For Cerebras Systems CEO Andrew Feldman, the path to greatness is paved with relentless effort not balance. The leader of one of the boldest startups challenging Nvidia’s supremacy in the AI chip industry says that building something extraordinary demands more than just talent or vision. It requires an unwavering, all-consuming level of commitment.
“This notion that somehow you can achieve greatness, you can build something extraordinary by working 38 hours a week and having a work-life balance that is mind-boggling to me,” Feldman said during a recent episode of Harry Stebbings’ 20VC podcast. For him, leading an ambitious company in one of the most competitive sectors in tech means giving everything, every single day.
Cerebras is positioning itself as a David taking on the Goliath of the AI hardware world. Nvidia, valued in the trillions, dominates the market with its graphics processing units (GPUs) powering artificial intelligence systems worldwide. To take on such a massive rival, Feldman believes “modest effort” simply isn’t enough.
“I don’t think you can go up against the status quo, up against the 800-pound gorilla with modest effort,” he told Newspapers. “I think it’s true about just about anything in life to be great, you have to be committed. And that commitment is not part of time; it’s all of the time.”
Feldman’s philosophy is a reflection of Silicon Valley’s enduring hustle culture the idea that the most transformative companies are built not by those who clock in and out, but by those who live and breathe their work. While the culture of overwork has been widely debated in recent years, Feldman’s remarks highlight a divide between leaders who prioritize balance and those who see sacrifice as the price of innovation.
When asked about Warren Buffett’s insistence on maintaining a healthy work-life balance, Feldman questioned whether legendary investors like Buffett or the late Charlie Munger would prefer to back companies led by founders who are merely efficient, or those who are obsessed. “Would they rather acquire a company where founders are so passionate that they are working around the clock, moving mountains, and building consumed by their business?” he asked. “Or would they rather buy companies where the founders are going home at five or six each night? I don’t know.”
To Feldman, true entrepreneurial devotion mirrors the work ethic of elite athletes. He recalled an anecdote about NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice spotted running routes and practicing the day after winning the Super Bowl. “If you want to be great, you’ve gotta put the work in,” Feldman said. That same relentless drive, he argued, applies to building groundbreaking technologies.
Cerebras, which develops AI chips designed to outperform traditional GPUs in massive parallel processing, has built its reputation on daring innovation. The company’s flagship hardware, the Wafer-Scale Engine, is one of the largest computer chips ever made, capable of training AI models at unprecedented speeds. For Feldman, this level of technical ambition is impossible without the kind of obsession that goes beyond conventional work limits.
He also believes that finding employees who share that mindset isn’t difficult at least not for a company like Cerebras. “Nobody becomes an engineer to do things a little better than the last one,” he said. “You become an engineer because you love to build things. And if you can build things differently and better than anybody had ever built them before, you can use the things you build to help change the world and that’s what we want.”
To Feldman, that passion is the foundation of every great company. It’s what separates those who innovate from those who merely improve. He believes that employees driven by the desire to create lasting impact don’t need to be pushed they naturally devote themselves to their craft. “It’s easy to improve people who want to work like that,” he said.
While Feldman’s stance may not sit well with advocates of work-life balance, his philosophy reflects the raw intensity behind many of Silicon Valley’s most transformative ventures. Building a startup that hopes to rival the world’s first $4 trillion company, he argues, isn’t a nine-to-five pursuit. It’s an all-in endeavor that demands total focus, constant resilience, and a deep sense of purpose.
“Greatness doesn’t happen part-time,” Feldman’s message implies. “It happens when you give everything not just the hours, but yourself to something worth building.”
