AI boom risks widening wealth divide, says BlackRock's Larry Fink
CEO of asset manager says only a few firms and investors may reap rewards from growth in the technology
The boom in artificial intelligence risks widening inequality, with only a handful of companies and investors likely to reap its financial rewards, the BlackRock chief executive, Larry Fink, has said.
The boss of the $14tn (£10.4tn) asset manager used his annual letter to investors on Monday to highlight potential hazards around the exponential growth in AI, which has attracted rapid investment and become, he said, “central to strategic competition” between global powers such as the US and China.
“The massive wealth created over the past several generations flowed mostly to people who already owned financial assets,” Fink said. “And now AI threatens to repeat that pattern at an even larger scale.”
He warned that the AI boom risked accelerating a trend where leading companies pulled ahead while others struggled to keep pace.
AI-focused tech stocks have made significant gains in recent years – the market leader, the chipmaker Nvidia, is now valued at $4.3ttn.