US-India trade tensions: Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google and Meta make big hirings in India

Despite US-India trade tensions under Trump, tech giants like Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google remain strongly committed to India. These firms have collectively hired over 30,000 new employees from India in the past year, marking the most significant 12-month hiring growth in India for these tech giants in the last three years. Based on the data from Xpheno, it is revealed that the FAAMNG {Facebook (Meta), Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Google (Alphabet)} group of companies and their affiliates saw a year-on-year increase of more than 30% in new hires between August 2024 and August 2025. The previous hiring peak in 2022 saw 37,000 new hires, which is a 35% annual growth – the surge was largely attributed to post-pandemic recruitment momentum. The current figures, however, indicate a more strategic and sustained focus on India as a global talent hub. Western big tech firms hire more in India. The hiring spree comes at a time when these companies navigated an attrition rate of 18-20% over the same period, bringing the total gross hiring to approximately 75,000. Note that this data accounts for both new additions and replacements.

Current hiring trend is highly focused on capability-driven roles:

The current hiring trend is highly focused on capability-driven roles rather than broad-based job creation. Neeti Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Digital, noted that the hiring mix has shifted from “scale-based recruitment” to “capability-first hiring,” with a clear emphasis on building teams for strategic areas like AI, cloud computing and cybersecurity. According to Kamal Karanth, Co-founder of Xpheno, most active job openings are for mid and senior-level roles in domains such as Engineering & IT, program management and product management. The number of active job openings, however, remains moderate at about 5,200, which is still only 45-50% of the peak hiring volumes seen in 2021-2022. Back then, open roles were consistently between 10,000 and 11,000. More hirings from Big Tech in India.

Long term strategy to hire more Indian talent:

The long-term strategy to hire more Indian talent is also evident in their recent expansion in the country. In August, AI powerhouse OpenAI announced its first office India, which is set to be established in the capital city of New Delhi. This expansion followed Microsoft’s lease of 2.65 lakh sq. ft. of office space in Hyderabad and Apple’s 10-year lease for office floors in Bengaluru worth over Rs 1,010 crores. Meta also opened a new office in Bengaluru recently, while Google unveiled ‘Ananta,’ which is one of its largest global campuses in the city.

Source : https://www.financialexpress.com/life/technology-us-india-trade-tensions-amazon-apple-netflix-google-and-meta-make-big-hirings-in-india-3963570/