An entire generation of tech talent chose software because it operated on a quiet status hierarchy over hardware. Software was popular because it operated on an ultimate abstraction: comfort. Meanwhile, the hardware stack—OSAT packaging in Malaysia, cleanrooms in Taiwan, signal integrity, and power delivery—was treated as low-margin "dirty work." For decades, the tech industry treated hardware like an afterthought and built a whole ecosystem with this attitude. Now, with AI compute, the tides have turned: HW companies are capturing most of the value. Big Tech executives who ignored hardware physics for twenty years are now getting furious when advanced packaging lines don’t follow the same trend as SW release cycles. Many wonder why the workforce is burnt out. The bottleneck now flows through hardware.