AI bosses lag Ford and Rockefeller—for now

TL;DR

The Economist assesses if AI leaders Dario Amodei, Demis Hassabis, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman could match the power of past tycoons like Ford or Rockefeller.
In 1913, Ford Motor made $1bn (today's money) profit after 10 years; OpenAI, same age, makes no profit yet.[[1]](https://www.economist.com/business/2026/04/16/could-ais-leading-men-become-as-powerful-as-ford-or-rockefeller?etear=nl_today_4)[[2]](https://www.pressreader.com/india/mint-chennai/20260417/282145002924106?srsltid=AfmBOopn9pwLQxXkz3M5x0Ur_TenqjM2Rt_-ZpAQp1osB-KeMHM56FqP)
Their huge sway over AI raises worries, but history shows such concentration is normal and they lag historical giants now.

The story at a glance

The Economist profiles five AI bosses—Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, Elon Musk of xAI, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and Sam Altman of OpenAI—known by first names alone for their fame and influence. It compares their clout to industrial titans like Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller using a custom ranking of wealth, firm size, employees, revenue and control. The piece is out now amid rapid AI advances like Anthropic's hacking model Mythos, which alarms policymakers, and growing political scrutiny of concentrated tech power.[[1]](https://www.economist.com/business/2026/04/16/could-ais-leading-men-become-as-powerful-as-ford-or-rockefeller?etear=nl_today_4)

Key points

ChatGPT has over 900m weekly users; Anthropic's model excels at hacking, sparking policy panic; Hassabis won a Nobel; Musk is richest alive; Meta leads open-source models but trails the frontier.[[1]](https://www.economist.com/business/2026/04/16/could-ais-leading-men-become-as-powerful-as-ford-or-rockefeller?etear=nl_today_4)
These five "hold the fate of Western civilisation in their hands," as the American military already uses their tools; no tech since the atom has stirred such angst.[[3]](https://www.economist.com/business/2026/04/16/could-ais-leading-men-become-as-powerful-as-ford-or-rockefeller)[[4]](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markamontgomery_could-ais-leading-men-become-as-powerful-activity-7450992175162523649-Ss74)
Power differs from wealth: Rockefeller's peak was 1.5% of US GDP, Ford tops the article's mogul ranking with assets over 1% of GDP, employing 0.15% of Americans in 1925 and full family control post-1919.[[5]](https://www.biznews.com/tech/economist-ais-leading-men-powerful-ford)
AI firms are young and unprofitable versus Ford's scale; past tycoons often were "deeply strange," so Musk and Zuckerberg fit the mould; many early ventures in new tech fail.[[6]](https://www.threads.com/@theeconomist/post/DXPxxIaktFp/our-study-of-tycoons-through-history-reveals-three-important-commonalities-the)[[4]](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markamontgomery_could-ais-leading-men-become-as-powerful-activity-7450992175162523649-Ss74)
Ranking weighs personal wealth, market cap, employees, revenues and control at peak power; Musk leads the five but trails Ford overall.[[7]](https://x.com/econcallum/status/2044827340375834820)

Details and context

The article draws from historical study, noting tycoon power clusters around breakthrough tech like oil, cars or railways. Ford's Model T (1908) made cars affordable for masses, employing huge numbers and reshaping society—unlike AI firms so far, which burn cash without broad gains yet.[[4]](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markamontgomery_could-ais-leading-men-become-as-powerful-activity-7450992175162523649-Ss74)

AI's frontier models demand vast compute, favouring Big Tech backers like Microsoft for OpenAI, creating tight oligopoly risks. Past parallels: many dotcoms busted on fraud or bubbles; survivors like Google dominated later.

It may take years for AI moguls to peak, as Ford hit big profits a decade in—OpenAI is there now but loses money. The piece calls their power "unnerving" given traits like Altman's opportunism or Musk's volatility, yet sees precedent in capitalism's history.[[4]](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markamontgomery_could-ais-leading-men-become-as-powerful-activity-7450992175162523649-Ss74)

Key quotes

"In a very real sense, these five men hold the fate of Western civilisation in their hands. Not since the splitting of the atom has a new technology created such angst." — The Economist[[4]](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markamontgomery_could-ais-leading-men-become-as-powerful-activity-7450992175162523649-Ss74)

"It is unnerving that so few men wield such awesome power, particularly men as opportunistic as Mr Altman or as volatile as Mr Musk. But it is hardly unprecedented." — The Economist[[4]](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markamontgomery_could-ais-leading-men-become-as-powerful-activity-7450992175162523649-Ss74)

Why it matters

AI's world-changing potential, like cars or oil, could crown a new tycoon as powerful as Ford, who by one ranking outdid even Rockefeller through scale and control. Investors and firms face bets on these leaders amid losses and hype; voters and policymakers grapple with unchecked sway over military tools and economy. Watch if AI profits surge like Ford's did or if regulation curbs the five before a dominant figure emerges—history suggests one likely will.