Musk, MS's Nadella, Google's Pichai... All H-1B Visa Beneficiaries

Silicon Valley's 'Visa Shockwave' Continues

"Without H-1B, the executive landscape would be very different."

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO [Screenshot from Musk's X account (@elonmusk). Yonhap News photo. Reproduction and database prohibited]

"Without the (recently controversial) H-1B visa, the composition of Silicon Valley's top executive ranks would be very different."

The Financial Times (FT) reported on the 23rd (local time) that the world's richest man, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, as well as the CEOs of Google and Microsoft (MS), are all beneficiaries of a U.S. professional visa.

It stated that Musk, along with Satya Nadella, CEO of MS, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, all utilized this 'specialized skills' visa to enter or stay in the United States.

President Donald Trump's surprise move to increase the H-1B visa application fee tenfold to $100,000 (approximately 140 million won) sent shockwaves through the giant tech companies (Big Tech) they lead.

Big Tech is one of the major users of the H-1B visa.

Musk, a billionaire from South Africa, is the most famous among the beneficiaries of this visa.

According to an X post by Musk in October of last year, he first entered the U.S. on a J-1 student visa in 1992 to attend the University of Pennsylvania.

He then pursued graduate studies at Stanford University but dropped out and eventually transitioned to an H-1B visa.

This history explains why Musk vociferously defended the H-1B visa when controversies surrounding it arose last December.

Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer from the 'MAGA' (Make America Great Again) camp, criticized Sriram Krishnan, who had been appointed as President Trump's chief policy advisor on Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the time.

Loomer attacked Krishnan, an Indian-born American, claiming he advocated for the removal of the H-1B visa cap, which was untrue, and Loomer eventually apologized.

At the time, Musk stated, "The reason I, and many other critical personnel, who have built SpaceX and Tesla, making America strong, and hundreds of other companies, are in the U.S. is because of H-1B."

He strongly opposed it, adding, "On this issue, I will even wage a war that people will never understand."

Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO [AFP Yonhap News photo. Reproduction and database prohibited]

Nadella, CEO of MS, was born in Hyderabad, India, and also immigrated to the U.S. in 1988 on a student visa. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and earned an MBA from the University of Chicago.

After getting married in 1992, his wife applied for a U.S. visa but was rejected. Two years later, he took a gamble to switch to an H-1B visa, giving up his permanent residency so he could stay with his wife.

Nadella wrote in his memoir, "Miraculously, everything worked out."

MS ranks third in H-1B visa issuances, behind Amazon and Tata. Meta, Apple, and Google follow in succession.

Pichai, CEO of Google, followed a similar path to Nadella. He came to the U.S. from India, earned master's and MBA degrees, transitioned to an H-1B visa, worked at the consulting firm McKinsey, and then joined Google in 2004.

Sundar Pichai, Google CEO [AP Yonhap News photo. Reproduction and database prohibited]

An insider familiar with the industry stated, "The reason our company and others utilize the H-1B visa so extensively is due to the backlog in green card (issuance)," pointing out the reality that it takes over three years to obtain a green card.

The insider added, "We have been discussing this issue for 10 years," and described it as a "complex problem that remains unresolved."

These are not the only companies with foreign-born CEOs. Well-known companies such as Nvidia, the world's largest AI chip company, as well as Broadcom, Qualcomm, Intel, IBM, AMD, Uber, DoorDash, Adobe, Robinhood, HP, Micron, Palo Alto Networks, and Arista Networks, all fall into this category.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, who was born in Taiwan, also said on the 23rd, "We want the most brilliant minds to come to the U.S. Immigration is truly important for the future of our company and our country."

Amidst this, the FT reported that some provisions related to the H-1B visa might include a waiver of new application fees for some tech employees, but details have not yet been finalized. Yonhap News