President Donald Trump on Thursday praised leading tech executives for advancing U.S. innovation, only hours after his vice president announced Microsoft was being suspended from the H-1B visa program that helps companies sponsor green cards for skilled foreign workers.
The juxtaposition highlighted a friction point between the administration’s push to curb immigration and the tech sector’s reliance on global talent. Officials argued it is possible to champion standout immigrant innovators while cracking down on what they describe as misuse of visa pathways.
At a news conference earlier in the day, Vice President JD Vance said Microsoft had abused the visa system, noting the company laid off 6,000 U.S. workers last year while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. “You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,” Vance said, adding that firms cannot lay off U.S. staff and then replace them with foreign labor.
Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, has 223,000 employees worldwide. The company said most of its H-1B applications in the last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of existing employees.
H-1B visa program at center of Microsoft suspension
Despite the suspension action, Trump struck a celebratory tone at a White House ceremony, presenting Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation and avoiding any mention of the company’s hiring practices. “For more than three decades, Satya Nadella has been a key figure in the transformation of Microsoft,” Trump said, crediting him with helping empower businesses, students and consumers around the world.
When asked about the apparent contradiction, Vance said the administration would continue to support Microsoft and maintain a good relationship with the company.
Five of the six tech leaders honored Thursday were immigrants. The president awarded the National Medal of Science to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and AMD CEO Lisa Su. Musk was born in South Africa, Brin in Russia, and both Huang and Su in Taiwan.
Alongside Nadella, Trump also presented the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, a backer of the administration’s special investment accounts for children known as Trump Accounts. Dell was born in Texas, while Nadella immigrated from India. Nadella later thanked Trump on social media, saying he was humbled to stand with “giants of American innovation.”
Trump called the honorees “national treasures,” likening them to his late uncle, John Trump, an MIT professor and 1983 National Medal of Science recipient. The event, part of a summit touting a new “golden age” of science, extended Trump’s ongoing praise for entrepreneurs accelerating artificial intelligence, which he has dubbed “super intelligence.” The administration has pushed for U.S. leadership in AI and resisted calls for restrictions that officials say could hinder growth.
Historically, the National Medal of Science has largely gone to academics and research scientists, not business leaders. This week’s recognition also coincided with the separate awarding of Nobel Prizes.
The tech leaders have been frequent White House guests in recent weeks. Musk, Huang and Su sat at the head table during a state dinner for China’s leader, Xi Jinping, while Brin, Nadella and Dell also attended. Dell visited the Oval Office on Wednesday to discuss Trump Accounts. Last week, Huang and Musk were among executives signing a voluntary agreement on AI development amid national security and safety concerns.
With midterm elections approaching, Trump has pointed to AI data center investment and related hardware as drivers of a record-high stock market, though polls show bipartisan concern about AI advancing too quickly and continued frustration with high living costs.
Vance also said several universities, including Stanford and MIT, should be investigated for possible visa fraud. Huang and Brin have Stanford ties, and Su holds multiple degrees from MIT. The White House said Thursday’s honorees are helping ensure the United States maintains global leadership in innovation.
With midterm elections approaching, Trump has pointed to AI data center investment and related hardware as drivers of a record-high stock market, though polls show bipartisan concern about AI advancing too quickly and continued frustration with high living costs. Relatedly, more voters are turning to AI chatbots for voting guidance amid questions about bias and reliability.
