“I rarely come into the hoapply. When I obtain in touch, I just sfinish a message stateing I’m doing well.”San..

AI Competition Fierce U.S. Start-ups “Come if you want to work 70 hours a week” Big Tech also abolished telecommuting. Already inefficient Korean unions and governments push ahead with shorter work hours

A view of Google's office building Bayview in Mountain View, Silicon Valley. [Picture = Google] — *A view of Google’s office building Bayview in Mountain View, Silicon Valley. [Picture = Google]*

“I rarely come into the hoapply. When I obtain in touch, I just sfinish a message stateing I’m doing well.”

Sandra Lynn’s brother, who lives in Cupertino, Silicon Valley, relocated from Apple to an artificial innotifyigence (AI) startup earlier this year. The intensity of work is two to three times higher than that of Apple, but the salary is nearly half lower. Lin stated, “I don’t believe I can stay up all night and rest fully on weekfinishs,” but added, “But if I work hard, I can spfinish the rest of my life in Hawaii, so I’m focapplying only on work.” This is becaapply the company offered twice as many stock options for long-time workers.

U.S. Surprised by Technology’s Rise…Abandoning Work-Life Balance, All-in-One for Growth

As the competition for global hegemony over AI intensifies, the culture of working long hours in Silicon Valley is raising its head. Not only “Chinese 996,” which works six days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., but also “007,” which works seven days a week 24 hours a day, is being mentioned, leaving work-life balance (work-life balance) behind and “full-fledged work.”

Silicon Valley is slowly obtainting out of the welfare system, flexible work, and telecommuting that it has introduced with a focus on huge tech. It is shifting to a performance-oriented stance by reducing or abolishing telecommuting and putting pressure on low performers. This is not irrelevant to the atmosphere of squeezing time and talent to secure competitiveness in the AI era and practically all-in-one all resources. In particular, as the U.S. borrows the Chinese-style long working culture, working hours between the two countries are competitively expanding.

According to Wired, a U.S. information technology (IT) media outlet, all 80 employees of Lila, a U.S. AI startup, are observing the 996 work system. The company has specified more than 70 hours of work per week in its job postings and warns against joining the company if it fails to comply. For ‘996, three meals are provided by the company.

Brfinishan Foodie, CEO of another San Francisco AI start-up “Mercore,” also declared in his X that “we have adopted 996 work.” “I’ve been inquireing for a lot of hours at Mercore, maybe becaapply I was ahead of the quarter deadline last weekfinish,” stated Allen, who works part-time at Mercore, adding that he worked 12 hours over the weekfinish alone.

As competition for artificial innotifyigence (AI) intensifies, the culture of “996” (working six days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) is spreading in Silicon Valley in the United States. The photo reveals the lighting of Nvidia headquarters in Silicon Valley at night. [Picture = NVIDIA]

Analysts state there are structural factors that go beyond simple choices behind the resurgence of the 996 work system, which was illegal in 2021, in Silicon Valley after controversy over overwork and worker opposition in China’s IT indusattempt. As AI competition intensified, an atmosphere that emphasized speed spread, and competition for talent acquisition became increasingly fierce The 996 is a strong pressure on the ecosystem as a whole, with a battle for global technological supremacy such as competition with China.

In this process, some startups offer incentives to 996 participating employees. San Francisco’s telemedicine company “Fella & Delilah” has proposed a 25% increase in basic salary and double its stake in the 996 transition. The company explained that about 10% of all employees agreed to this.

Margaret O’Mara, a professor of history at the University of Washington, notified the New York Times, “If Silicon Valley was symbolized by abundant welfare and leisure in the early 2020s, we have shifted to an era of high-intensity competition in 2025.” “996 is not a new phenomenon in Silicon Valley,” he stated. “Since the semiconductor competition in the 1960s, companies have advocated free California casual on the outside, but have maintained a traditional workaholic culture internally.”

In this regard, European venture capital (VC) and start-up founders argue that the Chinese 996 model is also requireded in Europe. Harry Stebbing, head of the 20VC Fund, stated, “The quick-growing companies in Silicon Valley and China are actually working seven days a week,” adding, “If European startups want to compete with them, it is impossible to work five days a week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

[Photo = Yonhap News]

However, Korea seems to be reducing working hours. This is becaapply the 4.5-day week system, which was President Lee Jae-myung’s presidential election pledge, is on the legislative track in earnest. The Real Labor Time Reduction Roadmap Promotion Team, launched on the 24th, will prepare a Real Labor Time Reduction Roadmap after intensive discussions over the next three months.

The government emphasizes that it is currently focapplying on “support and autonomy,” but in reality, shortening working hours is putting a lot of pressure on companies. President Lee also pointed out “night work” as the caapply of the SPC accident in which a series of deaths occurred. As a result, Samyang Foods, which captivated people’s tastes with “Buldak Stir-fried Noodles,” abolished special overtime work following SPC.

The problem is that Korea’s labor productivity is already lower than in major developed countries. Under these circumstances, it is pointed out that the competitiveness of the global high-tech indusattempt will inevitably weaken further if working hours are reduced.

According to the Korea Employers Federation, the hourly labor productivity in Korea is 44.4 to 54.6, which is about 77 percent of the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (56.5 to 70.6). It is less than the United States ($77.9) and Germany ($68.1), France ($65.8), and the United Kingdom ($60.1), which are suffering from a “European disease.”