Venture capitalist and "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary has taken a hard stance against policies that restrict foreign students, calling them one of the "worst ideas" for the U.S. economy.
O'Leary said that the true return on investment of U.S. universities is in the global talent network they foster, recently posting on X that students in his Harvard classes will forget everything he tells them.
"What you're not going to forget are the people sitting beside you — they're becoming your network for the rest of your life," he said.
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Drawing the world's best and brightest students to the U.S. is a powerful economic engine, he said. They become indoctrinated into American society, stay in the country, build companies and hire people.
"If we don't take them, the Chinese are going to take them," he said. "I am vehemently against this idea that we're not going to give visas to some genius in wherever to come over here to MIT or Harvard."
But many of O'Leary's followers were skeptical about his logic, saying in the post's comments U.S. should build its own talent pool before extending opportunities to foreign students.
"It's a balance between diversity and vetting foreign students who are stealing intellectual property at the direction of their government," one person posted. "Let's focus on lowering the high cost of college tuition so more Americans can afford to attend."
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Another person posted that if the value is in the network, the U.S. shouldn't be giving people born abroad lifelong wealth.
"In many cases [we are] awarding those who are less qualified because they checked a box," he wrote. "Kevin overlooks the fact that our MOST qualified would've outperformed as well."
O'Leary's comments come amid a national debate over immigration and talent retention, particularly in light of some of President Donald Trump's proposals.
The Trump administration proposed a policy that would effectively block foreign students from obtaining green cards or citizenship after graduating from American colleges.
Critics like O'Leary say that historically, immigrants have been disproportionately responsible for founding high-growth, high-value companies in the U.S. Restricting their ability to stay, work and found businesses essentially exports American-educated innovators to competing nations.
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Immigrants and their children are responsible for founding nearly half of the country's largest businesses, according to the American Immigration Council. In 2025, over 46% of Fortune 500 companies were either founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Immigrants' entrepreneurial strength is also evident among new corporate leaders. Of the 14 companies that appeared on the Fortune 500 list for the first time this year, 10 were founded by immigrants or their children, the American Immigration Council reported..
According to O'Learly, with many U.S. technology companies and financial firms benefiting from the global talent pipeline, limiting the pool would hamper America's competitive edge.
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