You know, philosophically speaking, not every company has to do that. And before someone steps in and quotes 'fiduciary responsibility for shareholder returns', I'm a VC and I run a VC fund so I'm acutely aware.

Now, if you take venture funding then that's a different story. But there are countless businesses - from small mom+pop to larger ones like Bob's Red Mills - which are operating for higher purposes than just shareholder returns. See B Corps generally. And the world is better place for it. I tuck into a bowl of Bob's oatmeal every morning and I'll be fucked if I'm buying Great Mills or PepsiCo (Quaker Oats) big company shit.

"he committed the cardinal sin of making the employees owners instead of fully capturing the excess capital of his means of production and offshoring production entirely to focus on branding"

Many would say this was anything but a cardinal sin. Try reading fewer Ayn Rand books.

Could you shed some light about what kind of profile could apply for (and get) an O1 visa? Specifically, if I have a tech company set up in the US that's pulling some decent revenue, is it worth applying for an O1? What other circumstances come into play against/in favor of this?

I've seen a lot of advisors and "influencers" all over the web saying that it's "easy". I don't think that's the case because nothing in US immigration is easy, unless your net worth is like 9 figures, maybe; but if it's not that far-fetched I may consider applying for one.

Alternatively, could one sponsor its own H1B visa? I guess the actual underlying question is: if I'm an entrepreneur with a real, solid company based in the US (but I'm not in the US and not a US citizen), what is the best way for me to move there and keep working at my company?

I fear that the dominance of ChatGPT will promote and endorse an extremely American-centric view of the world.