TNB Tech Minute: Tech Industry Urges Trump Administration to Drop High H-1B Visa Fees

0:00Why can't we get AI to production? Our competitors are all ready. How do we keep data secure? AWSAI cuts through the noise. With ready-to-use agents and the broadest set of AI tools, stop overthinking. Start building. AWSAI is how. Here's your morning TNB Tech Minute for Thursday, September 24th. I'm Danny Lewis for The Wall Street Journal. We exclusively report that a group representing some of the largest U.S. tech companies is urging the Trump administration to withdraw its proposal to charge high fees for most new H-1B visa applications. TechNet, which represents industry giants like Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic, filed its opposition in a public comment today on the Homeland Security Department's pending fee rule.

0:46The agency is proposing to charge companies more than$103 ,000 for new visa applications for the pathway, which is the main route to the U.S. for highly skilled foreign workers. and one that large tech companies use to hire thousands of workers a year. The sector's opposition is significant because tech companies have almost uniformly supported President Trump's policies of minimal regulation and tax cuts. Elsewhere in tech, Meta has unveiled new hardware that showcases how its new technology merges with its online products, including its popular AI agent, Muse. The company announced several products at its annual developer conference yesterday, such as new versions of its smart glasses, including a model without cameras, and a handheld keychain-sized device for interacting with Meta's AI agents, called a Muse Charm.

1:34Meta says its goal is to have people use their Muse agent without having to touch the app, which is currently number one in Apple's App Store. And in another WSJ exclusive, Amazon is scaling up robot production as it automates more work in its warehouses. The e-commerce giant says it will spend more than$100 million on a new manufacturing facility in Indiana, which is set to open by 2028. It's the second major robotics building site Amazon has announced recently. Last month, the company announced plans to construct another robotics hub in Austin, Texas. And that's it for your TNB Tech Minutes.

2:09We'll have another quick tech update in the morning. Why can't we get AI to production? Our competitors are all ready. How do we keep data secure? AWS AI cuts through the noise. With ready-to-use agents and the broadest set of AI tools, stop overthinking, start building. AWS AI is how.