H1B Fees, IndiaAI & Innovation
Trump just dropped the mic on globalization with a $100K H1B visa fee. Let’s be honest: this is less about jobs and more about misplaced bravado. The logic seems simple — make it unaffordable, save jobs. The reality? Those same jobs will be done from India, Vietnam, Eastern Europe… anywhere but the US. America loses talent, loses taxes, loses innovation. That’s the real problem with Trump H1B policy — it’s short-term applause at the cost of long-term competitiveness.
Twenty years ago, this might have worked. Today, in the world of remote, cloud, and borderless work, it’s a slow self-goal. India, meanwhile, just got a happy coincidence. With the IndiaAI Mission selecting companies like Fractal and Tech Mahindra to build indigenous LLMs, we’re staring at a once-in-a-lifetime chance to not miss the AI bus. We’ve already missed the tech revolution, the computer revolution, the mobile revolution, the chip revolution. We can’t afford to miss AI. And with the H1B visa fee wall in place, talent has more reason than ever to stay back.
This H1B wall means talent stays back. Which means brainpower builds here, not abroad. Not just in AI, but in healthcare, fintech, climate-tech. For me, it’s healthcare — with Solh, we’re using AI to transform stress management into something measurable, personal, and scalable. That’s why the debate on globalization and H1B isn’t just about visas — it’s about where the future gets built.
And while I think the US is well within its rights to do this — it’s a bad call. A protectionist sugar high that won’t last. Because talent doesn’t need a visa stamp anymore. Whether you call it H1b, h1bvisa, or track it under h1bfees, the world has moved on. The H1B visa fee hike may keep people out of the US, but it won’t keep innovation from happening elsewhere.
