Since I am posting charts, might as well post this one.
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Some of you guys may recognise it. It's from MacroPolo's AI talent tracker. The left side is bachelor, middle is master's and right side is PhD. The left side is the most important, because it tells you the baseline talent pool. India produces a modest amount of the elite AI talent in the world.
But remember: India is
hugely oriented towards software engineering. So this is their home strength. Many engineers in Europe go into the automotive or aviation industry. For China, it's even broader than that.
So even for India's strongest competitive area, their contribution is very modest given their garguantuan population size. There is simply no "vast talent pool" in India. Most H1B workers are not the elite and most don't work in AI. They are working middle-class jobs for lower wages.
The biggest "advantage" for companies is that H1B workers are essentially indentured servants. If they lose their jobs, they get sent home packing. So they will accept worse pay and worse work conditions. Something native-born Americans won't. For a hiring company, they are ideal. That's the main function of H1B. China already has problems with 996 culture and involution. Lack of talent isn't China's problem but work-life balance for its best workers. H1B-type immigration would not fix that. Only make it worse.