"The vibes in SF feel pretty frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I've ever seen. Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people - employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders - have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope...- Deedy (@deedydas) May 16, 2026"
"Using a “back of the envelope AI calculation,” he projected that there are around 10,000 people - founders and employees at companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Nvidia - that have “hit retirement wealth of well above $20M,” while everyone else worries “they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job for their whole life and never get there.”"
"Plus, “layoffs are in full swing,” and “many software engineers feel that their life's skill is no longer useful,” leading to confusion about the best career paths and “a deep malaise about work (and its future),” Das said."
"Another user suggested it's “pretty damn novel & also kinda nasty” that in the current cycle, “the same technology is both the lottery ticket & the thing eating your fallback.”"
San Francisco is described as frenetic, with the divide in outcomes worse than ever. A back-of-the-envelope estimate places about 10,000 people—founders and employees at major AI and tech companies—at retirement wealth above $20M. Many others worry they can keep a well-paying job under $500k for life without reaching that level. Layoffs are described as ongoing, and many software engineers feel their core skills are no longer useful. This creates confusion about career paths and a deep malaise about work and its future. Reactions include skepticism that the fortunate can choose happiness, and criticism that the same technology functions as both lottery ticket and threat to fallback stability.
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