These H1Bs might be for renewal of 3 yr extensions, transfer from another employer or a first time H1B selected through lottery. The article doesn't mention the spread. Usually you have to dig deeper into USCIS data to differentiate. Since Indians have to be on H1B forever, it will look like a company is filing more H1Bs every year while in reality they are just maintaining visa status for their existing employees.
There are staffing and consulting service companies out there that exploit H1Bs for profit but I don't believe uber is one of them or the type that uses H1 to save money.
This is an unfortunate reality of journalism today. I've even seen bigger news outlets operate in a similar manner. They just look for data that fits a narrative without bothering to actually dig deeper and find out why.
This case is especially egregious since the data is available from USCIS in a CSV file and they still didn't bother.
There are staffing and consulting service companies out there that exploit H1Bs for profit but I don't believe uber is one of them or the type that uses H1 to save money.