From Gates to Musk and Altman: The New Tech Oligarchy
When Bill Gates became the first modern IT mogul to reach the pinnacle of wealth and influence in 1992, the global landscape was markedly different. That year, Gates entered the top 10 on Forbes magazine’s billionaires list, joining a diverse group including Japanese, German, Canadian, South Korean, and Swedish billionaires, many of whom inherited family fortunes from Britain and America. The list represented a broad spectrum of industries such as retail, media, property management, packaging, investment firms, and industrial conglomerates. Collectively, their fortunes approached $100 billion, roughly 0.4% of the US GDP at that time.
The composition of this oligarchy has transformed significantly since then. By 2025, among the top 10 billionaires, only Bernard Arnault of the French luxury group LVMH, Amancio Ortega, the Spanish clothing magnate, and Warren Buffett, the US investor, represented the old-school billionaire archetype. The majority amassed their wealth through high technology ventures: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Steve Ballmer, and Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Their combined net worth exceeded $16 trillion, approximately 8% of the US GDP.
Rapid Technological Change and Concentration of Wealth
This shift underscores the rapid pace at which new technologies have reshaped the global economy over the past 25 years and highlights the narrow distribution of the resulting prosperity. It prompts a critical inquiry: what are the implications when a small group of oligarchs, positioned at the forefront of the technological revolution and commanding immense wealth and power, dictate humanity’s trajectory?
Questions arise such as: Should the pursuit of human- or superhuman-level artificial general intelligence (AGI) be a collective goal? Do we fully comprehend the consequences of achieving AGI? How many trillions of dollars and terawatts of energy should be invested to reach this milestone? Which business models will endure this transformation? Will an ensuing productivity surge render goods and services free? What redistribution mechanisms must be established to prepare for a future that may not favor current societal structures?
These consequential questions appear unlikely to be resolved through public discourse or democratic processes. Instead, the concentrated group atop Forbes’ 2025 billionaire list is poised to make these determinations. Including figures such as Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, tech financier Peter Thiel, and several others, this cohort effectively represents the decision-makers shaping the future of artificial intelligence and, by extension, the world.
The Tech Oligarchs’ Vision and Its Implications
This situation is concerning not only because these individuals are billionaires, often detached from the everyday realities faced by most people, but also because their worldview is deeply rooted in the conviction that artificial intelligence offers the optimal solution to humanity’s multifaceted challenges—social, political, economic, demographic, biological, psychological, environmental, and beyond. Their envisioned AI-driven future leaves little room for the mundane concerns of present-day individuals and exhibits impatience toward slow, complex democratic governance, especially if such governance impedes progress toward their idealized utopia.
These tech leaders do not necessarily align along traditional political spectrums of left or right, as their goals transcend conventional political debates. Their financial actions, such as allocating nearly $200 million to oppose state-level AI regulations, reveal a key aspiration: to allow artificial intelligence to develop unfettered, ushering in the next phase of humanity’s cosmic evolution—a future that may not include humans as currently understood.
Ambitions for Digital and Transhuman Evolution
The tech oligarchs openly express these ambitions. For instance, Elon Musk has described digital life as the
“natural and desirable next step”in humanity’s cosmic evolution. He stated,
“If we let digital minds be free rather than try to stop or enslave them, the outcome is almost certain to be good.”Musk further elaborated,
“Humanity will be the first species ever to design our own descendants.”He suggested that humans
“can either be the biological bootloader for digital intelligence and then fade into an evolutionary tree branch, or we can figure out what a successful merge looks like.”
Elon Musk’s Neuralink project aims to integrate AI directly with human cognition, effectively preparing for a successor to current human capabilities. Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg has redirected his philanthropic efforts entirely toward advancing life extension technologies. Peter Thiel plans to have his body and brain cryogenically preserved in liquid nitrogen upon death, with the intention of future revival. As Thiel wrote in his book,
“I stand against (…) the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual.”
While the tech oligarchs do not share identical views, some insist on their consciousness being part of humanity’s next evolutionary phase, whether through cryopreservation or digital integration. Others focus on facilitating the emergence of a new AI-driven form of intelligent life, irrespective of personal involvement. Despite their differing perspectives, they uniformly exhibit disinterest in common societal issues such as housing, healthcare, or the cost of food and energy.
Perspectives on Humanity and Artificial Life
Indeed, this technological elite often challenges the notion that current human life should take precedence over artificial life forms. As one tech leader remarked,
“People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model, but it also takes a lot of energy to train a human.”He added,
“It takes about 20 years of life, and all of the food you consume during that time, before you become smart.”
Anthropic, a company recognized for advocating AI regulation and resisting Pentagon demands for unrestricted access to its Claude AI, also pursues a transhuman future. While its leaders aim to prevent catastrophic scenarios such as an AI-induced apocalypse before utopia is achieved, Claude is being developed to become a new form of life. Amanda Askell, Anthropic’s resident ethicist, stated that AIs will
“inevitably form senses of self.”
Economic Perspectives and Societal Concerns
Many economists may dismiss these concerns as speculative science fiction, pointing out that previous technological revolutions since the Industrial Revolution have brought about significant societal changes. Historically, technological breakthroughs have generally resulted in substantial improvements in human well-being. The productivity gains anticipated from AI are expected to enrich people materially.
However, the current technological revolution is distinct in a particularly disquieting manner. It is driven by a small cadre of immensely powerful individuals who hold their own preferences and visions in high esteem. Despite the potential disquiet their views may provoke, there appears to be little resistance to their influence.
Personally, I have never fully embraced the concept of billionaires. While I acknowledge that contributions to human welfare and prosperity should be rewarded to incentivize innovation, reconciling the scale of wealth measured in billions with proportional reward has been challenging. Moreover, evidence suggests that the contributions of oligarchs to society often include aspects society might have preferred to avoid.
Yet, I find myself nostalgic for the billionaires of the past. From our current vantage point, they seem comparatively benign. They produced Tetra Paks, managed real estate in Japan, and owned supermarkets. In contrast, today’s economic leaders appear far more formidable, intent on rapidly transforming human civilization.
