As the Trump Administration attempts to decrease the number of legal immigrants it allows into the U.S., it’s helpful to remember that we are a country of immigrants. More than half of the 25 most valuable tech companies in the U.S. have a founder that was either a first- or second-generation American.
Top U.S. tech companies founded by immigrants are worth over $3 trillion
A look at these companies’ current values and employee numbers.
Rani Molla was a senior correspondent at Vox and has been focusing her reporting on the future of work. She has covered business and technology for more than a decade — often in charts — including at Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.
The 13 companies below had at least one founder that was first or second generation, meaning that immigration enabled them to start their companies in the U.S. Together, these companies are currently worth more than $3 trillion and employed more than 1.5 million people last year.
As these companies prosper, they’re adding more jobs, many of which go to Americans. Alphabet, co-founded by Russian-born Sergey Brin, has doubled its headcount since 2013 to 75,000 employees. Facebook increased its employee numbers 43 percent this quarter compared to the same period last year.
Earlier this year, in her internet trends report, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker discussed how heavily immigrants have contributed to tech innovation. Judging by the latest market values and employment of immigrant-founded companies, that contribution is continuing.
Here’s what their employee numbers looked like in 2016 (the last time all of them reported employment numbers):
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
See More:
