He doesn't have to be. He just has to hire millions of intelligent developers in China.

Except legally and structurally, he can't:

ITAR: SpaceX is strictly barred by US federal law from hiring non-US persons for aerospace engineering.

National Security Scrutiny: xAI operates under increasing US export and tech-transfer controls regarding China.

Scale: A private company's recruiting budget cannot compete with the sovereign industrial capacity and state-backed talent pipeline of an entire nation.