If tech talent can’t come to the U.S., American companies will go where the talent is.
Hiring by Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, and Google has risen sharply in India in recent months. This trend coincides with the growing scrutiny of the H-1B visa, often used by tech companies to bring international talent to the U.S.
There were about 4,200 open positions at these companies in India as of February 5, Anuj Agrawal, founder and CEO of talent advisory and recruitment firm Zyoin Group, told Rest of World.
Of the current openings, just 15% are for entry-level roles that require less than three years of experience, while AI, machine learning, cloud, and cybersecurity roles comprise nearly half of the vacancies.
This probably has been the strongest growth in several years.”
In 2025, these companies added around 33,000 workers in India, a roughly 18% increase from the previous year, Bengaluru-based human resources expert N. Shivakumar told Rest of World.
“This probably has been the strongest growth in several years,” Shivakumar said. “There is so much abundance of mature talent available — not just talent which is doing the basic job, but they are into deep tech, deep learning, and they’re heavily into AI.”
Based on early signs, Shivakumar expects an even steeper uptick in U.S. tech giants’ hiring in India in 2026.
Experts believe a big reason for this rush to hire in India is the recent clampdown on the H-1B visa program, which allows highly skilled workers to live and work in the U.S. for up to six years.
The H-1B has undergone major changes under President Donald Trump, making it much harder to get. Its fee has been increased from around $5,000 per petition to $100,000, among other updates. There has also been a sharp rise in rejections and tighter scrutiny of applicants.
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