Visa hurdles make US tech hirings tough for Indian-founded AI startups

A cocktail of regulatory uncertainty, steep new fees and immigration anxieties has spooked H-1B visa holders and made them reluctant to switch from big tech firms to smaller, riskier ventures, multiple founders told ET. They said the second order effects of the new H1-B regulations are starting to show even in lateral hires — a segment relatively less affected by policy flux.

“We are hiring for machine learning and AI roles in the…