Nearly a decade after his first-term immigration crackdowns began, President Trump is showing no signs of easing up. Immigration policies are evolving, becoming more challenging for employers seeking to hire foreign skilled workers, including those on H-1B visas, and discouraging foreign students from settling in the U.S. after their studies, while also complicating the path to citizenship.
For NRIs and globally mobile professionals watching from India, the message is unmistakable: the tightening shows no sign of slowing.
But the numbers tell a different story about what America stands to lose. The contribution made by immigrants in building America cannot be brushed under the carpet.
According to a National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis, 59% (455 of 775) of America’s privately held startup companies valued at $1 billion or more have been founded or cofounded by immigrants. 66% of U.S. billion-dollar companies (unicorns) were founded or cofounded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.
What’s more, nearly 80% of America’s unicorn companies (privately held, billion-dollar companies) have an immigrant founder or an immigrant in a key leadership role, such as CEO or vice president of engineering.
The research shows the importance of immigrants in cutting-edge companies and the U.S. economy at a time when U.S. immigration policies have grown more restrictive.
Six Serial Unicorn Founders Trace Back To India
Founding a company valued at $1 billion is a remarkable achievement. NFAP has identified at least 15 immigrants who have founded two or more billion-dollar companies, Noubar Afeyan (born in Lebanon), Mohit Aron (India), Jyoti Bansal (India), Ashutosh Garg (India), Al Goldstein (Uzbekistan), Michael Gronager (Denmark), Arvind Jain (India), Ignacio Martinez (Spain), Elon Musk (South Africa), Sachin Nayyar (India), Christopher Ré (France), Ajeet Singh (India), Ion Stoica (Romania), Ilya Sutskever (Canada) and Vlad Tenev (Bulgaria).
Six of the 15 were born in India before immigrating to America. Noubar Afeyan has founded five companies that became valued at $1 billion, including Moderna, which went public, Indigo Ag, Generate Biomedicines, Tessera Therapeutics and Lila Sciences.
Elon Musk has been a founder or cofounder of four companies valued at $1 billion or more: SpaceX, OpenAI, The Boring Company and Neuralink, and is also the CEO of Tesla.
Immigrant Founders and Cofounders of U.S. Billion-Dollar Companies: Largest Valuations
Source: National Foundation for American Policy
Why Does Every Fourth Unicorn Trace To A Foreign Student?
The US has always been a preferred study destination for talented students from across the world. That shows up in the data as well. NFAP analysis shows that almost one in four U.S. billion-dollar companies, or 24%, have a founder who came to America as an international student.
There are 184 U.S. billion-dollar companies with founders who were international students at U.S. universities, representing 24% of U.S. billion-dollar startups.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is imposing stricter measures on international students in the U.S. by tightening OPT and CPT programs and implementing a more rigorous vetting process.
Immigrant Founders Are Now Worth $5 Trillion
According to the NFAP report, the collective value of immigrant-founded unicorn companies has risen from $168 billion to $5.0 trillion between 2016 and 2026, a 2876% increase in only a decade. That does not include more than $837 billion in combined market capitalization for unicorn companies with at least one immigrant founder that have gone public since 2016, including Palantir, Uber, CrowdStrike, Cloudflare, Robinhood, Zoom Video, Moderna and others.
The U.S. billion-dollar companies with at least one immigrant founder with the highest valuations are SpaceX ($1.5 trillion), Anthropic ($965 billion), OpenAI ($852 billion), Databricks ($134 billion), Stripe ($106.7 billion), Ramp Financial ($32 billion), Safe Superintelligence ($32 billion) and Anysphere ($29.3 billion).
Overall, 70% of immigrant-founded billion-dollar companies have an immigrant founder or immigrant founders.
The tension is evident as the Trump administration continues to restrict access for skilled workers and students, despite immigrant-built companies contributing trillions to the American economy. Policymakers must address whether these stricter rules will deter future founders or redirect talent to other nations.
Disclaimer: This article is based on data and analysis from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). Figures cited reflect NFAP’s findings and may be revised as new information becomes available.