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

0:00Russia hunted him as a spy. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Now, after 491 days in a Russian prison, he tells his harrowing story to George Stephanopoulos from the shocking arrest. They're in full masks. They're in full masks, and I'm getting dragged down onto the floor. There's a hood put over my head, and then I'm just being dragged out. To being behind bars in Russia. You had to actually write a letter to let him approve. Watch Monday morning as the exclusive breaks, only on ABC's Good Morning America. 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 US tech companies is urging the Trump administration to withdraw its proposal to charge high fees for most new H1B 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.

1:02The agency is proposing to charge companies more than $103,000 for new visa applications for the pathway, which is the main route to the US 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-size device for interacting with Meta's AI agents, called a Muse Charm. Meta 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.

2:04The 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. We'll have another quick tech update in the morning. Russia hunted him as a spy, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Now, after 491 days in a Russian prison, he tells his harrowing story to George Stephanopoulos, from the shocking arrest. They're in full masks. They're in full masks, and I'm getting dragged down onto the floor. There's a hood put over my head, and then I'm just being dragged out. To being behind bars in Russia. You had to actually write a letter to Vladimir Putin. Watch Monday morning as the exclusive breaks only on ABC's Good Morning America.