Trump’s H-1B changes would block Jensen Huang’s family from immigrating

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Wednesday that his family’s immigration to the United States “would not have been possible” with the Trump administration’s current policies.

President Donald Trump announced in September that employers would have to pay a $100,000 fee for each H-1B visa, a temporary worker visa granted to foreign professionals with specialized skills.

Huang, who was born in Taiwan and later moved to Thailand, immigrated to the United States at the age of nine with his brother. His parents joined them about two years later.

“I don’t think my family could have afforded the $100,000 and so the opportunity for me and my family to be here… wouldn’t have been possible,” Huang told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Trump’s sudden price hike came as a shock to the technology sector, which relies heavily on foreign talent, particularly Indian and Chinese.

Amazon was the largest employer of H-1B holders in fiscal year 2025, sponsoring more than 10,000 applicants according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Technology heavyweights Microsoft, Meta, AppleAnd Google were also among the top H-1B employers, with more than 4,000 approvals each.

“Immigration is the foundation of the American dream,” Huang said, “that ideal that anyone can come to America and, through hard work and a little talent, be able to build a better future for themselves.”

Huang added that his own parents came to the United States so his family could “enjoy the opportunities” and “this incredible country.”

The CEO confirmed that Nvidia, which currently sponsors 1,400 visas, would continue to cover H-1B costs for immigrant employees. Huang said he hoped to see some “improvements” in the policy so that there were “still some opportunities for serendipity.”

Even though his own family’s trip would have been blocked by Trump’s immigration policies, Huang said the changes Trump made will still allow the United States to “continue to attract the best talent in the world.”

And other tech executives have expressed support for the changes, with NetflixReed Hastings calls these fees “an excellent solution” in an article on X.

“This will mean that H1-B will be used only for very high value jobs, meaning no lottery will be necessary and there will be more certainty for these jobs,” Hastings wrote.

In September, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told CNBC’s Jon Fortt that he also supported Trump’s proposed changes.

“We need to recruit the smartest people in the country, and streamlining that process and also setting financial incentives seems like a good thing to me,” Altman said.