Infosys steps up US lobbying spend while TCS, Cognizant, Wipro see a decline

The lobbying efforts of the country’s largest IT services companies are in focus as the U.S. government, which accounts for one-third to more than half of their revenue, cracks down on labor mobility and restricts access to foreign workers in the United States.

Infosys, the country’s second-largest IT services company, spent $270,000 on lobbying in the first nine months of the year, down from $240,000 in 2020.

This is in contrast to the other three companies that reported declines in lobbying spending. TCS and Cognizant spent $670,000 and $1.7 million in the first nine months of 2025 against $750,000 and $3.15 million, respectively, in 2020.

The fourth largest, Wipro Ltd, had incurred lobbying costs of $90,000 in 2022 against $210,000 in 2020. Has not used any lobbying services since 2022.

Industry body Nasscom also shrank sharply. In the first nine months of 2025, it spent less than a tenth of what it did in 2020, when it spent nearly $700,000.

Emails sent to TCS, Cognizant, Infosys, Wipro and Nasscom on Saturday remained unanswered.

General lobbying spend

Put together, the total lobbying expenses of the largest IT services companies operating in India, along with Nasscom, have been falling every year since 2020, even as H-1B visa norms in the US have emerged as one of the biggest talking points for the IT sector in the second half of this year.

The country’s largest information technology (IT) services companies, including TCS, Cognizant, Infosys and Nasscom, collectively spent $2.7 million, according to lobbying filings filed by these companies with the US House of Representatives. That’s less than 1% of their revenue and just over half of the $5.05 million spent in 2020.

TCS, Cognizant, Cognizant, Infosys and Wipro finished the last financial year with revenues of $30.18 billion, $19.74 billion, $19.28 billion and $10.51 billion, respectively. Of course, while Indian IT firms follow the April-March financial year, Cognizant follows the January-December calendar.

Lobbyists try to influence lawmakers to pass policies and laws that favor their clients. Five major Indian IT companies regularly use the services of lobbying companies to influence decision-making in the US, which accounts for more than a third of their revenue.

Lobbyists for IT outsourcing providers often meet with lawmakers in the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, as well as the White House Office, indicating they have access to the highest levels of the world’s largest economy.

Mumbai-based TCS has extensively used the services of Ohio-based law firm Squire Patton Boggs, while Nasdaq-listed Cognizant has used the services of Washington DC-based BGR Government Affairs. On the other hand, Bengaluru-based Infosys regularly employs Washington DC-based DGA Group Government Relations LLC.

According to Infosys, its lobbying issues so far this year have concerned “technology-related legislation, rulemaking and policies, workforce training, reskilling and skill development programs and policies; AI legislative concepts and executive branch policies,” according to its lobbying filings.

Five years ago, automation wasn’t a major issue when the company lobbied the U.S. government, according to lobbying records.

But for the industry at large, at least one analyst attributed this decline in lobbying costs to an increase in U.S. hiring.

“The traditional visa-based model is being rewritten. Firms have doubled local hiring, increased overseas delivery and are now focused on using AI to reduce reliance on a large onshore workforce. When your operating model changes, your lobbying priorities change with it,” said Phil Fersht, managing director of consultancy HFS Research.

Fersht added that “the industry is geared towards structural change, not political firefighting.”

Peter Bendor-Samuel, founder of Everest Group, a global research firm, said a less receptive audience is not worth the investment, given the shift in political climate and outsourcing is not in the current administration’s favor. “I think Indian companies are succumbing to new political dynamics and creating a higher profile through lobbying will be counterproductive.”

H-1B remains flashpoint

Each of the top three technology service providers ranked norms around H-1B visas as one of their main issues with lobbying. Mint Analysis of lobby files in the USA.

“Passport processing reform and legislation and U.S. policy related to H-1B and other employment-related visas,” TCS’s lobbying report submitted from January to March 2025 read.

Cognizant had also raised a similar lobbying issue. “Provide strategic guidance and counsel on tax issues and impact to Cognizant; provide strategic guidance and counsel on immigration-related issues and impact to Cognizant,” Cognizant’s July-September 2025 lobbying report read.

“Provide strategic guidance and counsel on potential changes and/or opportunities in federal workforce development programs; provide strategic guidance and counsel changes and/or opportunities in STEM education,” he added.

On September 19, US President Donald Trump issued a proclamation demanding a $100,000 fee for new H-1B applications, increasing the fee tenfold. The move has been a subject of debate among tech circles and experts in the country, as firms such as TCS, Cognizant and Infosys are among the top 15 users of such non-immigrant visas.

IT firms deploy employees to customer locations across the United States to meet their customers’ IT needs. Making it more costly to send such IT professionals to the US will hurt the profitability of IT outsourcing providers.

Five days later, Republican senator Charles E. Grassley and Democratic senator Richard J. Durbin targeted several companies, including TCS and Cognizant, for their hiring practices.

Both lawmakers wrote joint letters to K. Krithivasan and S. Ravi Kumar, chief executives of TCS and Cognizant, respectively, seeking answers to allegations of race-based discrimination and substitution of American workers with low-cost H-1B workers.

That same month, Ohio senator Bernie Moreno proposed the Stopping the International Relocation of Employees (HIRE) Act to increase taxes on companies that hire offshore workers from IT vendors.

Teaneck, New Jersey-based Cognizant has also used lobbying services on issues related to artificial intelligence, the proposed HIRE Act and Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, making it one of the few major IT services companies to do so. IT outsourcing providers in the country have also hired such lobbyists to influence decisions regarding India-US bilateral relations.

During the first nine months of the year, Nasscom hired Landowner Patton Boggs for unspecified lobbying activities. Less than $5,000 was paid out on each of the four trips, according to the industry association’s lobbying records. Nasscom spent about $700,000 in 2020.

But IT is not the only major sector with the largest lobbying presence. Pharmaceutical and healthcare products companies, which seek to gain advantageous policies on drug pricing and healthcare legislation, are also among the top spenders on lobbyists in the United States.

Big tech companies including Microsoft, Apple and Google are among those spending big on lobbyists trying to influence lawmakers on data privacy, artificial intelligence and antitrust laws.