Observation: Over ten thousand AI core employees earn a total of $20 million, intensifying Silicon Valley class anxiety

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AIMPACT News, May 16 (UTC+8), according to Beating Monitoring, Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das stated today that, influenced by the AI wave, the San Francisco Bay Area is experiencing severe wealth polarization and psychological division. Over the past five years, approximately 10k core employees and founders from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and NVIDIA have accumulated over $20 million in wealth. This cliff-like wealth creation myth is making traditional software engineers feel hopeless about their career prospects.
Along with layoffs at major companies and daily work being transformed by AI, four typical mindset shifts are emerging in Silicon Valley’s tech scene:
• Traditional promotion paths are failing. Most people realize that a regular job paying $500k a year cannot bridge the wealth gap, leading to frequent job hopping or blind entrepreneurship.
• Young groups are falling into career nihilism. Facing the risk of being replaced at any time, some young people are beginning to worry about becoming lower-class citizens and find it hard to focus on their current work.
• Middle managers feel paralyzed. Due to a lack of energy to start businesses and no core AI skills, many middle managers burdened with family pressures are facing the risk of their positions being hollowed out.
• The ultra-rich are losing their sense of purpose. After rising from an annual salary of $150k to a net worth of $50 million within a few years, some face a complete disruption of their life plans, often continuing to start businesses solely to gain status and identity.
Das believes that in this AI gold rush reshaping society, the anxiety of trying to keep up with wealth through effort is psychologically tormenting many Silicon Valley practitioners. The side effect of this anxiety is precisely what drives more people to frantically develop AI products capable of creating wealth. (Source: BlockBeats)
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SolitaryLampInTheSilentSea
· 42m ago
The sense of division in the Bay Area is so real; friends around me are either getting rich or feeling anxious.
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AutumnTranquility
· 4h ago
This report exposes the Silicon Valley mindset thoroughly.
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AccountantsAlsoGetInto
· 4h ago
Young people have a nihilistic outlook, and my younger brother, right after graduation, just laid flat.
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QueuePosition
· 4h ago
The group of the suddenly rich has lost their goal? I suggest I get rich first, then worry.
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ExitLiqNow
· 4h ago
Middle managers are indeed paralyzed—AI is above, stability is below.
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BalanceScreenshotAfterTheRain
· 4h ago
People in the Bay Area now don't dare to talk about work at gatherings, afraid of offending someone.
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BitByBitBenny
· 4h ago
Das promotes the development of profitable AI products; this cycle is a bit ironic.
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SlippageSamurai
· 4h ago
The AI gold rush has a bit of the same flavor as the internet bubble back then.
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Frost-ColoredCubeCity
· 4h ago
OpenAI's people are financially free, and we're still paying off our mortgages.
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GateUser-9568ced5
· 4h ago
The promotion track failing is so heartbreaking, the 35-year-old crisis hit ten years early.
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