Is the Race for First-Mover Advantage Normalising 996 in Tech?

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In the age of artificial intelligence, tech companies and their employees are under constant pressure to work harder and longer to achieve desired results faster. Chasing a first-mover edge, several tech companies and founders have adopted the 996 culture—long, relentless 9am-to-9pm workdays, six days a week.

​The practice has found takers and advocates globally, with Rilla, a New York-based virtual ride-along software for outside sales and service, among them.

​In July of last year, the startup offered its employees a benefit: a rent stipend to cover the high cost of accommodation in New York City. However, to avail of the $1,500 benefit, employees were required to live within 10 to 15 minutes of the company campus and were expected to work around 70 hours a week in person.

​The idea of having employees commit beyond the normal has become extremely popular in the technology sector over the past few years.

​While this may feel gruelling to many, Rilla’s 120 employees don’t see it that way.

​“We look for people who are like Olympian athletes, with characteristics of, you know, obsession, infinite ambition,” shared Will Gao, head of growth at Rilla, with the BBC.

​”If I’m like, ‘Holy cow, I have a super idea I’m working on’, then I’ll just keep working until 2 or 3 am, then I’ll just roll in the next day at noon or something”, he explains, insisting that while longer hours are required, there’s no rigid structure.

​The Origin and Takers

​The 996 culture originated in China, with Alibaba’s Jack Ma among its powerful advocates at a time when the country was aiming to shed its image as the world’s workshop for cheap goods and become a leader in advanced technologies.

​”It’s not just entrepreneurs; most successful or ambitious artists, scientists, athletes, officials, and politicians work 996 or more,” he said in a blog. He noted that this zeal was not due to extraordinary perseverance, but rather to their deep passion for their chosen careers.

​Richard Liu, founder of retail giant JD.com, once wrote “Slackers are not my brothers!” in a controversial internal email in 2019.

​Today, 996 has not disappeared in China, but its advocates have become quieter. Practising the culture without attracting attention.

​In 2025, Narayana Murthy, the founder of Indian software giant Infosys, praised China’s use of 996, stating that “no individual, no community, no country has ever come up without hard work”.

​Murthy received public backlash over his comment.

​Expected of Founders, Not Employees

​As of 2025, over 70,000 AI startups operated globally, with AI driving over 70% of venture capital activity.

​Europe and North America-based recruitment company head Adrian Kinnersley said, “It’s those that have some funding from venture capitalists, that are in a race to develop their products and get them out to market before someone else beats them to it. That’s led them into the idea that, if you work longer hours, you win the race.”

​Deedy Das, Partner at Menlo Ventures, a tech VC firm, thinks that the most common mistake young entrepreneurs make is having their employees work in a 996 culture.

​“I think the thing young founders get wrong is that they view hours worked in and of themselves as necessary and sufficient to think of themselves as productive. And that’s where the fallacy lies,” he explained to the BBC.

​Das notes that the approach can alienate people from their families, affect older generations who work for less and achieve more, and lead to long hours and long-term burnout.

​This, however, doesn’t apply to founders. “Frankly, I would be shocked if a founder wasn’t working 70-80 hours per week. I can personally say… if I’m investing in an early-stage founder, if they’re not working 70-80 hours a week, it’s probably not a great investment.”

​Grey Areas of 996

For Tamara Myles, an academician and author, this hustle culture is unsustainable, especially when people feel compelled to.

​Out of 120 employees at Rilla, how many may be doing it by choice?

​“You might be staying because the job market is tough right now, or you might be here for a visa, and you depend on it. So there might be power dynamics at play,” she said.

​Japan, legally, acknowledges Karōshi or death from overwork and Karōjisatsu or suicide due to workplace stress.

​The debate over 40-hour work, 75, or 100 (in some UK corporate legal firms) is a never-ending one. What’s changed is the system of putting in work, and that varies from country to country and person to person.

​For Browser-Use founder Magnus Müller, the hours put in by him and his peers at Silicon Valley are really not remarkable. “I’m from a tiny village in southern Germany”, he said to BCC. “The farmers there, they get up at five every day and work more than 12 hours per day, seven days a week. And they don’t take any holidays, or maybe just two to three days when they can get someone to take care of their cows.

“So I think there are so many industries where people have so much harder jobs, and struggle so much harder, and work so much harder. I would say it’s more like kindergarten, what we are doing compared to them.”