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Sep 23, 2025  |  
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Natallie Rocha


NextImg:Trump’s $100,000 Visa Fee Puts Many Tech Start-Ups in a Bind

After President Trump signed a proclamation on Friday to add a $100,000 fee for new applicants of H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers, two technology leaders reacted in opposite ways.

Selin Kocalar, 21, the chief operating officer of Delve, an artificial intelligence start-up in San Francisco, learned of the change from a new employee who had just been approved for the H-1B visa. She said she was grappling with what the fee meant for hiring at her 23-person company, which has raised $35 million in funding.

“As a start-up, you’re always tight for cash,” she said. “So you can’t go out and spend a bunch of money or have that kind of luxury that you’d see at a bigger company.”

In contrast, Reed Hastings, the chairman and co-founder of Netflix, did not blink. “Trump’s $100k per year tax is a great solution,” he posted on social media on Sunday. “It will mean H-1B is used just for very high value jobs.” Netflix, which has approximately 14,000 employees, pulled in more than $11 billion in revenue and $3.1 billion in profit in the most recent quarter.

The different responses show how the Trump administration’s visa change is rippling through the tech industry — which uses H-1Bs to hire thousands of software engineers, artificial intelligence specialists and others — in a way that may create haves and have-nots. While the biggest tech companies have the money to absorb the new fee, start-ups are concerned about their ability to attract and pay for talent, particularly when they have limited funding and agonize over every dollar spent.

The change may hit at the heart of the U.S. tech ecosystem, tilting the scales in favor of incumbent giants with billions of dollars. Silicon Valley relies on a steady stream of start-ups to advance new ideas and technologies, with some of the ventures eventually growing into behemoths.


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