Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das posted today that the AI boom is tearing San Francisco apart — financially and psychologically. Over the past five years, roughly 10,000 core employees and founders from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and Nvidia have each accumulated more than $20 million in wealth. This cliff-like wealth creation is leaving traditional software engineers despairing about their own career prospects.
https://twitter.com/deedydas/status/2055491938464489888
As big tech layoffs persist and AI reshapes everyday work, Silicon Valley is seeing four distinct psychological shifts:
- The old career ladder is broken. Most people realize a $500,000 annual salary can't bridge the wealth gap, so they're job-hopping constantly or blindly chasing startup dreams.
- Younger workers are sliding into existential dread. Facing jobs that could be automated any day, some worry about dropping into a lower class and can't focus on their current work.
- Middle managers feel paralyzed. Without the energy to start a company or the deep AI skills, many managers with family obligations see their roles being hollowed out.
- The newly rich have lost their purpose. People who jumped from a $150,000 salary to a $50 million net worth in a few years find their life plans completely scrambled — often starting companies just to maintain a sense of identity.
Das argues that in this AI gold rush reshaping society, the anxiety of trying to keep up with wealth through hard work is psychologically tormenting large swaths of Silicon Valley. And that anxiety's side effect? It drives even more people to frantically build the AI products that create that very wealth.