"Corporate America was thrown into chaos Friday night. The Trump administration issued a surprise executive order that would implement a new $100,000 fee for H-1B visa holders. Stakeholders ( and their lawyers) immediately scrambled to understand who exactly it would impact. Tech and finance companies rushed to tell their employees on these visas to stay in the US. The worry was Trump's order would make it far more expensive - and potentially impossible - for them to return if they traveled abroad."
"Still, chaos and confusion persist. And the $100k fee for new applicants alone stands to upend the hiring calculus on workers for many companies. The majority of H-1B applications are for professional, scientific, and technical services. Business Insider reporters around the world have been all over this big story. Stay tuned for more developments. On the agenda today: But first: What's happening at xAI?"
"What's the mood inside the company right now? The company has undergone mass layoffs and significant leadership changes. At one point, xAI told workers in an all-hands meeting that the layoffs were over. Then it fired even more people. And now it has a college student at the helm of its data annotation team, which is tasked with training its Grok chatbot."
The Trump administration issued a surprise executive order imposing a $100,000 fee tied to H-1B visas, prompting immediate confusion and employer warnings about travel and return risks. Tech and finance firms urged H-1B employees to remain in the United States amid concerns the measure would make international travel prohibitively costly or impossible. A White House official later clarified the fee would apply only to new applicants, but uncertainty and likely hiring impacts remain. Most H-1B applications serve professional, scientific, and technical services. Separately, xAI has faced mass layoffs, leadership turnover, and unconventional staffing decisions affecting its Grok-training team.
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