New U.S. government data shows a sharp drop in the number of new H-1B visas obtained by Indian companies, Bloomberg reported. According to the analysis, initial H-1B employment petitions filed by Indian firms fell by 37% for FY 2025. The seven largest Indian IT companies received only 4,573 approvals this year. Experts told Bloomberg that this decline is partly due to a strategic shift: major Indian IT companies are now hiring more local U.S. workers instead of depending heavily on new H-1B employees. In contrast, American tech giants dominated the list. Amazon led all employers with 4,644 H-1B approvals, followed by Meta, Microsoft, and Google. This is the first time U.S. tech companies have taken the top four positions. Among Indian firms, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) ranked highest at No. 5, while LTIMindtree and HCL America remained near the bottom of the top 25. Despite these changes, India-born professionals still make up over 70% of all approved H-1B visas.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has defended the H-1B program again, saying that foreign workers are needed to rebuild America’s semiconductor workforce. “If you are going to be making chips, we have to train our people how to make chips,” Trump said at the White House. He argued that the U.S. lost chip manufacturing to Taiwan and must now rebuild it with the support of skilled overseas workers. Trump also voiced his support for H-1B visas in a recent Fox News interview. However, his comments have triggered strong backlash within the Republican Party. Several conservative lawmakers are calling for the program to be reduced or eliminated. On November 14, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X that she plans to introduce a bill to “ban H-1B visas in all sectors” except health care.
