Over the weekend, U.S. President Trump unveiled a contentious new regulation regarding H-1B visa fees, hiking the cost per visa to a staggering $100,000. This move has prompted stock market analysts to assess the potential repercussions of this policy shift on leading tech corporations, especially its ramifications for the 'Magnificent Seven'—the powerhouses that largely dictate the trajectory of the American stock market. The H-1B visa initiative stands as a pivotal mechanism for the United States to lure highly proficient individuals, particularly in domains like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, with a yearly limit of 85,000 new visas granted. Tech behemoths such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple are heavily dependent on H-1B visas to scout and hire global talent.

Under the fresh directive, although sizable tech enterprises possess the financial muscle to shoulder the elevated visa expenditures, their aggregate labor costs are poised to skyrocket. For their smaller counterparts and fledgling startups, the annual outlay of $100,000 per visa could prove to be exorbitantly high, substantially curtailing their capacity to enlist top-tier international talent. This, in turn, might even compel them to offshore high-value positions to other countries.