- The Trump administration introduced a $100,000 application fee on H-1B visas.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Netflix chairman Reed Hastings have weighed in on the move.
- "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary said the new H-1B visa fee could "hurt innovation long-term."
Business leaders such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Netflix chairman Reed Hastings have been weighing in on President Donald Trump's new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas.
The US issues roughly 85,000 new H-1B visas via a lottery system every year. The H-1B program is highly popular among US companies looking to hire foreign workers for in-demand roles such as tech and engineering.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order raising the H-1B visa application fee by $100,000. The White House told Business Insider that the fee would only apply to new applicants, not those renewing their H-1B visas.
The sudden move has sparked concerns among Big Tech firms like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, whose workers are on H-1B visas. All three companies told their employees on the visa not to leave the US or to quickly return to the country if they were overseas.
Jensen Huang
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed optimism about Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee during an interview with CNBC on Monday.
"We want all the brightest minds to come to the US, and remember immigration is the foundation of the American dream. And we represent the American dream," Huang said in a joint interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The pair announced on Monday that Nvidia was making a $100 billion investment in OpenAI.
"Immigration is really important to our company and is really important to our nation's future, and I'm glad to see President Trump making the moves he's making," Huang added.
Sam Altman
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the Trump administration's introduction of a $100,000 fee to the H-1B visa program was the right move.
"We need to get the smartest people in the country, and streamlining that process and also sort of aligning financial incentives seems good to me," Altman told CNBC during his joint interview with Jensen Huang on Monday.
Reed Hastings
Netflix cofounder and chairman Reed Hastings praised Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee, calling it a "great solution" compared to the existing lottery system.
Hastings said in an X post on Sunday that he has "worked on H-1B politics for 30 years."
"It will mean H1-B is used just for very high-value jobs, which will mean no lottery needed, and more certainty for those jobs," he wrote.
Kevin O'Leary
"Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary said the $100,000 fee on H-1B visas would hurt American companies and limit their access to talent.
"Apple, Oracle, Google all started in a garage. They could have not afforded to do this. And all of those companies took advantage of talent they couldn't find in the United States as they grew," O'Leary told Fox Business's "Varney & Co." on Monday.
"I think what this does is hurt innovation long-term. I agree that it's going to push these really talented people into other countries," he added.
O'Leary said that the US government should, in fact, be paying foreign graduates to stay and work in the US.
"Why train them and kick them out? And if they're available, let's take them all and not charge a 100 grand. We should give them a 100 grand to come here," he said.
