Marketplace All-in-One Bytes: Week in Review - Big Tech/small tech divide over $100K visa fee
Sep 26, 2025
Maria Curi, a tech policy reporter at Axios, dives into critical issues this week. She discusses the controversial $100,000 H-1B visa fee and its disproportionate impact on startups versus big tech. Curi explains the alarming findings from a SIM farm investigation involving 100,000 SIM cards, posing national security risks like network congestion. The conversation also tackles backlash over AI-generated voices in gaming, particularly in the “Tomb Raider” franchise, highlighting fan dissatisfaction with the robot's performance and the evolving legal landscape protecting voice actors.
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Vague Exemptions Give Big Discretion
- The executive order allows DHS to exempt single H-1B holders, whole companies, or entire industries from the $100,000 fee at its discretion.
- That vague national-interest carveout gives the administration broad leverage to pick winners and losers.
No Timeline Creates Immediate Uncertainty
- There is no clear timeline for how or when exemptions will be defined, and companies are urgently seeking clarity.
- The uncertainty itself is disrupting employees and hiring plans right now.
Domestic Hiring Won't Close Shortages Fast
- The U.S. faces persistent STEM and technician shortages that can't be fixed quickly by domestic training alone.
- That gap makes relying solely on domestic hiring risky for sectors racing to scale in AI and semiconductors.