Critical analyses of Silicon Valley often focus on the problem of ideology, deconstructing techno-utopian claims in an effort to address the harmful outcomes of corporate technology projects. As this focus on ideology can locate the problem within individuals and their beliefs, this article instead directs analytic attention to the structural conditions through which these publicly circulating narratives are produced, exploring how centering analysis around institutionalized contexts can change our understanding of what drives industry behaviors.

Using empirical examples from ethnographic research conducted in Silicon Valley between 2022 and 2024, I show how hyped claims are cultivated as a way to take action within the uncertainty of venture capital’s speculative financial models, representing weakly held beliefs that are subject to change in the face of shifting investor interest and market conditions. Given that the companies constituting “Big Tech” were all structured by venture capital from early stages, this article starts with two seed-stage startups in the crypto and AI spaces, showing how founders frequently changed their narrative claims as they searched for a fit between their product strategy and a growth-oriented market that fits into shifting investor hype cycles. I then follow a third startup as they raised what is called a Series A round of funding, showing how investors made financial decisions based on a revenue chart that indicated product-market fit in a growth-oriented market. These examples demonstrate how industry actors at every level pivot around capital in order to survive, directed by structural conditions rather than ideologies about techno-utopian futures. For scholars who may hope to positively affect society with critical analysis, this article highlights the importance of engaging with the constraints felt by so-called powerful actors in untangling how power structures continue to be reproduced in the face of critical inquiry.