Nvidia and OpenAI CEOs react to Trump’s H-1B visa moves

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Monday commented on President Donald Trump’s decision to increase the cost of hiring overseas workers on visas.

Trump on Friday announced that he would raise the fee for an H-1B visa to $100,000, leaving companies scrambling. Employers now must have documentation of the payment prior to filing an H-1B petition on behalf of a worker. Applicants will have their petitions restricted for 12 months until the payment is made, according to the White House.

Huang and Altman responded to the changes in an interview with CNBC’s Jon Fortt, where the two executives announced that Nvidia will invest $100 billion in OpenAI as the artificial intelligence lab sets out to build hundreds of billions of dollars-worth of data centers based around the chipmaker’s AI processors.

“We want all the brightest minds to come to the U.S. and remember immigration is the foundation of the American Dream,” Huang said Monday. “We represent the American Dream. And so I think immigration is really important to our company and is really important to our nation’s future, and I’m glad to see President Trump making the moves he’s making.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also expressed a positive outlook on Trump’s changes.

“We need to get the smartest people in the country, and streamlining that process and also sort of outlining financial incentives seems good to me,” Altman said.

The new $100,000 fee would be a seismic shift for U.S. technology and finance sectors, which rely on the H-1B program for highly skilled immigrants, particularly from India and China. Those two countries accounted for 71% and 11.7% of visa holders last year, respectively.

Those who already have H-1B visas and are located outside the U.S. will not be required to pay the fee in order to re-enter. Many employers use H-1B workers to fill the gaps in these highly technical roles that are not found within the American labor supply. 

— CNBC tech reporter Annie Palmer contributed to this report.

WATCH: Watch CNBC’s full interview with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI leaders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman