Tesla Autopilot, working at the intersection of neural network inference, compilers, systems, and hardware, software co-design.Rohan DhesikanRohan Dhesikan is a machine learning engineer who previously worked at Tesla and left the company around six months ago. He is currently helping tech companies and startups with AI strategy and technical execution.Srihari Sadhu SampathkumarSrihari Sadhu Sampathkumar is an engineer associated with Tesla’s AI-related work, as listed on the company’s patent filings and his professional profile.Alex Nihal SinghAlex Nihal Singh works in hardware, software co-design at Tesla AI.
