H-1B Remarks Put Y Combinator’s Ankit Gupta At Center Of Trump Officials Ire

India-West News Desk

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Ankit Gupta, a partner at Y Combinator, Harvard-trained computer scientist, serial entrepreneur, and former chief technology officer and co-founder of Reveries Labs, has sparked a debate involving senior US officials over H-1B visas and hiring American workers following a series of posts on social media.

It started when in response to Vice President JD Vance’s argument that American companies needing workers should hire and train Americans, Gupta challenged that position by suggesting that choosing American workers because they are American rather than on the basis of their skills would amount to “DEI,” or diversity, equity and inclusion.

Anthony D’Esposito, inspector general of the US Department of Labor, sharply responded on X, writing, “Ankit Gupta thinks hiring Americans first, in America, is ‘DEI.’ It’s called putting your own citizens first.” D’Esposito added that American companies, jobs and workers should come first, saying, “If that offends you, the problem isn’t America. It’s your sense of entitlement.”

During another contentious exchange while defending H-1B immigrants, Gupta asked a commentator what they objected to about “H-1B immigrant culture,” pointing to their willingness to work long hours and the emphasis on education among their children. When the commentator made comments involving littering, dishonesty, and aesthetic taste, Gupta answered, “It’s giving flyover country.” That response prompted social media users to accuse Gupta of making a racist reference to rural white Americans, with one user tagging Y Combinator to request his firing based on anti-discrimination policies.

Andrew Ferguson, chairman of the US Federal Trade Commission, also criticized the remarks, questioning Y Combinator’s stance and expressing discomfort with wealthy investors criticizing American workers. Ferguson posted, “Y Combinator is a supposed champion of ‘Little Tech’ but perhaps they’re nothing more than a front for the far left,” adding that people like Gupta do not appear to have the best interests of America and its citizens in mind and that “the purpose of the American economy is to promote the general welfare of American workers, not provide jobs for the rest of the world.”

Y Combinator president and CEO Garry Tan responded to the controversy by stating that the organization supports hiring and funding Americans.