Ahmed Sarhan

AI may already be reshaping graduate outcomes. Analysis of 10 years of graduate survey data found fields with higher AI exposure saw noticeably worse labor market outcomes after LLMs arrived via @TheEconomist

@deedydas Interesting perspective, but feels more like a repeat of an old story than a new AI phenomenon. Finance had hedge fund stars, healthcare had huge surgeon vs nurse gaps, and tech had early employees.. The difference today may be speed and visibility, not the existence of winners

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 AI estimation). Everyone outside that group feels like they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job for their whole life and never get there. Worse yet, layoffs are in full swing. Many software engineers feel like their life's skill is no longer useful. The day to day role of most jobs has changed overnight with AI. As a result, 1. The corporate ladder looks like the wrong building to climb. Everyone's trying to align with a new set of career "paths": should I be a founder? Is it too late to join Anthropic / OpenAI? should I get into AI? what company stock will 10x next? People are demanding higher salaries and switching jobs more and more. 2. There’s a deep malaise about work (and its future). Why even work at all for “peanuts”? Will my job even exist in a few years? Many feel helpless. You hear the “permanent underclass” conversation a lot, esp from young people. It's hard to focus on doing good work when you think "man, if I joined Anthropic 2yrs ago, I could retire" 3. The mid to late middle managers feel paralyzed. Many have families and don't feel like they have the energy or network to just "start a company". They don't particularly have any AI skills. They see the writing on the wall: middle management is being hollowed out in many companies. 4. The rich aren’t particularly happy either. No one is shedding tears for them (and rightfully so). But those who have "made it" experience a profound lack of purpose too. Some have gone from <$150k to >$50M in a few years with no ramp. It flips your life plans upside down. For some, comparison is the thief of joy. For some, they escape to NYC to "live life". For others still, they start companies "just cuz", often to win status points. They never imagined that by age 30, they'd be set. I once asked a post-economic founder friend why they didn't just sell the co and they said "and do what? right now, everyone wants to talk to me. if i sell, I will only have money." I understand that many reading this scoff at the champagne problems of the valley. Society is warped in this tech bubble. What is often well-off anywhere else in the world is bang average here. Unlike many other places, tenure, intelligence and hard work can be loosely correlated with outcomes in the Bay. Living through a societally transformative gold rush in that environment can be paralyzing. "Am I in the right place? Should I move? Is there time still left? Am I gonna make it?" It psychologically torments many who have moved here in search of "success". Ironically, a frequent side effect of this torment is to spin up the very products making everyone rich in hopes that you too can vibecode your path to economic enlightenment.

The central debate on Wall Street is starting to sound something like this: Bears sav, "It's starting to look like 1999 - sell tech stocks." while bulls counter, "It's starting to look like 1999 - buy tech." @CNBC explains how today's market compares to 1999.

Interesting times !! Source @CNBC

And finally, yhe @IEA estimates AI could reduce global energy demand by an amount equal to Indonesia’s total energy consumption by 2035. AI is both an energy challenge and an efficiency opportunity.

The tech sector signed PPAs covering roughly 7 GW of existing nuclear capacity. Conditional power agreements for Small Modular Reactors jumped from 25 GW to 45 GW in one year. Big Tech is becoming a major catalyst for next-generation nuclear.

A single advanced AI server rack may soon consume as much electricity as 65 households. AI data centers increased electricity consumption by 50% in just one year. Not 50% in a decade. One year. AI is becoming an industrial-scale energy consumer.

The entire Apollo moon program over 10 years cost less than what was spent on data centers last year. That’s the scale of the AI buildout happening right now.

AI infrastructure spending is now so massive that in 2026, hyperscaler capex is expected to exceed global investment in oil & gas production. The AI era is no longer digital-only. It is physical infrastructure at planetary scale. youtu.be/FUp-HxuA_PI?is…

. @ASMLcompany builds the $400 million machines powering the world's most advanced chips - and no one has been able to replicate them. Here's why this company has become one of the most critical chokepoints in the global semiconductor race. [Source: @bbgoriginals]

Mind Maps are getting a major glow up 💅 These new features are rolling out today: 🚗Customization: Steer your map with specific user prompts 📂Organization: Rename and Share your maps instantly 🗺️ Navigation: Silky smooth transitions between nodes Let us know what you think!

Nobel laureate Peter Howitt is known for his work on ‘creative destruction’, a model of growth whereby innovation creates value, but renders technologies and jobs obsolete in the process. Here, he explains why he believes ‘we’ll all be winners’ from #AI - and why the doom-sayers of previous technologies were proven wrong