Austin’s H-1B Power Players Revealed: Oracle Leads, Tesla & Indeed Follow

A newly refreshed federal database shows that a handful of technology heavyweights dominated H-1B visa approvals in Austin from 2020 through 2025.

Data released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and compiled by The Dallas Express shows the top 25 petitioners listing Austin as their city from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2025. The figures come from the latest update to the federal H-1B employer dataset and reflect approvals during that period.

Oracle America Inc topped the Austin list with 11,600 approvals over the multi-year span. Tesla Inc followed with 5,307 approvals, while Indeed Inc ranked third with 1,033.

Public institutions also featured prominently. The University of Texas at Austin recorded 893 approvals, and the Austin Independent School District reported 74.

The numbers cover only petitioners who listed their city as Austin and do not include employers in the greater Austin area, such as Leander or Georgetown.

The asterisk indicates that the company name has been consolidated from multiple nearly identical entries.

The concentration of approvals among a handful of technology and semiconductor firms is similar to broader statewide trends previously identified by The Dallas Express.

Annual federal data sets indicate that approximately 72% of H-1B visas are awarded to workers from India, with roughly 12% going to workers from China.

Critics of the H-1B visa program point to recent discrimination rulings from a federal court in California. On December 5, a federal judge ruled that certain policies from Cognizant Technology Solutions had a disparate impact on some U.S. workers, according to a prior report by The Dallas Express.

Plaintiffs argued that the company engineered a workforce dominated by Indian and other South Asian H-1B holders, and that this policy included disproportionate terminations of non-visa employees from its internal “bench,” according to court filings previously reported on by DX.

Cognizant officials indicated plans to appeal.

Tesla’s use of the program has also drawn legal challenges. A federal judge recently allowed a proposed class action to proceed, alleging the automaker favored H-1B visa holders over U.S. workers in certain engineering roles, while dismissing other claims, according to a February 2026 report by Electrek. Tesla has denied the allegations in court filings, calling them “preposterous,” according to that report.

Supporters of the program, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, have argued it is essential for recruiting elite engineering talent. “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk posted on X in 2024.

The release of the refreshed Austin data comes as Governor Greg Abbott’s order halting new H-1B petitions at Texas state agencies and public universities remains in effect. Abbott directed agencies on January 27 to freeze new filings and submit reports detailing their use of the program, citing what he described as “recent reports of abuse in the federal H-1B visa program,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express. The pause is set to continue until the end of the Texas Legislature’s 90th Regular Session on May 31, 2027.

This newly refreshed federal dataset offers one of the clearest city-level snapshots to date of how heavily Austin-based employers have relied on the H-1B program over the past six years.