Amid US President Donald Trump’s $100k H-1B visa fee for employers who wish to hire talent from outside the United States, a video of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been gaining significant traction on social media. In the now viral video, Gates reveals how IITians helped him “strengthen” Microsoft’s engineering capabilities.

“In a sense, my first connection with India came because of the IITs,” he revealed while speaking at IIT Delhi in 2024.  

ALSO READ

The 69-year-old added, “One of the great people who worked for me said that he would go over to India and hire about 15 people who’d been students at IIT, and that would strengthen Microsoft’s engineering capabilities.”

“At the time, we only had a few 100 people, but even so, it was so hard to find amazing engineers. I thought that was a good idea at the time,” he went on to say. 

‘Faced criticism both from US and Indian press’

He acknowledged that he faced criticism at the time, both from the Indian press, for taking away local talent, and from the US media, for bringing in people from another country. “But I think now, over 25 years later, we can say that was a phenomenal thing,” said Gates.

Microsoft, founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is the world’s second-largest company with a market cap of $3.85 trillion. 

ALSO READ

Trump’s H-1B visa fee

Trump recently brought in a $100,000 fee for employers who wish to hire people on H-1B visa. The fee, which is one-time, is effective from the next lottery. Trump has kept the fee high so that the country sees “top, valuable” people working for them. 

After chaos and confusion amid techies and tech giants, with companies calling back employees to enter the United States before the deadline to avoid a “fee”, White House issued a clarification. “Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X (formerly Twitter), before adding that the fee would only be applied to new visas, and not to renewals or current visa holders.