Startups and the tech industry have weathered a whipsawing week of foreign worker visa changes.
On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring new H-1B visa applications to pay a $100,000 fee. The tax seeks to “curb abuses that displace US workers,” the Trump administration said in a press release.
In the days since, the administration proposed that H-1B visas be approved based on skill level and wages, instead of the current randomized lottery system. It’s also floated the possibility that certain workers, such as doctors, may be exempt from the fee.
The rapid policy shifts have put some startups in a tricky spot when it comes to hiring skilled talent, since H-1B visas help many tech companies employ foreign engineers and other technical hires.
Some venture capitalists and founders are increasingly bullish on foreign tech hubs in places like Canada and the United Kingdom, while others hope the proposed pay-to-play model will help them attract even better talent.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also commented on the changes. “We need to get the smartest people in the country, and streamlining that process and also sort of aligning financial incentives seems good to me,” Altman said on CNBC this week.
Business Insider looked at publicly available data from the Department of Labor and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to see which startups had received the most H-1B visa approvals so far in 2025.
Those approval numbers may not equal the number of people on H-1B visas currently employed at the startups.
Databricks, Cohesity, Stripe, Gusto, Plaid, and Deel declined to comment for this story. Magic Leap said it’s following the recent executive order and additional guidance closely to comply with all visa and immigration laws.
The remaining startups included didn’t respond to requests for comment.
These are the 20 startups to get the most H-1B visas approved this year.
ByteDance
Certified H-1B approvals: 1,360
Total employees worldwide: 120,000, according to Pitchbook
Total funding: Nearly $19 billion, according to Pitchbook
Headquarters: Beijing
Databricks
Certified H-1B approvals: 248
Total employees worldwide: About 8,000, according to the company
Total funding: Over $15 billion, according to the company
Headquarters: San Francisco
Stripe
Certified H-1B approvals: 151
Total employees worldwide: About 9,000, according to the company
Total funding: $2.2 billion, according to the company
Headquarters: San Francisco and Dublin
OpenAI
Certified H-1B approvals: 76
Total employees worldwide: 4,500, according to PitchBook
Total Funding: nearly $35 billion, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: San Francisco
Cohesity
Certified H-1B approvals: 65
Total employees worldwide: 6,000, according to the company
Total Funding: nearly $2 billion, according to the company
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California
Applied Intuition
Certified H-1B approvals: 65
Total employees worldwide: 492, according to PitchBook
Total funding: over $1 billion, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: Mountain View, California
Saviynt
Certified H-1B approvals: 55
Total employees worldwide: 1,361, according to PitchBook
Total funding: $530 million, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: El Segundo, California
Anthropic
Certified H-1B approvals: 41
Total employees worldwide: 1,000, according to PitchBook
Total Funding: $32 billion, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: San Francisco
Scale AI
Certified H-1B approvals: 34
Total employees worldwide: 1,400, according to PitchBook
Total funding: $16.4 billion, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: San Francisco
Ripple
Certified H-1B approvals: 33
Total employees worldwide: 900, according to PitchBook
Total funding: $326 million, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: San Francisco
Gusto
Certified H-1B approvals: 33
Total employees worldwide: 2,800, according to the company
Total funding: $751 million, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: San Francisco
Rivos
Certified H-1B approvals: 32
Total employees worldwide: Unknown
Total funding: $370 million, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California
Magic Leap
Certified H-1B approvals: 28
Total employees worldwide: 1,254, according to PitchBook
Total funding: $3.98 billion, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: Plantation, Florida
In a statement to BI, a Magic Leap spokesperson said the company is following the recent executive order and additional guidance closely to comply with all visa and immigration laws. Magic Leap said it doesn’t disclose employee numbers or funding totals.
Verkada
Certified H-1B approvals: 26
Total employees worldwide: 2,455, according to PitchBook
Total funding: $655 million, per PitchBook
Headquarters: San Mateo, California
Plaid
Certified H-1B approvals: 24
Total employees worldwide: 1,200, according to PitchBook
Total funding: $1.31 billion, per PitchBook
Headquarters: San Francisco
Nuro
Certified H-1B approvals: 23
Total employees worldwide: 974, according to PitchBook
Total funding: $2.33 billion, per PitchBook
Headquarters: Mountain View, California
Form Energy
Certified H-1B approvals: 23
Total employees worldwide: 854, according to PitchBook
Total funding: $1.43 billion, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: Somerville, Massachusetts
Deel
Certified H-1B approvals: 22
Total employees worldwide: Over 6,500, according to the company
Total funding: $689 million, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: Deel is fully remote, with no physical offices.
Zipline
Certified H-1B approvals: 21
Total employees worldwide: 1,446, according to PitchBook
Total funding: $1.23 billion, according to PitchBook
Headquarters: South San Francisco
Brex
Certified H-1B approvals: 21
Total employees worldwide: About 1,100, according to the company
Total funding: $1.29 billion, according to the company
Headquarters: San Francisco
Insider Inc.’s parent company, Axel Springer, is an investor in Magic Leap.
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