The Artificial Intelligence (AI) gold rush is sweeping through Silicon Valley, with the capital markets celebrating endlessly. However, behind the prosperous scene lies a harsh winter of unemployment facing a large number of high-paid tech professionals. Senior engineers and scientists who used to easily earn over $300,000 annually are now facing unprecedented layoffs and job hunting challenges.
According to the Silicon Valley Index for 2026 released by Joint Venture Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley absorbed $92 billion in venture capital last year, with a staggering 83% flowing into AI companies. However, during the same period, the number of tech jobs actually decreased by 13,100. The number of layoffs in the first half of 2026 has reached 7,295, approaching the total for the entire year of 2025. The number of open software positions in the United States has decreased by 23% compared to before the pandemic.
This transitional pain is directly impacting highly educated Chinese elites. Yang Jin, a Chinese elite with a Ph.D., was laid off by a biotech company and found her dozens of job applications going unanswered. As laboratory automation evolves, robotic arms are gradually replacing traditional repetitive manual operations, further reducing job vacancies.
After losing her job, Dr. Jin chose to stay home and take care of her children while starting to self-study and build AI applications, hoping to carve out a new path in her career.
Her husband, Xingtao Zhao, who had worked at Google for over a decade, also faced layoffs after switching to an augmented reality (AR) startup. Despite his background in machine learning with a Ph.D., he was unable to secure a job after interviewing at over a dozen autonomous driving and AI model companies. Currently, he can only collaborate with unemployed friends in the finance industry, using AI technology for quant stock trading, working full-time on self-rescue, and part-time job hunting.
A scientist with a Ph.D. in machine learning, who previously worked at Amazon, shared with the New York Post that after his startup failed, he returned to the job market. He sent out 120 resumes within two months, even passed six rounds of interviews at a company, yet received no job offer in the end.
He confessed that the tech industry now tends to recruit obedient code writers at the grassroots level, while entrepreneurs become a negative factor. Faced with mortgage and family pressure, if his savings run out, he even considers applying for social assistance, setting aside his pride.
“Should it come to that point, I can only throw caution to the wind and no longer care about my pride,” he said.
The New York Post cited analysts pointing out that the paradox of “prosperity coexisting with layoffs” stems from the extremely high cost of AI development, forcing companies to cut manpower and other expenses to reallocate resources. Additionally, over-recruitment during the pandemic and team simplification after the introduction of generative AI have further accelerated this wave of structural layoffs.
Data from recruiting agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that this year, over 116,000 layoff cases in the US have been explicitly attributed to the introduction and transformation of AI by companies.
Faced with the sudden impact of unemployment, former Google employee Basem Istanbouli founded the resignation-based hiking group called “(un) PTO.” The group has quickly grown to nearly 1,800 members, with tech professionals meeting on workdays to hike, have coffee, and cowork, building a social network beyond work to support each other through this career low.
While old positions are being rapidly eliminated by automation, tech professionals who have been laid off are still trying to find hope in the changing landscape. As Xingtao Zhao put it, although AI is making many traditional jobs disappear, it will inevitably create new opportunities and positions. This technological revolution may close one door, but it also opens another in its painful transition.