Recently, the U.S. introduced a significant $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applicants, causing distress among India’s tech aspirants. This increase poses a risk to the pathway that has allowed many Indian engineers to migrate to the U.S. and eventually lead major global firms. The narrative of India’s impact on U.S. technology is closely linked to the experiences of Indian-origin leaders who arrived on H-1B visas and went on to head influential companies. Sundar Pichai, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, pursued advanced studies at Stanford and Wharton before joining Google in 2004 under an H-1B visa.
His work on developing Google Chrome, the leading browser today, was pivotal in his rise to CEO of Google in 2015 and later Alphabet in 2019. Satya Nadella, born in Hyderabad, earned his engineering degree in India before moving to the U.S. for further studies. He joined Microsoft in 1992 on an H-1B visa, and his leadership in Microsoft’s cloud sector has been transformative. He became CEO in 2014, shifting the company’s focus to cloud-first and mobile-first strategies. Jayshree Ullal, who grew up in New Delhi after being born in London, came to the U.S. as a teenager and pursued her education there.
Entering the semiconductor and networking field on an H-1B visa, she worked at companies including AMD and Cisco. She later became President & CEO of Arista Networks, where she continues to innovate in cloud networking. Arvind Krishna, from West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, completed his education at IIT Kanpur and the University of Illinois before joining IBM in 1990 on an H-1B visa. He advanced through research and development roles before becoming CEO in 2020 and later chairman of IBM’s board. Aravind Srinivas, born in Chennai in 1994, earned his PhD in the U.S. and worked at firms like Google and OpenAI on H-1B status. He co-founded Perplexity AI in 2022 to challenge established tech giants in the AI space.
These narratives highlight how the H-1B visa has been a crucial instrument for bringing specialized skills into the U.S., enabling remarkable leadership journeys. By providing access to opportunities, the visa system has allowed individuals from various backgrounds to make significant contributions to the U.S. tech ecosystem and even lead its key institutions. However, with the impending $100,000 fee, there are concerns that it may deter companies from sponsoring foreign talent, potentially reducing the talent pool at a time when innovation is increasingly dependent on diverse global perspectives. The experiences of these Indian-origin CEOs illustrate how entering and thriving in the U.S. tech environment was once vital—not only for personal careers but also for the advancement of technology as a whole.