Nearly a month after the Trump administration’s surprise $100,000 payment for new H-1B visa recipients went into effect, the headline-grabbling change is disrupting high-tech talent pipelines in two distinct parts of the U.S. economy: small businesses and venture-backed startups. In the short-term, the restrictions are already slowing hiring and shrinking the talent pool, according to recruiters and entrepreneurs.
However, there are also signs that the restrictions on immigration are having the desired effect, as companies start to seek ways to upskill their existing workforces, and build new talent pipelines to American universities and large companies.
Somak Chattopadhyay, founder of Armory Square Ventures, which runs a $60 million fund that invests in software companies and also serves on New York State’s Emerging Technology Advisory Board, said the fund’s startups have at times gone to international talent markets to find the top thinkers, and at least for now, there is no immediate alternative to where unique talent can be sourced. “For the highly specialized talent in the world of AI, there’s probably like 500 people in the country that understand how to build an LLM model from the ground up. We don’t have enough talent domestically to fill some of those roles,” he said. But he added that in the future, “What we need to do is to find ways to cast a wider net.”
