The Gilded Age epitomized the immense concentration of corporate power, when industrial giants like Cornelius Vanderbilt amassed so much power they could literally control time itself. Nov. 18, 1883 became known as “The Day of Two Noons” after railroad companies in the U.S. and Canada created four distinct time zones across North America to replace chaotic time zones across the continent, causing many clocks to strike noon twice.
Today, a new kind of concentration is emerging in the AI era, and even some of its architects—including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei—say they are deeply uneasy about how quickly and accidentally that power has concentrated.
In an interview on the WTF is podcast with host and Indian investor Nikhil Kamath, Amodei said part of the reason why some AI companies accumulated so much power came down to pure chance.
“There’s a certain randomness to how a few people end up leading these companies that grow so fast and it seems like, in the near future, will power so much of the economy,” Amodei said.
He continued, signaling his concern with that power. “I’ve said openly, publicly, not for the first time, that I’m at least somewhat uncomfortable with the amount of concentration of power that’s happening here,” he said. “I would say almost overnight, almost by accident.”
Amodei has long been vocal about his concerns about the concentration of power amid rapid AI development. The CEO published a 20,000-word essay titled “The Adolescence of Technology” in January warning about the perils of a system that amasses “personal fortunes well into the trillions” for a powerful few and grants them outsized political influence. In the essay, Amodei said he and Anthropic’s six cofounders pledged to donate 80% of their wealth amid fears of the repercussions wealth concentration could have on society.
Today, a handful of AI labs in the U.S. and China dominate AI development, so much so that announcements about model advancements have sent shudders across the stock market. Earlier this month, Anthropic released Claude Cowork, which contains specific plugins for industries like sales and finance. That release triggered a trillion-dollar software stock selloff as investors speculated the new technology could render software-as-a-service obsolete.
Record-breaking AI investments are piling up wealth for the rich, adding an estimated $550 billion to the net worth of U.S. tech billionaires in 2025, as reported by Financial Times. Tesla shareholders last year approved a staggering $1 trillion pay package for CEO Elon Musk, placing him on track to become the first trillionaire ever.
An AI tsunami on the horizon
Amodei says he believes AI advancement is about to skyrocket, comparing its encroaching influence to an incoming wave.
“It’s as if this tsunami is coming at us,” Amodei said. “It’s so close we can see it on the horizon.”
Anthropic is part of the seismic shifts that have developed that massive wave. Aside from plugins for sales and finance, the company Tuesday launched a handful of other enterprise offerings, designed for human resources and investment banking.
Still, Amodei warns many people remain ignorant to the reality of AI’s revolutionary capabilities.
“People are coming up with these explanations: ‘It’s not actually a tsunami, that’s just a trick of the light,’” he said.
What may seem out-of-line for a CEO of one of the tech companies benefitting materially from rapid AI advancement, Amodei said he’s motivated by a sense of responsibility rather than profit.
“Warning about risks is not in our commercial interest,” he said. “Saying that the models we build could be dangerous, whatever people might say, that’s not an effective marketing strategy and that’s not the reason that we do it.”
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