Recently, US President Trump signed an executive order imposing an annual fee of $100,000 on the “H-1B” visa. The H-1B visa is a work visa issued by the US government to temporarily employ foreign professionals with advanced expertise and skills. To obtain this visa, a US employer must be the applicant, and it targets highly skilled professionals in fields such as IT, engineering, accounting, and medicine. The H-1B visa is limited to 85,000 issuances per year. Tech and consulting companies, such as Amazon, have utilized the H-1B visa to boost their performance. Currently, many tech companies, including Microsoft, led by CEO Satya Nadella, and Google, led by CEO Sundar Pichai, have Indian-born executives at the helm. The validity period of their visas is usually three years, and can be extended up to a maximum of six years. However, there is anxiety about what will happen after that.
The H-1B visa has been a catalyst for rapidly growing US companies such as OpenAI and Nvidia. This is because the engineers who entered the country with this visa have driven technological innovation at companies like OpenAI. It has also been a catalyst for rapidly growing US manufacturing companies such as Tesla and SpaceX. Restricting the H-1B visa will lead to the US voluntarily relinquishing its technological advantage. A large majority, 70%, of visa recipients are Indian engineers specializing in AI. The instability of this 70% could potentially damage the US operations of major IT companies. Restrictions on the H-1B visa also carry the risk of allowing China to catch up in AI development and other areas.
I’m confused about what President Trump is thinking. So, I looked for a clue to understanding this in Major League Baseball. In Major League Baseball, there is a growing tendency to place highly athletic players in the outfield. In Major League Baseball, infield defense has recently adopted a system that utilizes data to implement extreme defensive shifts. The idea is that even if a ball gets past the infielders, it can still be caught by the outfielders. This is due to the increasing amount of data suggesting that players with good athleticism in the infield are better utilized in the outfield. Infielders are told, “You just need to stand in the designated spot,” and if a ball gets through, it’s simply considered that the data was wrong. This data-driven approach to baseball has been yielding positive results. Furthermore, there is a growing tendency to trade high-paid players and bring in players who can contribute to the team at a lower cost. In short, the goal is not to achieve perfection, but to maximize profits with a certain level of talent. It seems that the situation surrounding the Trump administration will continue to be one that demands close attention.
