The atmosphere surrounding the current AI surge isn't particularly positive, even within the tech sector, according to a detailed social media post by Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das. He described San Francisco as "pretty frenetic right now," noting that "the divide in outcomes is the worst I’ve ever seen."

Using a "back of the envelope AI calculation," Das estimated that roughly 10,000 individuals—founders and employees at companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Nvidia—have "hit retirement wealth of well above $20 million." Meanwhile, everyone else worries that "they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job for their whole life and never get there."

Additionally, "layoffs are in full swing," and "many software engineers feel that their life’s skill is no longer useful," leading to confusion about optimal career paths and "a deep malaise about work (and its future)," Das stated. This prompted some eye-rolling on X, where entrepreneur Deva Hazarika argued that "most of the people in this post" are "incredibly fortunate and can simply make a choice to be happy."

Another user suggested it's "pretty damn novel & also kinda nasty" that in this current cycle, "the same technology is both the lottery ticket & the thing eating your fallback."