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Lucy Quaggin

They are young, intensely competitive, and unapologetic about 80-hour work weeks. Welcome to the United States’ new generation of tech founders.
Gen Z’s start-up class is reframing “millennial hustle culture” by shifting from side gigs and personal branding to a more rigid office grind, while looking to China for inspiration. It’s for this reason that US artificial intelligence start-ups are openly embracing 996, the controversial 9am to 9pm, six-day-a-week schedule popularised by Chinese tech companies.
“We have so many companies that are building pretty much the same products in AI; their only leverage is how fast they’re growing, how fast they’re building,” said Nicole Levin, who is the platform lead at San Francisco-based venture capital firm Pebblebed.
For 996 advocates in the US right now, the logic is clear: long hours are the path to getting ahead in the AI “gold rush”.
Its critics, however, argue that the time spent in the office may be more performative than productive. Years after China reaffirmed that 996 violated labour laws following worker deaths and accusations of “modern slavery”, the under-30 cohort in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and even New York appears captivated by it.
In the early days of the internet boom, Chinese start-ups worked long hours under pressure to show results to venture capital firms backing them. As time went on, companies such as China’s Alibaba and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, became associated with the unwritten 996 standard in a bid to gain a technological edge and show dedication.
China’s culture of overworking then came under scrutiny after the deaths of employees who had been working long hours in tech. Fledgling start-up founders also embraced the gruelling schedule in the hope that long hours would lead to the success of their businesses.


Back in 2019, Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma was a vocal supporter of the schedule in China, calling 996 “a huge blessing that many companies and employees don’t have the opportunity to have”.
“If you join Alibaba, you should get ready to work 12 hours a day, otherwise why do you come to Alibaba? We don’t need those who comfortably work eight hours,” Ma said. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.
New 996 culture in US touted as way forward
Extended hours are now being touted by US start-ups, mostly in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, with founders posting 80-hour weeks in job ads and boasting about sleeping in the office. As in the early days of China’s internet boom, 996 is being put forward as a way to get ahead.
“Software tends to be a winner-take-all business, so if we aren’t going to push as hard as possible, we may as well not try in the first place,” Daksh Gupta, CEO of AI start-up Greptile, wrote on the company’s website.
The culture is permeating parts of the US tech space, with founders taking to X to defend and explain their extreme work cultures.
Scott Wu, CEO of AI start-up Cognition, addressed the company’s working conditions in a post on X after acquiring start-up Windsurf.
“Cognition has an extreme performance culture, and we’re upfront about this in hiring so there are no surprises later,” Wu wrote. “We routinely are at the office through the weekend and do some of our best work late into the night. Many of us literally live where we work.”
This type of work schedule is also adopted across the country. According to New York-based Kennan Davison, CEO at AI admaker Icon, “the four-day work week leads to defeat. 996 also results in defeat [why do six when you can do seven]. It’s a cope to think working more hours doesn’t help you get more done”.
They achieved success by hiring only the top 0.01 per cent of engineers with no life, Davison wrote on X, and having them work a seven-day week and paying two to five times the market rate. In the comments, Wu of fellow AI start-up Cognition offered congratulations on Icon’s progress.
The AI boom is a big part of the adoption of 996 in the US, Levin said, comparing it to the internet boom in Silicon Valley in the 1990s, when companies raced to “win” before the bubble burst.

Many of these companies, she noted, have young founders – often men – aged 18 to 25, who don’t have the seniority and specialist knowledge of their older counterparts.
“The way that they can win the race is by working really hard, and their leverage is their energy and their youth,” she said.
Back in 2024, Gupta, who is Greptile’s co-founder, found himself at the centre of the 996 conversation in the US after going viral for comments about the company’s work hours.
“I started telling candidates right in the first interview that Greptile offers no work-life balance, typical workdays start at 9am and end at 11pm, often later, and we work Saturdays, sometimes also Sundays,” he posted to X at the time.
On Greptile’s website, Gupta wrote about the company’s work culture: “To win, we must quickly build the best product for the most customers. Some extremely smart teams are working on this problem. They will work nights and weekends, so we have to outsmart and outwork them to win.”
Gupta said he would challenge the premise that 996 in San Francisco has much in common with 996 in China.
“996 in SF [San Francisco] is not exploitative, it’s a small number of highly paid professionals leaving their high paying big tech jobs at Google or Stripe to join early stage start-ups, knowingly trading lots of work life balance for even higher pay, both cash and equity, more ownership, and the opportunity to help build something that they believe will become very large and valuable,” he said.
“Comparing that to factory workers being forced to work late by demanding bosses for US$8 per hour would be to minimise their situation.”
Nostalgia for old Silicon Valley days a factor
There is also a nostalgia factor at play. Levin said founders romanticise the old days of Silicon Valley, when start-up leaders were so “passionate about their idea that they slept in the office”.
“Now it’s almost become a joke, because it’s considered performative,” she added.
Amrita Bhasin, CEO of AI logistics start-up Sotira, said she doesn’t quite buy that people are working longer hours than previous generations or that AI is responsible if they are.
“AI has obviously saved a lot of people’s time – so the actual theory should be that you’re working less, right, because AI is helping you. You’re doing things faster,” she said.
Bhasin highlighted the theatrical nature of trends like having mattresses in the office, noting that 996 is a “pretty big deal right now” and has been for the last two years.
“There’s a large performative aspect to people saying, AI is my gold rush. I moved to San Francisco. I grind a ton,” she said, calling 996 a digestible label that people “can understand”.


