Silicon Valley splits into winners

Euronews, the Los Angeles Times and The Independent described a widening split in Silicon Valley on May 19: top artificial-intelligence researchers are drawing extraordinary compensation, while many other tech workers face layoffs, longer job searches and shrinking confidence in the old promise of a stable industry career. The reports arrived as Meta prepared another large round of cuts and as companies across the sector kept redirecting spending toward AI infrastructure and research. The result is not a broad hiring wave. It is a narrower market in which a small set of roles has become more valuable and a much larger set has become harder to defend. ### Why are AI researchers being treated differently from other tech workers? Euronews reported on May 19 that Big Tech groups and AI startups racing toward artificial general intelligence are paying heavily for elite researchers and engineering leaders. The outlet said those workers are being treated like franchise athletes, a comparison that captures how concentrated the market has become at the top. That demand is centered on a thin slice of the workforce: people who can build frontier models, improve training systems, manage large-scale compute and lead teams with proven research records. Companies are not showing the same urgency for the broader ranks of product, recruiting, operations and middle-management jobs that expanded during the pandemic hiring boom. ### If money is flowing into AI, why are layoffs still spreading? The Los Angeles Times reported that firms including Meta and Coinbase are still cutting staff while citing AI as part of a larger reshaping of work. The Independent said workers are navigating a “LinkedInferno” of layoffs and uncertainty as AI upends what had looked like a dependable and lucrative career track. CNBC reported on May 18 that Meta would begin layoffs this week, cutting about 10% of its workforce, or roughly 8,000 jobs, and scrapping plans to fill 6,000 open roles. The company had framed earlier cuts as part of a “year of efficiency” in 2023; the latest round comes in a period when executives across the sector are spending more on AI while reducing headcount elsewhere. ### Which jobs look most exposed in this version of the market? Meta’s planned cuts and the broader layoff coverage point to pressure on roles that are easier for management to consolidate, automate or trim during restructurings. The recent reporting does not describe a collapse in all tech work. It describes a sorting process. The workers facing the hardest searches are often those in conventional corporate functions that do not sit close to a scarce technical bottleneck, a revenue line or a regulated responsibility. The Independent’s reporting on displaced workers and the Los Angeles Times’ account of a “brutal” market both show how former assumptions about prestige and safety are breaking down. ### Where is demand still holding up? Euronews’ reporting suggests the strongest demand is clustered around scarce judgment and technical depth. That includes frontier AI research, core infrastructure engineering and leadership roles attached to model development. The same logic extends beyond pure research. Companies still need people whose work is hard to commoditize: specialists with deep institutional knowledge, engineers tied to critical systems, and workers who can translate AI into high-stakes settings such as security, compliance, chip supply, data-center operations or enterprise deployment. Those roles are less interchangeable than generalist software and corporate jobs. ### What should readers watch next? Wednesday, May 20, is the next concrete date in this story because CNBC reported Meta’s layoffs would begin then. The next evidence of whether the split is widening will come from company staffing plans, hiring freezes, and compensation disclosures around AI research and infrastructure roles, as well as from further reporting by outlets including Euronews, the Los Angeles Times and The Independent.