These charts tell the story of the AI oligarchy in overdrive.
S. E. Anderson
Number Go Up
These charts tell the story of oligarchy in overdrive.
Tim Murphy, Schuyler Mitchell, and Chasity Hale
May+June 2026 Issue of Mother Jones
Two years ago, we devoted an entire issue to the rise of the American oligarchy. Since then, our oligarchic system has become more entrenched and pervasive, revolving around a small crew of tech titans whose quest for wealth and power—in all of its forms—is destabilizing our democracy and reshaping our society. In the May + June 2026 issue, we investigate our new AI overlords and the world they are striving to create, whether we like it or not. Read the rest of the package here.
Sam Altman once promised that the future would be a rocket ship that didn’t feel like one. “We are climbing the long arc of exponential technological progress,” he wrote last year. “It always looks vertical looking forward and flat going backwards, but it’s one smooth curve.” You can argue with the sentiment, but you can’t dispute the numbers: Over the last half-decade, a volatile mix of technological breakthroughs and political breakdowns have given AI barons unprecedented amounts of wealth and power. Net worths are climbing toward the trillion mark, lobbying tabs put the oil and gas industry to shame, and demands for energy and land are off the charts. The numbers combine to tell a story of oligarchy unchained: America’s wealthiest men are spending more money than ever before, in a race against each other that’s leaving the rest of us in the dust. If only there were a way to measure hubris.
Capital Gains
Since 2020, the net worths of America’s tech moguls have skyrocketed. But in the race to the first trillion, there’s one clear leader.
Musk’s fortune could pay the average salary for every public school teacher in the US for three years.
Or fund USAID for 24 years.
Big, Beautiful Buildings
Top tech companies (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and Tesla) are pouring billions into AI data centers, capital expenditures that dwarf many major scientific initiatives and infrastructure projects of the past. What bubble?
Big Tech capital expenditures on AI last year equaled 11 Manhattan Projects.
Power Grab
According to the International Energy Agency, data center energy use will nearly quadruple during this decade. By 2030, it will require the equivalent of 54 nuclear reactors to provide this much power. Consider: The US has only 94.
By 2030, data centers will consume as much energy as 41 million US homes.
Capitol Gains
AI firms are also amassing a different type of power—lobbying expenditures by Anthropic, OpenAI, and Nvidia are up more than tenfold since 2023. Collectively, Big Tech has become the second-biggest industry lobby in DC after Big Pharma.
Meta spent more on lobbying in 2025 than America’s three largest oil and gas companies combined.
Sources: Forbes (current as of March 9, 2026), Library of Congress, Pew Research Center, and National Education Association; company filings and Brookings Institution; International Energy Agency and US Energy Information Administration; OpenSecrets
Illustrations by Cleon Peterson
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s. e. anderson
author of The Black Holocaust for Beginners
"If WORK was good for you, the rich would leave none for the poor." (Haiti)
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