I'd happily pay $100,000 for an H-1B hire to get the best talent for my AI company. It's part of the cost of doing business. (www.businessinsider.com)

When President Trump’s executive order surfaced proposing a $100,000 fee for new H‑1B visas, Metaview cofounder and CTO Shahriar Tajbakhsh shrugged it off — saying he’d pay the surcharge to secure top talent. Metaview, an AI recruitment startup founded in London with about $50M raised and 30–40 employees, is expanding its San Francisco office and plans up to 50 U.S. hires over the next year. Tajbakhsh, who recently obtained an EB‑1A visa, expects to file roughly 24 H‑1B petitions in the next lottery and noted one planned transfer was ultimately unaffected by the rule as it would apply only to new petitions. For the AI/ML community the announcement underscores a potential shift in the cost calculus for hiring international talent: a large per‑hire fee could push some early‑stage firms to rethink U.S. hiring, favor remote or offshore talent, or seek visa exemptions cited for “national interest” roles. But Tajbakhsh’s stance highlights a common startup view — that top AI talent is worth significant upfront expense, and investors may back higher hiring costs to secure product and research outcomes. The practical implications: tighter competition for U.S. slots, higher per‑hire budgets for startups scaling AI teams, and greater scrutiny of immigration exemptions for key technical roles.