New Delhi: Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is being accused of taking away American jobs after she announced that the gaming company would fire 3,200 employees. Handles on X frame the layoffs as American jobs being handed to H-1B visa workers.
“Xbox Indian CEO Asha Sharma just announced firing 3,200 Americans,” read a widely viewed tweet by @cutoffs_io, a handle that posts about the US labour market. “She filed for 5,000 H-1B visa hires this year. Asha was appointed CEO of Xbox in February by Indian Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.”
Xbox layoffs are not limited to the US, but part of the company’s global restructuring. And Microsoft has filed for only 2,273 H-1B visas in FY26. Amazon tops the list at 4,831 H-1B applications, while Infosys and Apple have filed 3,195 and 2,381, respectively.
Some commenters posted Grok’s fact-checks, while most responded with outrage and agitation.
“Indians only ever hire Indians,” read a comment. Another set up a plotline of how Indians are “gutting” American companies.
“This is how Indians gut our Tech companies, our Universities, and our Hospitals. Once a single Indian gets into a position of power, they systematically fire Americans, while only hiring other Indians from their specific region in India. They then set up offshoring pipelines back to India, so that anyone they can’t hire through H-1B, then hire in India until they can transfer via L-1 (manager) visa,” read the comment, with over 6,000 likes.
In an internal memo, Sharma announced Monday that Xbox was laying off 1,600 workers as part of a broader layoff round at Microsoft impacting 6,400 jobs. About 1,600 more roles would be eliminated within the next 12 months. Representing 20 per cent of the Xbox staff, the recent layoff is being termed the biggest-ever such event in the history of gaming companies.
The only reason these globalist tech companies and globalists corporations hire foreigners to run their companies is to get rid of American employees and fill the jobs with Indians is to destroy the United States of America and the American people. These are American companies…
— Silver (@silverthaler999) July 8, 2026
Americans are calling for US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to put an end to the H-1B hirings and save their jobs. Many are posting calls to deport “every single” immigrant.
“It is the fault of our Government for approving the H-1Bs. Our Government has sold us out of jobs at home and those being moved to other countries.”
Xbox ‘reset’
Xbox is said to have roughly 16,000 workers globally. Sharma, who was appointed as Xbox CEO in February this year, has been making sweeping changes within the gaming division. Her ‘reset’ strategy aims to revive the brand’s struggling business.
Last month, Microsoft announced it was laying off around 4,800 employees, or about 2.1 per cent of its global workforce. The company continues to invest heavily in artificial intelligence while looking for ways to improve efficiency across its business, Reuters reported.
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