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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee would’ve barred his family from immigrating to the U.S.
Huang, who moved to America as a child, says his family “could not have afforded” the new fee, as tech leaders split over Trump’s steep visa policy - with some, including Netflix’s Reed Hastings and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, backing the move.
“Immigration is the foundation of the American dream,” Huang said, describing it as “this ideal that anyone can come to America and through hard work and some talent, be able to build a better future for yourself.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said his family’s journey to the United States “would not have been possible” under the Trump administration’s current immigration policy, which imposes a $100,000 fee for each H-1B visa.
Speaking on CNBC recently, Huang reflected on his family’s move from Taiwan and Thailand to the U.S. when he was nine years old, noting that the new policy would have made that impossible. “I don’t think that my family would have been able to afford the $100,000, and so the opportunity for my family and for me to be here ... would not have been possible,” he said.
President Donald Trump announced in September that employers seeking H-1B visas—used to hire foreign professionals with specialized skills must now pay a $100,000 fee per application. The move has shocked the tech industry, which depends heavily on global talent, particularly from India and China.
Amazon was the top H-1B sponsor in fiscal year 2025, securing over 10,000 approvals, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Other major employers include Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google, each with more than 4,000 visa approvals.
“Immigration is the foundation of the American dream,” Huang said, describing it as “this ideal that anyone can come to America and through hard work and some talent, be able to build a better future for yourself.” He added that his parents had moved to the U.S. so that the family could “enjoy the opportunities” and “this incredible country.”
Despite the new costs, Huang said Nvidia will continue sponsoring visas and will absorb the fees for its employees. “We currently sponsor 1,400 visas,” he said, adding that he hopes to see future enhancements to the policy that still allow “some opportunities for serendipity to happen.”
While acknowledging that his own family’s journey might have been blocked by Trump’s proposal, Huang noted that the U.S. would “continue to attract the world’s best talent.”
Not all tech leaders share Huang’s concerns.
Netflix co-founder and executive chairman Reed Hastings called the $100,000 fee “a great solution", whereas OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that “we need to get the smartest people in the country.”
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