Elon Musk: Tesla Open-Sourced Its Patents to Help, Not Hinder, the Competition

Elon Musk: At Tesla, we've open-sourced our patents. How many companies do you know that have done that?

“Nothing any of my companies have done has been to stifle competition. In fact, we've done the opposite. At Tesla, we have open-sourced our patents. Anyone can use our patents for free.

How many companies do you know that have done that? Can you name one? I can't.

At SpaceX, we don't use patents. Once in a while, we'll file a patent just so some patent troll doesn't cause trouble. But we've done nothing anti-competitive. Some companies have done anti-competitive things.

The unusual thing about SpaceX and Tesla is that we've done things that have helped our competition. At Tesla, we have made our supercharger system open-access. We made our charger technology available for free to the other manufacturers.

No walled garden. We could have put a wall up, but instead we invited them in.”

The New York Times DealBook Summit, November 29, 2023