--- title: New trend: extreme hours at AI startups | daily.dev description: AI startups are increasingly adopting extreme work cultures requiring 80+ hour weeks, similar to China's "996" pattern. Companies like Cognition, Lovable, and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/new-trend-extreme-hours-at-ai-startups-dw4vhczbu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: New trend: extreme hours at AI startups | daily.dev og:description: AI startups are increasingly adopting extreme work cultures requiring 80+ hour weeks, similar to China's "996" pattern. Companies like Cognition, Lovable, and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/new-trend-extreme-hours-at-ai-startups-dw4vhczbu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/dW4VhCzbu.png og:image:alt: New trend: extreme hours at AI startups og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # New trend: extreme hours at AI startups **[The Pragmatic Engineer](https://daily.dev/sources/pragmaticengineer)** · 8 min read · 62 upvotes · 12 comments ## Summary AI startups are increasingly adopting extreme work cultures requiring 80+ hour weeks, similar to China's "996" pattern. Companies like Cognition, Lovable, and xAI justify these demanding schedules as necessary to achieve AGI quickly before competitors. The promise of generational wealth through equity motivates employees to accept these conditions, as seen with Windsurf's acquisition by Google. However, long hours don't guarantee success, and this trend may persist due to intense competition and FOMO in the AI industry. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@amizzo** · 15 upvotes > "Generational wealth through equity" - NEVER consider equity as part of a compensation package, unless the company is already public. **@isaacmathew** · 5 upvotes > It's not sustainable. If a startup crashes, all that investment also drowns with it. Success wouldn't exist in its current form if everyone came out as winners. **@servostar** · 4 upvotes > Here we are, the technologically most developed our species has been in history since, and still working ourselves into oblivion as if we just can't appreciate how far we've come. **@palalet** · 3 upvotes > Everyone has a right to choose and deny such conditions. If they accept it, for their own harm (or maybe a profit), its their decision. I would not consider to work under these terms for all the money on the planet. One day they understand life is more than money. **@klendi** · 1 upvotes > lovable and cognition are just wrappers why 80 hours a week --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#startup](https://daily.dev/tags/startup), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership), [#work-life-balance](https://daily.dev/tags/work-life-balance) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/new-trend-extreme-hours-at-ai-startups-dw4vhczbu) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"New trend: extreme hours at AI startups","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/new-trend-extreme-hours-at-ai-startups-dw4vhczbu","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/new-trend-extreme-hours-at-ai-startups-dw4vhczbu"},"datePublished":"2025-08-14T16:39:17.715Z","dateModified":"2025-08-14T16:39:38.185Z","description":"AI startups are increasingly adopting extreme work cultures requiring 80+ hour weeks, similar to China's \"996\" pattern. Companies like Cognition, Lovable, and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/954ba638130788606cd20c1e8e8f9dd2?_a=AQAEulh","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/954ba638130788606cd20c1e8e8f9dd2?_a=AQAEulh","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Pragmatic Engineer","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Pragmatic Engineer","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/b3ccb8a149434269bda040722d941474","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/pragmaticengineer"},"commentCount":12,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/new-trend-extreme-hours-at-ai-startups-dw4vhczbu","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":62},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":12}],"keywords":"ai,startup,career,leadership,work-life-balance","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Pragmatic Engineer","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/pragmaticengineer"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"New trend: extreme hours at AI startups"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/new-trend-extreme-hours-at-ai-startups-dw4vhczbu","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"“Generational wealth through equity” - NEVER consider equity as part of a compensation package, unless the company is already public.","datePublished":"2025-08-14T20:09:24.084Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/dW4VhCzbu#c-cMJezcTRW","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Anthony Izzo","url":"https://daily.dev/amizzo","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocI3KpxrCJphZmqCBYWzrlZz0yUJS3pQF3RYarylAe8SP_G6_KUCoQ=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":15}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"It’s not sustainable. If a startup crashes, all that investment also drowns with it. Success wouldn’t exist in its current form if everyone came out as winners.","datePublished":"2025-08-15T08:42:45.267Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/dW4VhCzbu#c-0E6WMxVfS","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"isaac mathew","url":"https://daily.dev/isaacmathew","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--DNCnjFeC--/f_auto/v1722619517/avatars/avatar_R5jBakmCtBTvbH4iByjwS"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Here we are, the technologically most developed our species has been in history since, and still working ourselves into oblivion as if we just can’t appreciate how far we’ve come.","datePublished":"2025-08-15T18:52:01.898Z","dateModified":"2025-08-15T18:53:03.522Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/dW4VhCzbu#c-g8hDpTrpw","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"servostar","url":"https://daily.dev/servostar","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--d1aRysjr--/f_auto/v1756837404/avatars/avatar_1ZVWeVewWIl1rE91NVx4e?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Everyone has a right to choose and deny such conditions. If they accept it, for their own harm (or maybe a profit), its their decision. I would not consider to work under these terms for all the money on the planet. One day they understand life is more than money.","datePublished":"2025-08-15T19:25:10.492Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/dW4VhCzbu#c-WUjCwkA8K","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Radek Havelka","url":"https://daily.dev/palalet","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/ACNPEu-o8MElSN4ROMgrqyjqrarlLqksiGLna5TAfYA1Jw=s100"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"lovable and cognition are just wrappers why 80 hours a week","datePublished":"2025-08-15T14:43:45.836Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/dW4VhCzbu#c-dUg9HCiO7","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Treeoak","url":"https://daily.dev/klendi","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--m_eVpfMg--/f_auto/v1722598727/avatars/avatar_AmuYZF5tW3hvuccKRxCn5"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} ```