And right now, the industry is actively driving that talent away. Across major tech giants and leading AI labs, a brutal pattern has emerged: sweeping layoffs executed specifically to free up capital for massive AI infrastructure bills. Engineers are effectively being sacrificed to buy more compute. This astronomical cash burn is creating chaotic, high-pressure environments where shifting goalposts and constant team resets, have triggered a growing exodus of key staff.

This turmoil creates a vicious cycle. Elite AI engineers, the true “10x” talent that actually knows how to string 100,000 GPUs together without the system crashing, want stability, clear mandates and a culture that values their institutional knowledge. When a company signals that it views human talent as a highly expendable line-item, top talent flees to more stable, culturally aligned labs. It’s impossible to build a generational product when your core engineering team has a revolving door.

The public shift: Privacy, cost and fatigue

A fundamental shift in the public and enterprise appetite for AI compounds this pressure. I’ve seen it first-hand.