Americans are fleeing the U.S. at record rates—an ex-Google engineer who left India to build a $7.2 billion AI firm says they’re making a mistake

Americans are fleeing the U.S. in record numbers—and they’re spending hundreds of dollars to get out fast. But ex-Google engineer and Rubrik co-founder Arvind Jain thinks they’re making a huge mistake. “There are certain things in the U.S. today that are challenging,” Jain told Fortune. “But I think it remains the land of opportunity. It remains the place where entrepreneurship is celebrated.” He would know. Jain left a small town in northern India, Jaipur—where, by his own account, 95% of people never left—moved to America in 1986 with nothing but an engineering degree and went on to become one of Google’s distinguished engineers before co-founding not one, but two unicorns: The cloud data company Rubrik and, most recently, Glean, currently valued at around $7.2 billion. America may be grappling with rising costs, political instability, and a growing distrust of its institutions. But Jain insists it remains the only place in the world where anybody can become somebody with a billion-dollar company (or two), like him. “You can just graduate from college, have no experience, but if you have an idea, you will find people who will be willing to invest in you,” he said. “I think all of those things remain intact.” Americans are escaping the U.S. at a rate not seen since the Great Depression The numbers tell a stark story. The U.S. recorded a net negative migration of between 10,000 and 295,000 people in 2025—the first time in at least 50 years that more people moved out than moved in, according to The Brookings Institution. To put that into context, negative net migration hasn’t happened in the U.S. for almost a century, not since the Great Depression. Up to 405,000 left voluntarily, pushed by a volatile political climate, an immigration crackdown, and a cost of living that is squeezing even high-earners on six-figure salaries. Nearly 9 in 10 of those attending this May’s Move Abroad Con—where 600 Americans gathered specifically