How Tesla and SpaceX Help Their Competitors — And Why It Works | Taha Abbasi

Taha Abbasi explores one of the most counterintuitive business strategies: how Tesla and SpaceX deliberately help competitors, and why this open approach accelerates their own dominance.

The Quote

At the 2023 NYT DealBook Summit, Musk said Tesla open-sourced patents, offered free Supercharger tech to competitors, and SpaceX doesn’t use patents. “No walled garden.” This clip recently resurfaced on X with 7.7 million views. As Taha Abbasi analyzes, what looks like generosity is actually brilliant strategy.

Tesla’s Open Patent Results

A decade after opening patents: every major automaker adopted Tesla’s NACS connector, Tesla earns charging revenue from competitors’ vehicles, more EVs means more charging demand Tesla dominates, and open standards attract government infrastructure funding.

SpaceX: No Patents, Maximum Speed

SpaceX avoids patents because they’d serve as how-to guides for competitors. Instead, SpaceX relies on execution speed. As Taha Abbasi notes, by the time anyone reverse-engineers current tech, SpaceX has moved to next generation. The Starship program exemplifies this.

Network Effects of Openness

Both strategies understand network effects. When Tesla opens Superchargers, every non-Tesla EV that charges there strengthens the network. As Taha Abbasi argues, companies that grow the entire pie win long-term. Tesla didn’t need to corner the EV market — it needed the EV market to exist.

Lessons for Builders

The Musk playbook inverts conventional wisdom: if your tech is superior, opening it makes it the standard; if your execution is unmatched, patents slow you down; growing the market beats capturing share in a small one. This resonates with Taha Abbasi’s approach: build in the open, share what works.

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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