Derek Thompson recently wrote a piece last month for The Atlantic called “Why Everything in Tech Seems to be Collapsing at Once.” Thompson notes double-digit percentage layoffs at major tech companies like Amazon, Meta, Snap, Stripe, Coinbase, Twitter, Robinhood, and Intel, and wonders, “Watching this surge of mass layoffs in big tech companies, plus the lurid chaos unfolding at Twitter over the past few weeks and the spectacular ongoing implosion of crypto, the big question on my mind is: Why is it all happening at once?”
Higher interest rates have ended the era of “endless cash” from venture capital, Thompson points out, which has sunset companies’ laser-focus on growth and drawn attention to actual profits and returns. But, Thompson asserts, what’s happening in tech now isn’t a mere recession story: “The tech industry is experiencing a midlife crisis.”
