Jensen Huang Says US Should Draw 'Great Minds' Lawfully as White House Suspends Microsoft and Adobe From PERM

Jensen Huang wants the world's smartest people to move to America. He also wants them to do it by the book.

The Nvidia CEO made the case on the BG2 podcast, in an episode published Oct. 15. "We want all of the world's great minds to come here, bring their great ideas, make them realize them here," he told host Brad Gerstner. Then he added the limit: "We have to do it lawfully. You have to do it rightfully, right? But we surely want to do it."

Huang did not name a visa category. He also did not attack the administration by name, at least in the remarks reported so far.

The medal ceremony and Huang's own story

The interview came one week after Huang received the National Medal of Science at the White House on Oct. 8. Gerstner noted that five of the six people onstage that day were born outside the United States. Michael Dell was the only U.S.-born honoree. The others were Huang, Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, Sergey Brin and Lisa Su.

Huang was born in Taiwan and spent part of his childhood in Thailand. He came to the U.S. before his parents, who followed several years later. He attended the ceremony with them.

He called America's pull on talent a "superpower." He also said, "The inflow of intellectual property into this country is unlike anything else the world's ever seen." He said Nvidia's success would not have been possible without immigration.

Nvidia is among the largest H-1B sponsors in tech, with roughly 1,500 approvals in recent data.

What the administration has done

The backdrop is a tightening of skilled-worker immigration.

In September 2025, President Trump set a $100,000 payment for new H-1B applications. On Sept. 18, 2026, he renewed the requirement for certain petitions involving workers outside the country, running until Sept. 21, 2027. The same day, he signed a separate executive order directing agencies to consider whether H-1B sponsors had laid off similarly situated U.S. workers in the prior year or planned layoffs.

The payment is not being collected. On Sept. 30, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction vacating the agency policies that implement the 2025 proclamation and its 2026 extension. Agencies cannot enforce them until required rulemaking is finished. The government appealed to the Ninth Circuit on Oct. 9.

The injunction covers the payment policies only. The layoff-review directive is a separate action.

Microsoft, Adobe and PERM

More recently, the administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six other technology companies from the Permanent Labor Certification program, known as PERM. The program is the route employers use to sponsor skilled foreign workers for permanent residency. The administration has not disclosed how long the suspensions will last.

Vance announced the move at a press conference and accused the companies of misusing the system. "If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants," he said. That is Vance's characterization. Microsoft's response is not in the reporting so far.

The White House made the same argument in a statement to Business Insider. "There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force, and President Trump's agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this Administration's commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential," a spokeswoman said.

That is a direct counter to Huang's pitch. The administration says the labor is already here and being passed over. Huang says the country gains from pulling in more of the best.

Not a clean break

Huang is not an outsider on this. He has been one of Trump's more dependable allies in tech. Last month he said some AI CEOs were scaring the public for "ulterior reasons" and argued, "We don't need more regulations. We need to apply the current regulations we have." Trump's approach to AI rules ended up closer to Huang's view.

On immigration, his stated position has two parts. He backs lawful entry and accepts that misuse of the system is a legitimate problem, and he says cutting off access to top talent carries costs. Those two parts overlap with the administration's stated concern about abuse, though not with its remedies.

His comments change no rule and open no new visa pathway.

What comes next

The $100,000 payment stays frozen unless the Ninth Circuit revives the agency policies or rulemaking is completed. The government's appeal there remains pending. Microsoft, Adobe and the six other suspended companies have no announced end date for their PERM suspensions.