In the first year of Meta Universe, many Silicon Valley executives left their jobs and entered the field of virtual technology

　　Executives abandon Google to join the "new legend" trend or bubble?

　　According to foreign media reports, in 2021, known as the "first year of the meta universe," a "storm" blew up in Silicon Valley, sweeping away a large number of talents from "big manufacturers" such as Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple.

From ordinary workers, executives and even founders, the most powerful people in the technology industry are leaving, rushing for the "opportunity to get rich once in a generation."

　　What is this opportunity, is it worth giving up millions of dollars in annual salary to pursue it?

Is this a once-in-a-decade opportunity or just another bubble?

　　■ Silicon Valley is now full of stories of people riding on the virtual wave to get rich.

In addition to the investment boom, more and more people among the best talents and brightest minds in the Silicon Valley technology industry see now as an "earthquake-like" opportunity for change.

　　■ Some people also questioned that this virtual technology, known as the third-generation Internet, is a bubble, no different from the previous subprime mortgage bubble and the tulip bubble of the 17th century.

　　Executives

　　Many people leave the Silicon Valley factory

　　Devoted to the field of virtual technology

　　This month, Sandy Carter, Amazon's vice president of cloud computing, left to join a virtual technology start-up.

She posted a recruitment link for a new company and received more than 350 applications within two days, many of which came from traditional Internet "big factories."

　　"This is a perfect storm." Sandy Carter said, "The timing we see in this field is really amazing."

　　Sandy is one of those who took advantage of this storm in Silicon Valley.

Now, Silicon Valley executives and engineers have given up huge salaries of several million dollars a year to pursue a chance for a generation of talents.

They believe that the next opportunity is virtual technology, virtual currency including Bitcoin, and products that rely on blockchain, such as NFT.

　　Sridar Ramaswamy, the CEO of search engine startup Neeva and a former Google executive, also heard "there is now a huge sucking sound from virtual technology."

　　This month, Brian Roberts, the chief financial officer of Lyft, a well-known ride-sharing company, joined the virtual technology startup OpenSea.

When it comes to the virtual field, he believes: "We are now in the'first day' of NFT products and their impact."

　　Jack Dorsey, the founder of social media giant Twitter, also embraced virtual technology.

After he stepped down as the CEO of Twitter, he spent more time with Square, his virtual currency and third-generation Internet company, and changed the company's name to Block to pay tribute to the blockchain.

　　Even David Marcus, an executive in charge of virtual currency at the recently popular Meta universe, announced that he will resign at the end of this year and plans to focus on his own virtual currency project.

　　capital

　　Spread 28 billion U.S. dollars

　　Four times the amount in 2020

　　Silicon Valley is now full of stories of people riding on the virtual wave to get rich.

Bitcoin has risen by 60% this year, and the value of Ether has doubled fivefold. Even Dogecoin, which was not taken seriously by people at the beginning, has given investors wealth that can change their lives.

　　In addition to the investment boom, more and more people among the best talents and brightest minds in the Silicon Valley technology industry see now as an "earthquake-like" opportunity for change.

They believe that virtual technology is now like the era when the personal computer just appeared and the Internet was just emerging.

Sridar Ramaswami also said that this feels a bit like the 1990s, just like the process of the rise of the Internet is all over again, everything is "so early, so chaotic, and full of opportunities."

　　Investors are also flooding into the virtual field.

They have already given $28 billion to virtual and blockchain startups around the world this year, which is four times the amount in 2020.

Among them, only NFT-type companies have investment funds of 3 billion US dollars.

　　However, some people questioned that this virtual technology, known as the third-generation Internet, is a bubble, no different from the previous subprime mortgage bubble and the tulip bubble of the 17th century.

They believe that this wave of virtual product frenzy is caused by those who want to achieve wealth by trading assets that are often just based on Internet jokes.

　　However, more and more believers in the virtual field claim that virtual technology can change the world by creating a decentralized Internet—the third-generation Internet.

　　staff

　　"Leaving" is not just for money

　　And the vision of the third generation of the Internet

　　The temptation of the virtual realm is hard to resist, which makes the "big factory" annoyed in order to retain talents.

At Google, how to retain employees has become the topic of discussion at its CEO, Sundar Pichai, in every Monday executive meeting.

At the same time, Google also began to provide employees with additional stock awards to avoid the theft of mature "fruits".

　　Google, unlike Metaverse, is not willing to jump into this lively virtual sport.

But Google employees were the first to see opportunities in the virtual field.

Last year, Google Vice President Surojit left and went to Coinbase, the largest virtual currency trading company, to become chief product officer.

In April of this year, Coinbase went public.

The value of Surojit's equity in the company exceeds $600 million.

And he only worked for this company for 14 months.

　　Realizing huge wealth so quickly has created a kind of fear among Silicon Valley people for fear of missing opportunities, especially those who watched their friends buy Bitcoin in the early years and became rich.

　　However, some people left because the problems of these technology giants caused their worries.

They joined companies such as Facebook and Google to create something new, only to discover the control and bureaucracy of these large companies.

In the virtual field, start-ups can get returns earlier than traditional technology start-ups, and it has become the most natural choice to join virtual technology start-ups.

　　Sandy Carter also said that people want to work in virtual companies not just for money, some people are attracted by the vision of the third-generation Internet.

　　Will this wave of "exodus" of talents from technology companies to virtual technology companies continue?

"The answer is of course." Sandy Carter said, now is the perfect time to jump on the bus.

Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter Lin Rong