Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, and others: H-1B holders who built America's tech giants

The United States introduced the H-1B visa in 1990 to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, helping kickstart the "American Dream" for many immigrants. Effective September 21, the US has imposed a steep one-time fee of $ 100,000 on new H-1B applicants, raising concerns among skilled professionals worldwide.

Historically, the visa has enabled many prominent figures in technology and business to establish themselves in the US. Some notable H-1B visa holders include Satya Nadella, Elon Musk, Rajiv Jain, and others.  

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft – Nadella gave up his green card and switched to H-1B in 1994 following difficulties in bringing his wife to the US. Under his leadership, Microsoft has become a global leader in cloud computing, AI, and enterprise software. Nadella has often spoken about the role of immigrant talent in driving innovation at Microsoft.

Elon Musk, CEO of X Corp, Tesla, and SpaceX – Musk was initially on a J-1 exchange visitor visa before transitioning to an H-1B to obtain academic training in the US. Musk has repeatedly criticized attempts to restrict H-1B visas, arguing that they limit access to top global talent and harm American innovation. His companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, employ hundreds of foreign engineers who rely on H-1B and other work visas.

Rajiv Jain, Chairman of GQG Partners – Jain obtained an H-1B visa after moving to the US in the 1990s. In 2016, he co-founded GQG Partners, which manages over $150 billion in assets. He has been a strong advocate for leveraging global talent to grow financial and technology sectors.

Andrew Ng, Co-founder of Coursera, DeepLearning.AI, and Google Brain – Ng arrived in the US in 1993 on an F-1 visa and later obtained an H-1B while working at Stanford University. He is widely regarded as a pioneer in AI and deep learning education, having trained millions of students worldwide through online platforms.

Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom – Yuan faced eight rejections before receiving his H-1B in 1997. He went on to create Zoom, one of the world’s leading video conferencing platforms, which became essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yuan has often highlighted the importance of H-1B and other immigrant pathways for building globally competitive technology companies.

Jyoti Bansal, Founder of AppDynamics – Bansal arrived in the US on an H-1B visa in 2000 and transitioned to a green card seven years later. He built AppDynamics into a leading application performance management platform, which was later acquired by Cisco for $3.7 billion.

Jeff Skoll, Former President of eBay – Skoll held an H-1B visa while overseeing eBay's initial rise, later transitioning to an O-1 visa and obtaining US citizenship in 2007. He became a billionaire and philanthropist, using his resources to fund social impact initiatives globally through the Skoll Foundation.

Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, last year said he was still waiting for his green card. "I have been waiting for my green card for like the last 3 years. Still haven’t gotten it. People mostly have no idea when they talk about immigration," he wrote on X.  Srinivas co-founded Perplexity AI in 2022 after working at DeepMind, Google, and OpenAI 

The new H-1B fee is expected to affect skilled Indian professionals disproportionately, as Indians make up roughly 71 per cent of all approved H-1B applications in recent years. While current visa holders and renewals are not affected, the measure has sparked debate about the US's approach to attracting global talent and the potential impact on innovation and technology sectors.

Experts warn that imposing high barriers could drive highly skilled talent away from the US, potentially slowing innovation in areas such as AI, cloud computing, and biotechnology-sectors where companies like Microsoft, Zoom, and Tesla have leveraged global expertise to compete globally.