President Donald Trump awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella just hours after Vice President JD Vance announced the suspension of Microsoft from a program allowing companies to obtain green cards for skilled foreign workers. Vance accused Microsoft of laying off 6,000 U.S. workers last year while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. The Redmond-based company, which employs 223,000 people worldwide, said most of its H-1B applications were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees. Five of the six honored tech leaders are immigrants, including Satya Nadella from India, Elon Musk born in South Africa, Sergey Brin born in Russia, and Jensen Huang and Lisa Su born in Taiwan. Trump called these billionaires “national treasures” and maintained the administration would continue supporting Microsoft despite the measure.
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