[sytelus]

This really depends on the area od specialization. There are tons of web designers locally available but how about distributed computing, computer vision, self-driving, robotics, device drivers, OS kernels, language designers? These specialties are probably not high order bits outside of BigCo and there is simply not enough supply. As far as ML/AI is concerned it's super hard to hire talent even if you are willing to pay big bucks. There are fewer than 2000 PhDs the world churns out (from reasonably respectable programs) and the demand is approximately 50X of this skill set. I see lots of team end up hiring someone who did online courses and it does work out many times but if you want to get folks who spend 5 years of their lives in full-time in-depth studies of all nooks and crannies then its uphil battle for anyone regardless of how much cash you have.

[wrong_variable]

You are talking as if these engineers grow on trees outside US borders.

The US is the largest source for this type of engineering, other countries are simply not doing any of it.

The cost of buying a Ferrari is prolly lower than getting a Phd from Stanford on any of those topics.

The fact is companies are not willing to pay for the training etc for it.

There simply is not enough demand at the economic price point for it, or else companies would be spending billions in retraining.

Even I want to own a Rolls Royce and date Katey Perry.