Silicon Valley’s AI obsession pushes sustainability to the sidelines

The office feels like a fusion of a spaceship and a luxury car, with sleek wood panelling and the unmistakable hum of generative AI. But it’s not just this office—all of Silicon Valley is obsessed. Everyone, from startups to tech giants, is fixated on AI, and it’s not just another buzzword. The pace of development is dizzying, with the tech evolving faster than anyone could have predicted.

The office space I’m visiting belongs to Nvidia. Founder and CEO Jensen Huang doesn’t show me around on my visit from Sweden (unlike when Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel were here a couple of months before me). But his aura is evident in every detail. Known for his love of black leather jackets, Huang’s style is draped throughout the building.

That was just one of the memorable moments during my week-long visit to the startup world's mecca, Silicon Valley. I was there thanks to the Deb Board Program, which invites leaders from different industries to curated site visits. My group met with some of the world's top investors and companies including Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital firms known for backing tech giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Airbnb; Nvidia, a global leader in AI and graphics technology, whose GPUs power everything from gaming to deep learning; and Snowflake, a data cloud company revolutionising how enterprises handle and analyse data. We also had insightful discussions with several high-profile American boardwomen. We listened to entrepreneurs speak at Silicon Valley’s chapter of Startup Grind (the global community that Google for Startups helped scale, similar to Slush in the Nordics), and visited Katarina Bonde, a seasoned boardroom pro, at her West Wines winery in Sonoma. Tough gig, I know— but someone had to do it.

My agenda for the trip was to network, understand more about what makes Silicon Valley what it is, and find out which impact companies there are hot right now. 

At Nvidia’s office I asked one of Jensen Huang’s colleagues what it’s like to work with the Nvidia boss. Straight off, I got three key insights: Jensen dives deep into problems and likes to solve them himself, he’s direct with feedback—even if it’s negative, and he loves getting people together. By the end of the week, I realised that this last trait is the beating heart of Silicon Valley.

But what wasn’t omnipresent was impact. Where were the impact-driven companies? The impact-conscious entrepreneurs? Because I couldn’t find them. At Startup Grind, they were few and far between. I bounced ideas around with others on the trip—was I not speaking to people at the right level within the organisations we were meeting? Had I jumped too quickly into the 'how' instead of the 'why'? Where were the bold visions tackling the climate crisis or mental health challenges? Generative AI was everywhere—but the absence of real impact was just as glaring.

The problems many of us are tackling through impact-driven companies in Sweden weren’t part of conversations in Silicon Valley. And I was left feeling a bit foolish (and panicked) for expecting the place to be overflowing with impact companies and discussions about real-world solutions.

My fellow travellers and I started asking about impact in our meetings. But it felt like the people we met didn’t even understand the question. We were talking past each other, and sometimes it seemed like we weren’t even speaking the same language. The discussions leaned more towards recycling and the idea that 'all technology is for good' rather than business models and companies solving the big issues. At one point, someone said it straight out: Impact isn’t really a thing here.

So what did we talk about instead? Generative AI, of course, but beyond that, we discussed what makes Silicon Valley unique:

Openness: In Silicon Valley, ideas are shared openly to gain feedback and build valuable networks early in the process. Early-stage non-disclosure agreements are considered outdated (they haven’t been common since the ‘80s). As Eva Nahari from NDX Ventures puts it, "Talk about your ideas at a 10,000-foot level instead."

Speed: The pace in Silicon Valley is relentless. Speed is everything.

Networking: It's not just about using your network for personal gain; it’s about building genuine connections that can propel the whole ecosystem forward.

Data-driven decisions: Here, it's all about gathering people around data—not relying on gut feelings.

Democratising innovation: Innovation is open to everyone, because anyone could be sitting on the next big company.

The magic formula for building companies in Silicon Valley is incredibly inspiring, and there’s a lot we can learn to apply to the Swedish ecosystem. But let’s be clear: we bring more to the table. We can tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time with our impact-driven businesses. We're not just the 'little brother' here to learn from the 'big brother'—we know that impact goes far beyond recycling. For those of us committed to building impact companies, it’s time to march faster, take up more space.

So, here's a little extra push for all of you working on solving the biggest challenges of our generation, like the climate crisis. Stand tall, feel proud that you're leading the way, and know that what you're building truly makes a difference. Because there’s no guarantee that anyone 'over there' in Silicon Valley will do it instead.