Nvidia will continue sponsoring H-1B visas despite Trump’s new $100,000 fee

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has confirmed that the company will keep sponsoring H-1B visas and pay all associated fees, even after President Donald Trump’s recent executive order that added a $100,000 charge per new application, according to Business Insider.

Huang’s internal message sought to reassure foreign employees after confusion rippled through the tech sector, especially among Indian and Chinese professionals who form a large share of H-1B visa holders. The company employs many workers from abroad, and Huang has often noted that nearly half of the world’s AI researchers are Chinese.

“As one of many immigrants at Nvidia, I know the opportunities we’ve found in America have profoundly shaped our lives,” Huang wrote. “The miracle of Nvidia — built by all of you, and by brilliant colleagues around the world — would not be possible without immigration.”

Under Trump’s order, new H-1B applicants cannot enter the U.S. unless their employer pays an additional $100,000 fee. The rule does not affect current visa holders or those who applied before September 21.

H-1B visas enable U.S. firms to hire foreign specialists in technical fields. Lawmakers recently questioned major tech companies about their reliance on H-1B hiring while cutting other jobs.

Huang emphasized that legal immigration remains essential for America’s leadership in technology and innovation, saying the new policy changes reaffirm this principle. Data from USCIS shows that California — home to Nvidia and Silicon Valley — has led the nation in visa applications since 2018.

OpenAI to Give Content Owners Control Over Sora AI Videos, Plans Revenue Sharing Model

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OpenAI is rolling out new tools to give content owners greater control over how their intellectual property is used in Sora, its recently launched AI video-generation app, and plans to introduce a revenue-sharing system for creators who opt in.

In a blog post on Friday, CEO Sam Altman said OpenAI will soon provide “more granular control over the generation of characters” within Sora, enabling rights holders such as film and television studios to decide how their characters can appear—or to block them entirely.

The move comes amid intensifying scrutiny of AI-generated content and growing concern across Hollywood and the creative industries about copyright infringement and the unauthorized replication of proprietary characters and likenesses.

Sora, launched this week as a standalone app in the United States and Canada, allows users to generate and share AI-created videos up to 10 seconds long. Its social-media-style interface quickly gained traction, with users producing clips based on both original and copyrighted material.

Altman acknowledged that the app’s rapid popularity—and the sheer volume of video creation—has outpaced expectations, creating a need for clear rules and compensation mechanisms. “We’ll experiment with different approaches,” he wrote, adding that the revenue-sharing model would evolve through “trial and error” as OpenAI tests various systems within Sora before applying them to its broader suite of AI tools.

At least one major studio, Disney, has already opted out of allowing its characters to appear in Sora-generated videos, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Other studios are reportedly reviewing whether to participate under OpenAI’s forthcoming licensing framework.

The company’s initiative could mark a turning point in the relationship between AI firms and content owners, shifting from conflict to collaboration—if a viable monetization model can be found.

Backed by Microsoft, OpenAI’s expansion into multimodal AI via Sora places it in direct competition with Meta’s Vibes and Google’s text-to-video tools, as major tech firms race to define the future of synthetic media creation.

Still, the effort to give rights holders control over how their creations are used—and to share revenue from those uses—reflects a broader recognition that AI’s creative power must coexist with creator compensation and consent.

Amazon Devices VP Rob Williams Exits Company After Major Product Launch, Marking Rare S-Team Departure

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Amazon is set to lose one of its top executives just days after unveiling its latest wave of hardware products. Rob Williams, vice president of device software and services and a member of CEO Andy Jassy’s elite S-team, has announced his departure, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters.

Williams, who has been with Amazon for 12 years and joined the 29-member senior leadership team in late 2022, will step down at the end of 2025 after serving in an advisory capacity for the remainder of the year. His decision comes immediately following Amazon’s high-profile devices and services showcase in New York, where the company debuted new Echo smart speakers, color Kindles, and upgraded Fire TV models.

In the memo, Panos Panay, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services, praised Williams for his influence on “the software and experiences of nearly all the products we’ve created and shipped.” Panay added that Williams had decided to “retire from Amazon,” though his future plans remain undisclosed.

Panay also announced a reorganization within the devices division, including the integration of the Alexa Smart Vehicle team into the main Alexa group and the promotion of Tapas Roy—previously head of Fire TV engineering—to succeed Williams as VP of device software and services.

Williams confirmed his exit in a LinkedIn post, saying he had been planning his departure for much of the year but stayed on to see through the recent product launches. “No one else has anything like it,” he wrote, referring to Vega, Amazon’s new proprietary operating system for Fire TV devices that aims to replace Google’s Android software with faster performance and lower costs.

The departure of an S-team member is considered highly unusual inside Amazon. The group serves as Jassy’s closest circle of advisers and is often viewed as the inner sanctum of corporate leadership within the company.

Williams leaves amid continued turmoil in Amazon’s devices division, which has struggled to find profitability. The unit has undergone multiple layoffs and has been slow to roll out its revamped Alexa voice assistant featuring generative AI capabilities. Despite these challenges, Amazon remains committed to expanding its devices ecosystem, including the launch of Fire tablets running Android and the rollout of Vega OS-powered hardware later this year.

Amazon confirmed Williams’s departure but declined to comment further.

His exit marks a significant leadership shake-up within Amazon’s long-term effort to reinvent its hardware strategy around AI and custom software—a mission that remains critical as competition from Google, Apple, and Samsung intensifies.