Tech founders wanting to make millions have always been willing to work long hours, so what’s changed? Outside the global AI race, tech workers are facing an increasingly difficult job market.
One person wrote in the comments to Gupta’s 2024 X post that “anyone who signs up for this voluntarily is doing it most probably out of some desperation”.
Bhasin also speculates that these founders may have just adopted a new phrase to label what the industry has always done.
“There are a lot of people who are capitalising on the label to kind of convey how hard they work to the general public,” she said.
These founders are mostly men under 30, Bhasin explained, while carers, such as those with families, are not usually represented.
“You don’t see the same representation among groups which historically have not had as much flexibility in the workplace, which I think is one criticism of 996,” she said.
The 996 model used in China far from ideal
Bhasin noted that the downsides aren’t being widely discussed in the US. In China, the consequences of 996 have already been felt.
In August 2021, the Supreme People’s Court clarified that 996-style schedules violated existing labour law in China, following the deaths of workers who had been working extreme hours.
A 22-year-old woman collapsed while walking home from work with colleagues at 1.30am and later died in hospital. A young male worker jumped to his death in his hometown of Changsha. Both worked for the online sales firm Pinduoduo.
“People are aware that working 996 is probably not good for their health. Again, not everyone can do it,” Bhasin said. “I don’t really feel like Silicon Valley talks enough about the negative aspects of it.”
A few years ago in China, substantial backlash against 996 also led to a cultural movement rejecting its ethos.
While 996 remains illegal in China, it’s still adopted at some tech companies, but there’s been resistance from young Chinese workers, with its protesters dubbing it “modern slavery”.
They have advocated for “lying flat” or “let it rot” movements, which encouraged leaving cities for quieter areas and doing the bare minimum to get by, rather than living the relentless grind of corporate life.

In San Francisco and Silicon Valley, founders want to do the opposite of “lying flat” – or at least to appear to, but critics argue workers ultimately bear the cost.
Levin noted that many tech employees are in vulnerable positions in 2026, many of them either immigrants or recent graduates trying to establish themselves.
“The job market is not easy right now,” she said, explaining that many people will go to these companies because “they don’t really have a choice”.
Reflecting on generational differences, she said: “What I hear from older generations is that in the past, it was more driven by the excitement to work on some product that you think will change the world, and now, part of it is excitement, but also part of it is the ability to exploit people.”
The 996 model has almost become “a trend”, Levin said, one that is mostly seen in the “AI bubble in San Francisco”.
“It’s just this feeling of, if you’re not gonna adopt this culture in your start-up, then you’re gonna be left behind,” she said. “And everyone is scared to be left behind.”
Time will tell whether 996 will propel any of these start-ups into the ranks of US tech giants like Google, Microsoft or Apple.
According to Levin, when it comes to AI, the industry is in an era “where people just want to win the race”.
“It’s unclear how you win it, right? There is no recipe for what is going to stay,” she said. “Everyone is just trying to collect as many fruits as they can from the tree before the bubble bursts.”


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US-China relations

996 goes West: US AI start-ups adopt China tech’s controversial work schedule to get ahead

China’s 996 work culture – a schedule of 9am-9pm, six days a week – has become a hot topic for the next generation of tech founders in the United States. However, such military-style management is not for everyone. Photo: Shutterstock

Google’s global headquarters, the Googleplex, is in the heart of Silicon Valley, California. The company harks back to the legendary internet boom in the 1990s. Photo: Bay Area News Group/TNS 

Employers who want their workers to put in excessive hours can expect lower efficiency and lost hours when employees experience health problems. Photo: Shutterstock 

Elon Musk would have loved China’s 996 work culture

Photo: TNS

China tech firm enforces extreme overwork, exceeding contentious ‘996’ model

A technology firm in China has enforced a regime of very long hours for its staff, reigniting the debate about working conditions on the mainland. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock


Many workers in China say they do not mind hard work as long as they are properly compensated. Photo: Shutterstock

China’s labour laws state that the amount of overtime worked should not exceed 36 hours a month. Photo: Shutterstock

British man finds fame in China after revealing gruelling 996 work schedule at tech job

Jack Forsdike’s social media posts on China’s 996 work culture went viral. Photo: XiaoHongShu

Jack Forsdike posted this photo of himself, in happier times, on Chinese social media. Photo: XiaoHongShu

Wang Chao, an entrepreneur who develops smartphone apps, seen in his office in Shanghai, September 2, 2021. Tech workers often do unpaid overtime under the 996 work culture. Photo: EPA-EFE

In India, tycoon’s call to adopt ‘996’ work culture in China spurs debate

Commuters walk at a railway station in Mumbai. Workers in India are among the most overworked globally, according to data from the International Labour Organization. Photo: AFP

Co-founder of Infosys N. R. Narayana Murthy speaking at a company event in 2019. His recent call for Indian workers to follow the work ethic in China have sparked a heated debate. Photo: AFP

Software professionals arrive to attend an AI event in Bangalore. Workers in India often face pressure from their companies to remain contactable all day, experts on workplace practices say. Photo: EPA-EFE

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Why advocates believe 996, the controversial 9am to 9pm, six-day-a-week culture popularised in China, can give American firms decisive edge


Why advocates believe 996, the controversial 9am to 9pm, six-day-a-week culture popularised in China, can give American firms decisive edge.


996 goes West: US AI start-ups adopt China tech’s controversial work schedule to get ahead

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Why advocates believe 996, the controversial 9am to 9pm, six-day-a-week culture popularised in China, can give American firms decisive edge

Why advocates believe 996, the controversial 9am to 9pm, six-day-a-week culture popularised in China, can give American firms decisive edge