NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said that the recent changes implemented by former US President Donald Trump’s administration to the H-1B work visa program would have prevented his family from immigrating to the United States if they had been applied at the time.

Huang, who was born in Taiwan and later moved to Thailand, immigrated to America at the age of nine with his brother, followed by their parents two years later. In an interview with CNBC, he said, “I don’t think my family could have afforded the $100,000 fee, so we wouldn’t have had the chance to come here.”

Last September, Trump announced a $100,000 fee on each H-1B visa, a temporary visa granted to foreign workers with specialized skills, a move that shocked the tech sector which heavily relies on foreign talent, especially from India and China.

According to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Amazon topped the list of companies sponsoring H-1B visas in fiscal year 2025 with over 10,000 applications, followed by major tech companies like Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google, each with more than 4,000 visas.

Huang emphasized that “immigration is the core of the American Dream,” adding, “This dream says anyone can come to America and, through hard work and talent, build a better future for themselves.”

He confirmed that NVIDIA, currently sponsoring about 1,400 visas, will continue to cover H-1B fees for its foreign employees, expressing hope that the policy will see some “improvements” that provide “unexpected opportunities” for new arrivals.

Despite his criticism of the new policy, Huang acknowledged that it still allows America to “attract the best talents from around the world.”

Meanwhile, several top tech executives expressed support for the changes; Netflix CEO Reed Hastings called the new fees a “great solution,” noting that it would restrict H-1B visas to high-value jobs, eliminating the lottery system and providing more certainty for applicants.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also expressed support for the changes, saying, “We need the smartest minds in the country, and streamlining procedures while providing financial incentives sounds good to me.”