Trump's H-1B visa fee hike will backfire, says Silicon Valley investor

Michael Moritz said Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what drives America's tech success and risks pushing innovation abroad

Silicon Valley investor Michael Moritz has sharply criticised US President Donald Trump’s imposition of a $100,000 fee on fresh H-1B visa applications, warning that the move will backfire and damage America’s technology edge.

 

Moritz, an early backer of Google, PayPal, and other tech giants, made the remarks in an opinion piece in The Financial Times. He said the executive order signed by Trump demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what fuels US tech success.

 

On September 19, Trump signed an order imposing the new fee and proposed changes to the lottery system to prioritise higher-paid workers. The administration argued the programme has been “deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers.”

 

 

The announcement triggered alarm across Silicon Valley. Companies such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft reportedly advised their H-1B employees to return to the US before the September 21 deadline.

 

Moritz backs foreign talent

 

Voicing support for skilled immigrants, Moritz said engineers from Eastern Europe, Turkey, and India are as qualified as their American counterparts. He argued the US should help tech firms expand domestically rather than scatter operations abroad.

 

“Like other Trump schemes, this H-1B caper will backfire,” Moritz wrote. Advances in technology mean much of the work can be done remotely — in Istanbul, Warsaw, Prague, or Bengaluru — as easily as in San Francisco or Austin.

 

He added that large tech companies hire foreign nationals because they bring specialised skills and fill gaps in areas where US talent is scarce. 

 

Risk of innovation flight

 

Moritz warned the policy could push innovation overseas and deprive the US of a new generation of entrepreneurs. “If companies change their policies out of fear of Trump’s next move, foreign economies will get a boost,” he wrote.

 

Indian entrepreneurs also weighed in. Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal urged Indians in the US to consider returning, while Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu said, “Do not live in fear. Make the bold move. You will do well.” 

 

H-1B programme

 

The H-1B programme currently allows 85,000 skilled foreign workers to work in the US annually for up to six years. Indians account for nearly 71 per cent of those employed under the scheme, which is widely used by tech and IT consulting companies.