On the 28th and 29th of last month, it rained from early dawn in Silicon Valley, California.<\/p>\n
The rain that fell over two days was rather loud, but it was spring rain just before April.<\/p>\n
In previous years, each drop of rain would have felt like sweet rain, but not this year.<\/p>\n
This is because it has been raining every day in California since the end of last year. It rained non-stop for a week, causing flooding, and causing many casualties.<\/p>\n
As a result, there were not many days to see the clear skies of California, which is famous for its good weather this winter.<\/p>\n
It was the middle of winter, even the residents who had been waiting for the rain to complain, “I hope the rain will stop now.”<\/p>\n
As it rained heavily, the temperature naturally dropped. Compared to previous years, a large width of cold continued.<\/p>\n
‘Winter storms’, sometimes accompanied by storms, hit the area several times, making the area tense. Even in Silicon Valley, electricity went out to tens of thousands of households.<\/p>\n
A resident who has lived in Mountain View, where Google’s headquarters is located, for 40 years said, “I’ve never seen such a bad weather like this winter in 40 years.”<\/p>\n
The ‘winter storm’ unfortunately also swept through Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n
Big tech companies represented by Apple, Microsoft (MS), Amazon, Google, and Meta have suffered the worst this year.<\/p>\n
Even during Corona 19, when concerns about the economic downturn were high, it continued to grow proudly, but now it is experiencing a slowdown in growth.<\/p>\n
Apple’s sales from October to December of last year decreased for the first time since the first quarter of 2019 on a quarterly basis, and Meta has been experiencing negative growth for three consecutive quarters since the second quarter of last year.<\/p>\n
Microsoft, Amazon, and Google also reported a decrease in net profit year-on-year or lower-than-expected performance.<\/p>\n
These companies are undergoing large-scale restructuring as their earnings prospects for this year are also unclear due to concerns about the economic downturn.<\/p>\n
Along with Meta and Amazon announcing their second round of layoffs, Microsoft and Google have also started reducing their workforce.<\/p>\n
Amazon 27,000, Meta 21,000, Google 12,000, MS 10,000, the number of layoffs alone reaches 70,000.<\/p>\n
If you include other tech companies such as Salesforce, Dell Technologies, Twitter, Zoom, and Lyft, the number of layoffs is well over 100,000.<\/p>\n
This is an unprecedented level.<\/p>\n
Businesses that are not immediately profitable are being exited, such as Amazon indefinitely postponing the second phase of its headquarters and Microsoft suspending virtual reality workspace project services.<\/p>\n
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which has been a support for startups, also collapsed. SVB is the 16th largest bank in the US that has served as a source of funding for startups for the past 40 years.<\/p>\n
However, a bank run (large-scale withdrawal) occurred as the risk management for the rapidly rising standard interest rate was not properly managed, and it was eventually closed.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, the US government quickly stepped in to provide full deposit protection and bailed out all the depositors, but it almost led to the bankruptcy of the startup.<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of the SVB collapse, another small and medium-sized bank, Signature Bank, was closed, and Credit Suisse, a world-class investment bank (IB), was also sold to UBS, the largest IB in Switzerland, amid rumors of a crisis.<\/p>\n
Silicon Valley, a symbol of global technological innovation, could have become the epicenter of the global financial crisis. It was an unprecedented crisis comparable to the Lehman Brothers crisis that triggered the 2008 global financial crisis.<\/p>\n
Silicon Valley, which has been leading the global economy by presenting a new paradigm through active investment and technological innovation, is now bowing down to unexpected situations that may explode anywhere and anytime.<\/p>\n
An engineer working for a tech company said, “I’ve been working in Silicon Valley for 20 years, but it’s the first time I’ve felt a sense of crisis like these days.”<\/p>\n
Spring has arrived, but Silicon Valley’s spring has not yet arrived. Silicon Valley’s ‘winter storm’, which had been raging, has calmed down for a while, but ‘winter’ seems to continue for the time being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"