Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, a Democratic megadonor, is backing President Donald Trump’s executive order to create a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applicants, calling it “a great solution.”
Hastings on Sunday said implementing the visa fee would ensure visas are used for “very high-value jobs,” thus eliminating the visa lottery system and providing more certainty for employers. His public support for Trump’s proclamation comes a year after he doled out $7 million to a PAC closely aligned with former Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed 2024 presidential campaign.
“I’ve worked on H1-B politics for 30 years. Trump’s $100K per year tax is a great solution. It will mean H1-B is used just for very high-value jobs, which will mean no lottery needed, and more certainty for those jobs,” Hastings said in an X post Sunday.
Hastings and his wife have given over $20 million to the Democratic Party throughout the past few years, cementing the Netflix co-founder as one of the biggest donors to the party. The Netflix executive also gave $1.5 million to former President Joe Biden in 2020 and $100,000 in 2024 — before becoming one of his most influential donors to call for the president to end his reelection bid.
Prominent tech leaders and Trump backers, such as Elon Musk — a former H-1B holder himself — and Vivek Ramaswamy, have publicly touted the H-1B program as a legal immigration route to fill gaps in key industries.
Ramaswamy notably justified his support of the visa program, claiming that America does “not produce the best engineers” in a viral December 2024 post. Musk said in an X post the same month that the “permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent” is a limiting factor in Silicon Valley.
However, some prominent conservatives have been critical of the visa. Longtime Trump confidant Steve Bannon blasted“big tech oligarchs” for supporting the H-1B program on his “War Room” podcast in December 2024.
The H-1B program allows foreign nationals employed in specialty occupations, such as technology and engineering, to enter the U.S. workforce. Over 400,000 people apply for the program — which only has roughly 85,000 spots available — every year, which spurs the lottery system.
The new fee will apply to the employer sponsoring foreign nationals, and starting Sept. 21, only applications paid for by the employer will be accepted.
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