Tesla Open-Source Patents and Free Supercharger Tech: Why Elon Musk Helps Competitors | Taha Abbasi

In a business world obsessed with moats, patents, and competitive advantages, Elon Musk has consistently done something counterintuitive: he gives away Tesla’s technology. Open-sourced patents. Free Supercharger specifications. The NACS connector standard offered to any automaker willing to adopt it. As Taha Abbasi analyzes this strategy, the logic becomes clear — Musk isn’t being charitable. He’s playing a game most competitors don’t even understand.

A recent viral post on X by @muskosophy, garnering over 7.7 million views, featured Musk’s own words from the 2023 NYT DealBook Summit: “No walled garden.” It’s a philosophy that extends across Tesla and SpaceX — and it’s working spectacularly.

The Patent Pledge That Changed an Industry

In 2014, Tesla made the extraordinary decision to open-source all of its electric vehicle patents. Musk published a now-famous blog post titled “All Our Patent Are Belong To You” (a reference to the internet meme), declaring that Tesla would not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone using its technology in good faith.

The move was widely dismissed as a publicity stunt. Why would a company with massive R&D investments give away its intellectual property? The answer, as Taha Abbasi explains, lies in understanding what Tesla was actually competing against. In 2014, Tesla’s primary competitor wasn’t other EV makers — it was gasoline. The faster the entire EV industry grew, the faster Tesla’s addressable market expanded.

By removing patent barriers, Tesla encouraged other manufacturers to build EVs. More EVs meant more charging demand. More charging demand meant more justification for Supercharger expansion. And Tesla’s Supercharger network — the most extensive and reliable in the world — became the industry standard.

The NACS Masterstroke

The most visible result of Tesla’s open-source strategy is the North American Charging Standard (NACS). Tesla’s proprietary charging connector was technically superior to the industry’s CCS standard — smaller, more elegant, capable of higher power delivery. Instead of keeping it proprietary, Tesla opened the specification and invited other automakers to adopt it.

The result exceeded even optimistic projections. Ford adopted NACS first, followed by GM, Rivian, Volkswagen, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes, and virtually every major automaker. The SAE officially recognized NACS as the J3400 standard. Tesla’s connector became the North American standard — not through regulation, but through superiority and openness.

As Taha Abbasi has covered in his EV charging infrastructure analysis, this means every NACS-compatible vehicle drives demand for Tesla’s Supercharger network. Tesla earns revenue from non-Tesla vehicles charging at its stations. The network effects are enormous — and they were enabled by giving the technology away for free.

SpaceX: No Patents by Policy

SpaceX takes the open-source philosophy even further — it deliberately doesn’t patent most of its innovations. Musk has explained that in the rocket industry, patents serve primarily as a “recipe book” for China and other international competitors. Since US patents offer no protection in other countries, filing them only reveals trade secrets.

Instead, SpaceX relies on trade secrets, manufacturing expertise, and execution speed as its competitive moat. The result: SpaceX launches more rockets than any other entity on Earth, at a fraction of the cost, and competitors still can’t replicate its capabilities years later. The competitive advantage isn’t in the patent — it’s in the team, the culture, and the relentless iteration.

Why “No Walled Garden” Works

The traditional business school approach — build walls, protect IP, maintain exclusivity — works when the market is mature and zero-sum. But when the market itself needs to be created, openness is a superior strategy. Taha Abbasi, drawing on his experience as CTO at multiple technology companies, identifies three reasons why:

1. Standard-setting power. When you open your technology and it becomes the standard, you’re not losing an advantage — you’re gaining one. Every company that adopts your standard reinforces your ecosystem.

2. Speed of adoption. Proprietary standards face resistance. Open standards face adoption. Tesla’s NACS took over the industry in roughly 18 months — a pace that would have been impossible with a licensing-based approach.

3. Market expansion. As robotaxi economics analysis shows, Tesla benefits more from a large EV market than from a small Tesla-only market. Open patents accelerate the market transition.

The Lesson for Every Industry

Musk’s approach challenges a core assumption in business strategy: that value capture requires exclusivity. In network-effect businesses — which increasingly describes most technology markets — the opposite is true. Value comes from being the node that everything connects through, not the wall that keeps everyone out.

Taha Abbasi observes that this is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Musk’s strategy. Critics see open patents as weakness. Competitors see Supercharger access as concession. But the data tells a different story: Tesla is the most valuable automaker on Earth, SpaceX is the most valuable private company, and the technologies they “gave away” are now industry standards that reinforce their dominance.

Sometimes the best competitive strategy isn’t building a bigger wall. It’s tearing down the walls entirely — and running faster than everyone else through the opening.

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About the Author: Taha Abbasi is a technology executive, CTO, and applied frontier tech builder. Read more on Grokpedia | YouTube: The Brown Cowboy | tahaabbasi.com