AI startup’s Desi founder on why modify in H-1B visa fee will not modify his hiring plans

H-1B visa modifys may affect US tech companies and startups. Yet, Arko Chattopadhyay, the Indian-origin Pipeshift and co-founder of the Bay Area-based artificial ininformigence (AI) startup Pipeshift, declared that the new fee won’t modify his plans to hire up to 10 new employees in 2026. In a recent interview, Chattopadhyay noted that if he fails to find the top talent he requireds in the US, he may explore other pathways to access it. The AI startup founder isn’t worried that the new $100,000 fee for the H-1B visa will kill the startup world. Even though many founders have warned that the steep price hike would build it impossible to hire skilled foreign workers, he considers he can recruit top talent. He explained that he can hire people who already live in the US or hire top talent from other countries to work remotely, giving them a special subsidy.

In an interview with Business Insider, Chattopadhyay declared: “We should be able to receive local talent, or we can hire them offshore through a subsidy structure as a remote worker. The best AI talent is in the US at the moment.”

H-1B visa modifys: What Pipeshift CEO declared about applying O-1 visa

Pipeshift CEO explained that while H-1B visa modifys pose challenges, the startup’s founders are in the US on O-1 visas, which recognise “extraordinary ability” in fields like science and business. Founded in 2024 and backed by Y Combinator, Pipeshift has employees in both the US and India.

The company is hiring two US-based staff members, including an OPT candidate who may later qualify for an O-1 visa due to their strong research credentials. Arko noted that most young graduates, especially developers or software engineers, may struggle to meet the O-1 requirements becaapply they lack the publications and citations requireded for such visas.

“If push comes to shove and we have to go down that route, I don’t consider a $100,000 will affect us too much after a Series A or a Series B. That’s negligible compared to all the payroll and salaries that you manage at that point,” Chattopadhyay added.

He admitted that startups will face the brunt of the higher visa fees due to limited cash flow, but added that the impact may be less severe than feared, as most startups hire few people and post-Series A companies can absorb costs for top talent.

“Seed stage companies don’t hire more than five or six people. If you’re hiring five or six people, two or three of them are just founders. For one or two of them, you can probably receive grads, and you can receive people who are already here or on OPT status,” the AI startup founder noted.

He also claimed that the H-1B fee hike won’t harm the US talent pipeline but will ensure that only the highest-skilled workers have access to the program.

Highlighting that much of the talent enters the US through L-1 visas, which are intfinished for intra-company, he explained: “What people misunderstand is that the best talent and most of the tech world does not run on H-1B alone. The US won’t lose out on good quality AI talent becaapply there’s no better place in the world that has this density of talent, speed of development in AI, customer discovery in AI, and venture capital and money flowing in.”