Right before the tech conclave, former U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a loud and clear message to America’s tech giants: stop hiring foreign workers—especially those from India—and put America first. 

With the U.S. elections fast approaching in 2024 and Trump campaigning on a far-right tech platform, these comments were more than mere rhetoric. Trump accused companies like Google and Microsoft of enjoying America’s freedoms while outsourcing jobs to China and India and parking profits in tax havens like Ireland. 

“Under President Trump, those days are over,” he declared. 

The Three Executive Orders on AI Trump Signed 

At the same summit, Trump signed three executive orders related to AI: 

• Winning the Race: A strategy to supercharge U.S. AI infrastructure by deregulating and fast-tracking data centre development. 

• De-woke AI: Ensuring that federally supported AI projects are politically neutral, instead of “accurate through ideology.” 

• Global AI Push: Incentivising full-stack, export-oriented, and domestically developed AI tools made in the U.S. 

He also made headlines for rejecting the term “artificial intelligence”: 

“It’s not artificial; it’s genius,” he quipped. 

What Does It Mean for India? 

India’s $250-billion IT sector, led by firms like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro, remains heavily dependent on U.S. contracts—over 70% of India’s software exports are U.S.-bound. If Trump’s executive orders turn into policy post-2025, the implications could be deeply disruptive: 

• H-1B visa access may be significantly restricted, echoing his 2020 suspension of foreign work visas. 

• Offshore development contracts may dry up as firms respond to political and regulatory pressures over foreign hires. 

• Stricter immigration policies could endanger the legal status of Indian tech workers already based in the U.S. 

It’s not just about India either. Trump’s stance signals a new era of “AI nationalism”—where talent pipelines, data infrastructure, and algorithmic decision-making are forced to operate within national boundaries. 

For India, this also reopens an old vulnerability: its overreliance on one export market. The message for New Delhi may be this—if tech is the new diplomacy, then diversification must be a national priority. 

Tech Titans Are Wary 

Trump criticises what he calls Silicon Valley’s “globalist mindset” within a broader debate: Can America truly lead in AI without the global talent it has always depended on? 

From Google CEO Sundar Pichai to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and OpenAI CTO Mira Murati—the immigrant talent pool has been foundational to modern tech. But Trump’s worldview is different. He argues that loyalty, not diversity, should drive AI progress. 

Tech experts warn that blocking global hiring may have the opposite effect. 

“Tech companies don’t just hire globally for cost—they hire because innovation is borderless,” says noted tech journalist Kara Swisher. “Cutting that pipeline weakens America’s edge.” 

Playing the Political Game 

Trump’s AI doctrine is tailored for domestic optics—playing to economic anxieties of the American middle class. His central narrative is that Big Tech has betrayed American workers, and he is here to “take it back.” 

His rhetoric around “woke AI” is meant to fire up his conservative base, pushing the idea that tech elites are out of touch with everyday Americans. But make no mistake—it’s as much a culture war as it is a tech policy. 

Final Thoughts 

Trump’s tech populism—wrapped in a potent mix of nationalism, protectionism, and algorithmic sovereignty—has global consequences. Indian IT firms may find a momentary shelter under status quo contracts, but they face rough headwinds ahead. 

The real risk? For an industry built on global code and cross-border talent, the next big disruption may not come from algorithms—but from politics. 

And if Trump does return to the White House, it’s not just Silicon Valley that needs to brace itself—but so does Bengaluru.