No One’s Happy in Silicon Valley, Menlo Ventures Partner Says

In San Francisco, the AI boom is creating fame, fortune — and existential dread.

As speedy technological improvement widens the hole between the haves and the have-nots, a type of machine-age ennui has set throughout San Francisco, says Deedy Das, a accomplice at enterprise capital agency Menlo Ventures.

Das mentioned in a submit on X, which had virtually a thousand responses by Sunday afternoon, that over the previous 5 years, the fortunes of a small group of staff at main AI companies, like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Nvidia, in addition to some smaller startups, have “skyrocketed.”

Cash, nonetheless, it appears, actually does not all the time purchase happiness.

Those that’ve made it really feel a “profound” lack of objective, Das wrote, as a few of them watch their wealth multiply from lower than $150,000 to over $50 million in a matter of years.

“It flips your life plans the wrong way up.”

Many, he mentioned, are hitting that threshold younger, lengthy earlier than they anticipated to be financially set. He recalled asking one founder why they did not merely promote their firm. The founder’s response: In the event that they bought, they’d have cash — however lose the eye and relevance that got here with all the time constructing.

The under-$500,000 bourgeoisie, in the meantime, really feel like they’re on a path with no finish, Das wrote. As layoffs ripple through the industry — most just lately at Cloudflare and Coinbase, which each cited AI as a motive for the cuts — as soon as profitable roles are fading away. “Many software program engineers really feel like their life’s ability is now not helpful,” he mentioned.

Center managers, too, are sad, Das wrote, as one other wave of the “Great Flattening” rears its head. “They see the writing on the wall: center administration is being hollowed out in lots of firms.”

As a substitute, individuals are racked by a brand new type of existential dread, Das mentioned. “Am I in the fitting place? Ought to I transfer? Is there time nonetheless left? Am I gonna make it?” he wrote.

This different half has a reputation, too: A number of customers within the replies referred to as it a “everlasting underclass.”

One doable resolution: Transfer to New York. New York Metropolis-based tech blogger Packy McCormick, responding to Das on X on Saturday, mentioned that amid 70-degree, sunny climate in New York Metropolis, he was heading to a kite pageant.

“I have never heard the phrases ‘agent’ or ‘token’ as soon as all morning,” McCormick wrote. “Best metropolis on this planet.”

Ultimately, every little thing is relative. Das mentioned that it may be simple to scoff on the “champagne issues of the valley.”

One person within the replies summed it up: “Might you get every little thing you need shortly and with little effort,” they wrote. “An previous curse.”