Cerebras CEO reignites long-hours debate: a 38-hour week won’t build a great company

Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman has kicked off the tech industry’s old argument about long hours all over again. In recent remarks, he said that if you think a 38-hour work week is enough to build a truly “extraordinary” company, you’re missing what that kind of effort actually demands.

Feldman later clarified that he wasn’t talking about policing the clock so much as a state of mind. His point, he said, was that founders and the first people building a company can get so wrapped up in the mission that work takes over “every waking minute.” The comment lands harder because of where Cerebras now sits. Coverage has described the company as being worth $49.5 billion, and reporting on Cerebras’s May 2026 IPO said the offering raised $5.55 billion and valued the company at roughly $56.4 billion on a fully diluted basis. There’s also a wider backdrop here: in 2026, Glassdoor reviews showed a 65% year-over-year jump in mentions of “burnout,” while research cited in that same coverage found that longer hours may boost output on the day itself, but often hurt performance the next day by cutting into sleep and recovery, which then chips away at both productivity and health over time.

If you pay attention to tech culture, this debate isn’t going away. Work weeks in the 43- to 52-hour range are still common, and in some circles even “996” remains part of the conversation, according to broader reporting on how the industry works. Sergey Brin has reportedly described 60 hours as a sweet spot, and Reid Hoffman and Lucy Guo have made versions of the same case. Critics push back for an obvious reason: founders sitting on enormous equity stakes are making a very different calculation from salaried employees. Marc Randolph and Jamie Dimon, for their part, have argued for a more balanced approach that leaves room for well-being too.

Feldman’s remarks, along with the wider coverage around them, are easy to find online.