AI now generates about half of its new code

Artificial intelligence now produces about half of the trading platform’s new code, a level of reliance he claims exceeds that of far larger technology companies. Appearing on the 20VC podcast, engineers at the trading app have shifted from early autocomplete assistants such as GitHub Copilot to more agentic environments like Cursor and Windsurf, where “nearly all of the code is written by AI.”

Roughly 50% of new code is AI‑generated, while acknowledging the exact share is hard to calculate because human review, modification and prompting blur authorship. By comparison, recent public comments from Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai placed AI’s contribution at “up to” or “over” 30% of new code in some projects, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has projected a similar 50% threshold is approaching.

Internal adoption has delivered gains in speed, cost efficiency and cross‑team collaboration, with engineering and customer support singled out as high‑impact areas. He indicated Robinhood has intentionally kept a low external profile on the depth of its AI tooling while it scales usage.

The company’s aggressive embrace of AI coincides with a rally in its shares; management has highlighted momentum from new features, including efforts around crypto tokens linked to private company stocks and a prediction market product. Tenev called AI both a productivity amplifier and a cost lever.

Industry peers are also recalibrating workforce strategies. A 30% productivity lift in explaining a pause on new engineering hires in 2025, while payments firm Stripe has undertaken headcount reductions partly tied to AI‑driven development shifts. Observers say long‑term implications for software employment and quality remain uncertain.