(SILICON VALLEY, CALIFORNIA) – NVIDIA increased its H-1B certifications in the first half of Fiscal Year 2026, widening its hiring gap with Google and Amazon as other Silicon Valley companies pulled back on foreign worker sponsorship.

Federal filings from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services show NVIDIA reached about 1,200 H-1B certifications, up 20% from about 1,000 a year earlier. Google fell to about 2,200, down 57% from 5,100, while Amazon dropped to about 4,300, down 30% from 6,100.

The divergence comes as employers face a new $100,000 supplemental visa fee for certain overseas hires and a set of rule changes that favor higher-paid jobs. Those shifts have pushed many companies to curb new sponsorships from abroad even as demand for artificial intelligence workers remains intense.

Under the Presidential Proclamation on Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, certain new H-1B petitions filed on or after September 21, 2025 must include an additional $100,000 payment for workers applying from outside the United States. The fee added a new cost barrier for companies that rely on foreign recruitment pipelines.

USCIS then issued Policy Memorandum PM-602-0199 on May 21, 2026, changing how the agency treats in-country green card applications. A day later, USCIS Spokesperson Zach Kahler said, “From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances. This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes.”

After pushback from industry, a USCIS spokesperson added on June 1, 2026, “People who present applications that provide an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest will likely be able to continue on their current path while others may be asked to apply abroad depending on individualized circumstances.”

DHS also changed the H-1B selection process. Under a final rule that took effect on February 27, 2026, Wage Level IV roles now have a 4x greater chance of selection than Wage Level I positions, giving high-paying employers a clear edge in the annual lottery.

NVIDIA appears well placed under that formula. Federal filings show base salaries for its Principal Research Scientists range from $272,000 to $431,250, while Architecture Directors can earn up to $488,750.

Those pay bands stand out at a moment when the company is competing for scarce AI engineers and researchers. Chief Executive Jensen Huang has said he “personally reviews everybody’s compensation” and sees global talent as vital to the “AI Agent Era.”

The same policy mix has cut the other way for companies trimming headcount or reducing immigration spending. Google and Amazon still sponsor more H-1B workers than NVIDIA in raw volume, but their year-over-year declines point to a sharper retreat from the levels seen in FY 2025.

The new fee, sometimes described inside the industry as a $100, 000 supplemental visa fee, has also shifted where firms look for workers. Companies that want to avoid the extra payment have leaned more heavily on international students already in the United States on F-1 OPT status, who remain exempt from the $100,000 charge described in the proclamation.

That has raised the premium on hiring workers already inside the country, while making new overseas recruitment harder to justify unless the role carries a very high salary or sits in a field with tight labor supply. The weighted lottery deepens that divide by giving the best odds to jobs with the highest wage levels.

The result is a more stratified H-1B market. Firms with strong margins and urgent demand for AI or semiconductor talent can still absorb the costs and structure offers around the wage rules, while employers under layoff pressure face a higher hurdle for each new petition.

Workers feel those changes unevenly. H-1B employees at companies reducing sponsorships face more risk during layoffs because the 60-day grace period now runs against a weaker market for transfers and against employers that may not want to shoulder the new costs.

The green card changes add another layer of uncertainty. Under the May memo, some H-1B holders pursuing permanent residence may have to leave the United States for consular processing, a step that can split families across borders and interrupt work at a delicate point in a career.

By contrast, highly paid AI and semiconductor workers at companies like NVIDIA sit in a stronger position under the current rules. Their salaries align with the weighted selection system, and their work is more likely to fit the economic benefit and national interest language USCIS used in its June clarification.

No single data point captures the whole market, but the early FY 2026 filings show how quickly federal policy can reorder hiring incentives in Silicon Valley. NVIDIA is expanding H-1B hiring in a system that now rewards high wages, while rivals are cutting back in a climate shaped by layoffs, a $100,000 overseas filing surcharge, and tighter green card processing rules.

The federal records behind those shifts are public. USCIS posts employer-level numbers in its H-1B Employer Data Hub, the agency’s adjustment policy appears in Policy Memorandum PM-602-0199, DHS published the weighted lottery rule in the Federal Register, and the White House set out the overseas entry restrictions in its September 2025 proclamation.