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Visa uncertainty’s a bigger threat for Silicon Valley talent: Okta CEO
Las Vegas: As the Trump administration's steep hike in H-1B visa fee sent jitters across the US tech industry, identity and access management company Okta is doubling down on India both as a talent hub and a growth market, its chief executive Todd McKinnon told ET in an interview.
The proposed $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applicants has left Silicon Valley scrambling and is forcing firms to reassess workforce strategies.
For the San Francisco-headquartered Okta, which counts several engineers and leaders who came to the US on H-1B visas as employees, the key worry is predictability. “We've long been heavy users of the H-1B programme. Fee is one thing, but what companies really need is predictability so we can plan strategies. Uncertainty is what can change hiring behaviour,” McKinnon said on the sidelines of the company's annual conference Oktane.
Founded in 2009 by McKinnon and Frederic Kerrest, both former Salesforce executives, Okta is Nasdaq-listed and has annual revenue of $2.76 billion. The company sells single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, customer identity and governance solutions to public sector institutions, government bodies and enterprises globally. It counts Microsoft, Google and Palo Alto Networks (through its CyberArk deal) among its rivals.
On September 19, tech companies and US startups were alarmed by the sudden escalation in H-1B fee.
“We're just trying to figure out, it's new and we're still digesting it,” McKinnon said, even as he emphasised that Okta's global talent model remains intact. “Over the last decade we've consistently tapped international talent, and we plan to continue. The only thing that could change our approach is a lack of predictability… This is a very talent-driven industry... AI (artificial intelligence) doesn't reduce the need for people; it makes them more important,” he said.
India push
India is increasingly becoming a key market for Okta, McKinnon told ET. The company employs more than 500 people in Bengaluru, nearly 10% of its workforce, and continues to expand. “We see India as an R&D hub building core products, not just a maintenance site. And it's also a growth market for identity,” he said.
While Indian enterprises have historically under-spent on cybersecurity, the Okta CEO believes that will change quickly. “The growth rate in India will outpace mature markets. You can already see the leading indicators cloud adoption, startups, consumer internet,” he said.
For McKinnon, the common thread between immigration policy and AI adoption is clear. “We can pay higher fees. We can adapt to new technology. What disrupts strategy is not knowing what the rules will be next month,” he said.
As policy shocks continue and competition intensifies, McKinnon's message was consistent: Silicon Valley's reliance on global talent is undiminished, and identity remains the foundation of the AI era but predictability will determine how companies plan, hire and innovate.
AI and jobs
The H-1B visa fee shock comes as AI's impact on employment dominates all discussions. Some companies have claimed generative AI can already automate up to 80% of coding. McKinnon dismissed such pronouncements as marketing spin. "Almost all the statements about job loss are motivated, someone's trying to sell you a product,” he said. “Yes, AI is making developers more productive, but we're still hiring across departments. AI opens up more opportunities than it closes, particularly in tech.”
While enterprises see the potential of AI tools in personal use, scaling them into production requires new levels of reliability, quality and security, he said, adding, “Every AI agent needs access to data, and identity is what governs that access. You can't roll out AI in production without identity guardrails.”
Okta's market value, about $15.8 billion, trails peers such as CyberArk and CrowdStrike, while Microsoft towers over the sector with its $2.8 trillion valuation. A key reason is that larger rivals embed identity and security within broader cloud or endpoint offerings letting them cross-sell to existing customers. McKinnon argued that this bundling locks companies into single-vendor ecosystems. “If you lock yourself into one vendor's identity platform, you're also locking yourself into their cloud and productivity stack. Our independence is our edge,” he said, pointing to Okta's 8,000-plus integrations as proof of neutrality.
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Source: EconomicTimes
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