Indian-origin serial entrepreneur Ankit Gupta, general partner of YC, is at the center of a major social media storm over his comments on H-1B which he deleted later.

Indian-American entrepreneur Ankit Gupta landed in a soup after his H-1B comments on social media that stirred the hornet’s nest, following which Gupta made his X account private. Inspector General of the US Department of Labor took note of Gupta’s comment and slammed him publicly, calling out what he termed as his “sense of entitlement”. Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission of the United States Andrew Ferguson said individuals like Gupta do not have the best interests of Americans in their minds.

Who is Ankit Gupta? What is the latest H-1B controversy?

Gupta, a distinguished computer scientist from Harvard, is a serial entrepreneur and currently a partner of Y Combinator. Before joining YC, he was the co-founder and CTO of Reveries Labs. The controversy that he landed in stemmed from his comment on JD Vance’s post.“If an American corporation needs workers, it should hire and train Americans,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on X, reacting to the Donald Trump administration’s new H-1B visa fee. “in a win for the woke left DEI is back,” Ankit Gupta commented, suggesting that if Americans have to be hired because they are Americans and not because of their skill, then it is DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inlcusion) only.The now-deleted post and the sarcasm did not go down well with America First commentators, and then it came to the notice of the DOL’s Inspector General.“Ankit Gupta thinks hiring Americans first—in America—is “DEI.” No, Ankit. It’s called putting your own citizens first. American companies. American jobs. American workers first. If that offends you, the problem isn’t America. It’s your sense of entitlement,” D’Esposito said.As Gupta defended the H-1B hiring by Silicon Valley, he asked one commentator: ‘what elements of H-1B immigrant culture do you not like? is it the willingness to work long hours? Or perhaps the education focus of their children?”

Ankit Gupta was accused of deriding Americans as he was defending the H-1B immigrant culture.

“Leaving trash everywhere, scamming people, endemic pathological dishonesty, atrocious aesthetic taste, need I go on,” the commentator replied. “It’s giving flyover country,” Gupta wrote. Social media users started flagging this comment as a racist attack aimed at rural white Americans and asked YC to take action against Gupta.“Hey @ycombinator this is a racist attack aimed at rural White Americans. Your policies mention that you do not tolerate any racism. It states that racial discrimination is a fireable offense. When can we expect you to fire Ankit Gupta?” one wrote.

White House official reacts, YC CEO issues statement

Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission of the United States Andrew Ferguson, responded to the controversy and called YCombinator “a front for the far left”.“Y Combinator is a supposed champion of “Little Tech” but perhaps they’re nothing more than a front for the far left. I’m deeply uncomfortable with wealthy investors attacking American workers like this. I’m afraid it’s increasingly obvious to many people that individuals such as this guy do not have the best interests of America and her citizens in mind,” Ferguson wrote, referring to Gupta.“The purpose of the American economy is to promote the general welfare of American workers, not provide jobs for the rest of the world,” he said.Y Combinator president and CEO Garry Tan issued a statement saying that YC supports hiring and funding Americans.