The Great A.I. Build-Out + H-1B Visa Chaos + TikTok Braces for the Rapture

Hard Fork

This week, an eye-popping $100 billion deal between OpenAI and Nvidia — along with an announcement about the construction of five new American data centers — has us re-examining our predictions of an A.I. bubble. Then, we try to make sense of the Trump administration’s changes to the H-1B visa program, which generated mixed reactions from tech leaders; the immigration expert Jeremy Neufeld joins us to explain why the new $100,000 visa fee is likely to hurt start-ups, universities and the broader U.S. economy. And finally, we take a look at one of the latest trends sweeping TikTok: planning for a biblical Rapture.

Guests:

• Jeremy Neufeld, director of immigration policy at the Institute for Progress

Additional Reading:

• Nvidia to Invest $100 Billion in OpenAI
• OpenAI to Join Tech Giants in Building 5 New Data Centers in U.S.
• $100,000 Per Employee: How the H-1B Visa Fee Could Reshape Work Forces
• A $100,000 Per Worker Visa Fee Tips the Balance to Big Tech
• The Rapture Was Predicted to Happen Today. TikTok Has Some Advice.

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.