A.I. Datacenters Will Reshape US Infrastructure | Ep 155

Video Description

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. For more on this episode, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/podcasts/hardfork-nvidia-h1b-tiktok.html Guest: Jeremy Neufeld, director of immigration policy at the Institute for Progress https://ifp.org/author/jeremy-neufeld/ Additional Reading: Nvidia to Invest $100 Billion in OpenAI https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/technology/nvidia-openai-100-billion-investment.html OpenAI to Join Tech Giants in Building 5 New Data Centers in U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/technology/openai-data-centers-united-states.html $100,000 Per Employee: How the H-1B Visa Fee Could Reshape Work Forces https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/25/business/economy/h1b-visa-fee.html A $100,000 Per Worker Visa Fee Tips the Balance to Big Tech https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/technology/trump-h1b-visa-tech-start-ups.html The Rapture Was Predicted to Happen Today. TikTok Has Some Advice. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/us/rapture-tiktok-sept-23.html Chapters: 00:00:00 - Coming up 00:00:30 - Casey has strong opinions on dog names 00:01:47 - This week on the show 00:02:15 - Nvidia's massive investment in OpenAI 00:18:41 - Interview with Jeremy Neufeld on the H1B visa changes 00:39:18 - TikTok predicts The Rapture Hard Fork is a weekly look into the future that's already here. Hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore stories from the bleeding edge of tech. Casey’s publication, Platformer: https://www.platformer.news/ FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork Insta: Kevin Roose - https://www.instagram.com/kevinroose/ Casey Newton - https://www.instagram.com/crumbler/ Twitter (X): Kevin - https://x.com/kevinroose Casey - https://x.com/CaseyNewton Threads: Kevin - https://www.threads.net/@kevinroose Casey - https://www.threads.net/@crumbler Subscribe to the audio only podcast: Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hard-fork/id1528594034 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/44fllCS2FTFr2x2kjP9xeT?si=86ba626802b849cd Amazon - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7c7fe198-e6a8-41a8-b0fe-1d46b976dcd8/hard-fork YouTube Music - https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB9gMmtMLXxsa8C0PzHFL2tJFh7FrKrYD&si=Fwb9Uwon1ZneNsBp The New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork Credits “Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton. Produced by Rachel Cohn and Whitney Jones. Engineering by Chris Wood and original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Sophia Lanman and Rowan Niemisto. Fact-checking by Ena Alvarado and Will Peischel. Our executive producer is Jen Poyant. Video production by Chris Schodt and Sawyer Roque. Video QC by Isabella Anderson. Podcast Art Direction by Benjamin Wilkerson Tousley. Podcast Art & Animations by Julian Hespenheide. Additional Motion graphics by Phil Robibero. Thumbnails by Julia Moburg, Elizabeth Bristow, and Yvonne Stender. Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam, Niko Gallogly, Kate LoPresti and Jeffrey Miranda