After a decade of unconstrained growth -- when it seemed that a new billionaire was minted every day -- the tech industry has finally hit a rough patch. Elon Musk's erratic behaviour following his takeover of Twitter has left the financially leveraged platform in a precarious state. The crypto exchange FTX's sudden implosion has vaporised a business that was recently valued at US$32 billion (1.1 trillion baht), taking many other crypto firms with it. Meta (Facebook) is laying off 11,000 people, 13% of its workforce, and Amazon is shedding 10,000.
What are we supposed to make of these setbacks? Are they isolated incidents, or signs of structural change?
Twitter was already struggling. After taking on debt and overpaying for it, Mr Musk immediately began cutting costs, declaring that the firm was losing $4 million per day. His first layoffs swept out 80% of the company's contractors and half of its permanent staff.
