Electrical Engineering

The US graduated 24,547 electrical engineers in 1986–87 and only 16,914 in 2020–21 — still below the Reagan-era peak, four decades later. Over the same window, Computer Science graduates grew from ~39K to 109K (2.8×). The divergence reflects a generation of talent correctly directed toward software, where returns were highest. With the hardware regime returning (SanDisk replacing Atlassian in the Nasdaq-100 in 2026), the pipeline is now the binding constraint: pricing power accrues to whoever already has the trained engineers. Ben Pouladian: “You cannot bootcamp a device physicist. You cannot GPT your way into an analog layout.”

Where this appears

• Today SanDisk Replaced Atlassian… (tweet) — Ben Pouladian on the talent pipeline gap at the moment hardware reclaims the Nasdaq-100.