A vibe shift is underway in Silicon Valley amid growing fears of a recession, slowing growth after record profits during the pandemic, and antitrust scrutiny. Tech firms big and small, including Google, Amazon, and Meta, are responding by laying off tens of thousands of employees. Some of these companies are preaching austerity and even asking their giant workforces to act like startups again.
The survival of Big Tech isn’t in question. What’s unclear is how Silicon Valley will try to adapt. Many Big Tech companies are shrinking for the first time in their histories, and it has been years since any of them have debuted a truly world-changing product or service. Inevitably, the moves these companies make as they try to shift their businesses and internal cultures will have ramifications that extend far beyond the technology industry, as tech companies tend to influence corporate America in general.
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