Microsoft, Amazon, Google ‘hired offshore’: Backlash in US over India job reports despite H-1B shake-up

In the past few months, the Donald Trump administration has repeatedly revised its rules tied to the H-1B work visa program. From imposing an additional $100,000 fee on new applications to announcing a full-fledged replacement of the H-1B lottery system with a weighted selection process, the Republican leader has done it all.

Despite his amplified efforts, fuelled by the ‘America First’ approach, to clamp down on even legal immigration, a recent report about US Big Tech hires suggesting otherwise dropped a major bombshell on social media. Those on the far-right have since hit out hard against the reported development, again prompting another foreign vs American workers debate online.

US backlash amid H-1B crackdown as Big Tech reportedly hires in India

Mario Nawfal, a Lebanese Australian influencer and entrepreneur living in Dubai, took to his X account to unleash a rant on how the H-1B visa crackdown had “backfired.”

“BIG TECH HIRED 32,000 WORKERS IN INDIA INSTEAD OF AMERICANS,” he fumed on X. “As US H-1B visa rules tightened this year with higher fees and wage requirements, Big Tech responded predictably: they hired offshore instead.”

He added, “Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, and Google pushed their combined India workforce to 214,000, the fastest growth in three years. That’s 32,000+ new hires that could have gone to Americans.”

Although neither a US national nor an American resident, Nawfal’s conservative-themed social media posts about the US have been on the rise for a while, attracting even the attention of the likes of Elon Musk, as per The New York Times.

Nawfal pointed out that these organisations weren’t hiring a massive Indian workforce for low-paying call centre jobs. “They’re AI, machine learning, cloud engineering, data science, and cybersecurity roles. The exact “strategic” positions policymakers claim we need to protect,” he continued.

🇺🇸 H-1B VISA CRACKDOWN BACKFIRES: BIG TECH HIRED 32,000 WORKERS IN INDIA INSTEAD OF AMERICANS

As U.S. H-1B visa rules tightened this year with higher fees and wage requirements, Big Tech responded predictably: they hired offshore instead.

Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft,… pic.twitter.com/XEHXqLqyrg

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 27, 2025

The far-right-affiliated entrepreneur went on to call out the “brutal” irony of how the same visa curbs designed to favour American workers had “just made it cheaper and easier for corporations to offshore the same jobs remotely.”

Just this year, the Trump administration imposed the $100,000 fee on new H-1B applications, prompting US employers to shift their focus back to American workers. In addition to the September proclamation, US authorities expanded the vetting and screening process for H-1B applicants and H-4 Dependents. On top of that, the most recent December announcement has called off the random H-1B visa lottery to give way to the wage-weighted selection, thereby prioritising highly paid foreign nationals.

In light of all the efforts made by the Trump administration to prioritise hiring Americans, Nawfal described the US Big Tech’s move to reportedly hire offshore a “loophole nobody closed.” He further critiqued that while the official visa program changes would result in significant restriction of international professionals coming to the US for job opportunities, they failed to restrict those working “from there.”

Nawfal concluded his post: “Until policy addresses corporate offshoring directly, companies will keep doing the math and choosing the cheaper option overseas. American workers keep losing. Quietly. Legally. And nobody in Washington seems to notice.”

Did US Big Tech hire offshore?

According to data from specialist staffing firm Xpheno, cited by Indian news outlet Moneycontrol, major American companies Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Google collectively hired over 32,000 new employees in India this year. The report highlighted that this surge in employment from India accounted for 18% year-on-year increase, bringing the overall headcount to 214,000.

“The net headcount growth of the cohort for 2025 is the highest over the last 3 years period,” said Xpheno co-founder Kamal Karanth, as per Moneycontrol. Sharing insight into how the H-1B overhaul had re-directed companies’ focus to India, he added, “Developments related to potential tariffs on services, increase in cost of talent with H-1B fee revisions and a probable HIRE Act impact have all influenced this cohort to relook at their talent plans for India.”

“While playing cautious on this front, a faster loading of reasonable talent volume in India can be seen in the trend. The skill and cost arbitrages that India offers through local talent engagement, is definitely lucrative compared to local talent cost.”

Big Tech’s H-1B hires this year

Beyond shifting their “talent plans for India,” these companies also gave in to an H-1B hiring spree in 2025. Here’s what the figures looked like in FY 2025, as per a National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data: