President Donald Trump celebrated tech billionaires for their contributions to America on Thursday only hours after a company run by one of them, Microsoft, was accused by his vice president of abusing the visa system to bring in more foreign workers. It so happens five of the six leaders he honored are immigrants.
Before the ceremony that recognized Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Vice President JD Vance announced at a news conference that the tech company was being suspended from a program that allows companies to apply for green cards for skilled foreign workers with H-1B visas.
The crackdown on Microsoft revealed the tension between the companies that power U.S. economic growth and the administration’s efforts to reduce immigration. Trump’s team insists it’s possible to spot the superstar immigrants who could lead groundbreaking companies and that hiring unexceptional foreigners had hurt U.S. workers.
“Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,” Vance told a news conference. He said the company had abused the visa system. “You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.”
Vance said Microsoft last year fired 6,000 U.S. workers but also obtained 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.
The tech company, based in Redmond, Washington, has 223,000 employees worldwide. It said in a statement that the majority of its H-1B visa applications last fiscal year were “to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees.”
In presenting the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Microsoft’s CEO, Trump took a more flattering approach and made no statements about the company’s hiring of foreign workers.
“For more than three decades, Satya Nadella has been a key figure in the transformation of Microsoft, revolutionizing the company and empowering businesses, students and consumers from all over the world with some of the most capable software ever built,” Trump said.
When Vance was asked about the seeming contradiction, he said, “We’re going to continue to support Microsoft and have a great relationship with Microsoft.”
Of the six tech leaders who received an award for scientific and technological achievement from the president, five came from abroad.
The president gave the National Medal of Science to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Lisa Su, CEO of the semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices. Each of them was born overseas — South Africa for Musk, Russia for Brin and Taiwan for Huang and Su.
In addition to Nadella, Trump also gave the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, who has sponsored the government’s special investment accounts for children known as Trump Accounts. Dell was born in Texas, while Nadella immigrated from India.
On social media, Nadella thanked Trump.
“I’m humbled to stand alongside so many giants of American innovation and looking forward for what we can continue to do together to advance technology and drive American prosperity,” he posted.
They’re praised as ‘national treasures’
Trump called the group of billionaires “national treasures,” comparing them to his uncle, John Trump, an electrical engineer and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who received the National Medal of Science in 1983.
“Such a big day in the world of science and the world of technology — this is the biggest day there is,” Trump said. “You’re going to go down in the annals of history as being great.”
The honors — part of a summit celebrating a new “golden age” of science — build on Trump’s already lavish praise toward the entrepreneurs for their work accelerating the development of artificial intelligence technology, which he refers to as super intelligence. He has increasingly counted on the technology to deliver on his economic agenda and pushed for the U.S. to lead its development while resisting calls for guardrails that he worries will stifle growth.
“We have an extremely high IQ audience, for a change,” Trump joked to the event’s attendees.
Past winners of the National Medal of Science, which was established in 1959, have mainly been academics and research scientists rather than business leaders. The ceremony honoring the business leaders overlaps with the awarding this week, separately, of Nobel Prizes.
The tech leaders have been frequent visitors to the White House in recent weeks. Musk, Huang and Su sat at the head table with Trump at the lavish state dinner for China’s leader, Xi Jinping. Also attending were Brin, Nadella and Dell, who on Wednesday was in the Oval Office to talk about Trump Accounts.
Last week, Huang and Musk were among the tech leaders at the White House to sign a voluntary agreement on developing AI after recent models raised national security and safety concerns.
With November’s midterm elections less than a month away, Trump has also sought to drive home to voters how investment in AI data centers and related computer equipment has helped to boost a record-high stock market, swelling the net worth of wealthier Americans. But the message hasn’t always landed. Polls show bipartisan concerns about AI developing too quickly, and high costs for everyday items like gas and groceries are dampening the economic outlook for many Americans.
Vance also said that several universities including Stanford and MIT should be investigated for visa fraud. Huang and Brin have degrees from Stanford and Su has multiple degrees from MIT.
The White House praised the contributions of Thursday’s honorees.
“These recipients are helping ensure America keeps leading the world in innovation,” said Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson.