In Silicon Valley, the idea of “balance” often takes a backseat to one overriding rule: work hard, work long and never let anything get in the way. Inside powerhouses like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI and Apple, top-tier employees often endure marathon hours and work schedules unimaginable to most. In a sector where innovation moves at breakneck speed, the demands can be all-consuming.
Silicon Valley is slowly abandoning work-life balance
This high-intensity culture isn’t new. It was Elon Musk, at Tesla and SpaceX, who first thrust extreme work demands into the tech space. For years, Musk has openly embraced—and expected—grueling 100-hour weeks from his teams, urging aspiring professionals in AI and tech to “work like hell” to keep pace. According to Musk, working twice as many hours results in twice the progress.
That same mindset has, in recent years, spread beyond Musk’s ventures, fueling a new era in startups and tech giants—one marked not by balance or fun, but by an intense, unyielding effort to seize the AI opportunity.
Take Cognition AI, for example. Its 29-year-old founder Scott Wu just last week reportedly offered buyouts to employees unwilling to meet his company’s “extreme performance culture,” which includes working up to 80 hours a week. Following his purchase of AI startup Windsurf, Wu terminated 30 employees and presented 200 more with a choice: leave or accept an intensely different future.
Cognition AI sets new brutal standard for acquired employees: 80+ hour weeks or walk
An email reviewed by The Information revealed that employees had until August 10 to choose whether to accept a buyout worth nine months of their salary. In the email, Cognition CEO Scott Wu stated, “We don’t believe in work-life balance—building the future of software engineering is a mission we all care so deeply about that we couldn’t possibly separate the two.”
Across Silicon Valley, leaders are facing mounting pressure to speed up innovation and extract more productivity from their teams. Many are turning to China for ideas. The 996 work culture, demanding 12-hour days six days a week, has seemed to fuel remarkable growth for the nation. Some U.S. executives see their relentless overseas pace as a blueprint.
While some companies have adopted near-996 schedules, few truly require a full 80-hour week. For employees unaccustomed to such intense demands, the toll can be severe—fracturing not only personal well-being but also the foundational culture of trust and satisfaction essential to any workplace.
This January, S.N. Subrahmanyan, chairman and managing director of multinational conglomerate Larsen & Toubro, sparked controversy during a leaked employee meeting by lamenting his inability to compel his workforce to put in grueling 90-hour weeks, Sundays included. “I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy, because I work on Sundays,” he said in a now-viral video that first surfaced on Reddit. Then, with blunt candor, he asked employees, “What are you doing at home?”
His remarks sparked immediate backlash, raising serious questions about just how far some tech companies will push in the name of relentless progress. Is it the stress of high-stakes work that drives employees or the comfort of knowing their employer has their back? Every decision and policy impacts workplace morale, and when the culture feels misaligned, disengagement can quickly take hold.
Silicon Valley’s unspoken demand: Sacrifice above all else
Eighty-hour workweeks aren’t just controversial; they take an enormous toll. But beyond the hours, there’s a deeper ideology at play. The “always-on” culture that Silicon Valley and global tech giants are ushering in isn’t merely about boosting productivity. It’s a quiet, powerful message to every employee that thriving in the future of AI means sacrifice. Sacrifice that may come before family dinners, before mental health breaks, and before that extra coffee break you normally ask for.
Companies like Cognition wear this commitment openly, unapologetically embracing a culture of immediate urgency. For them, there’s little room for hesitation or indecision—action is the only currency. And if that relentless pace feels overwhelming or off-putting, well, perhaps the future of tech isn’t a place for you. It’s a demanding world, but one that continues to promise to reward those who can keep up.
Photo by Jacob Lund/Shutterstock
