AI Widens Global Wealth Gap: Billionaires Thrive as Middle Class Shrinks

Numbers Tell the Story | According to reports by The Atlantic, there are more than three billion daily users on Meta’s apps. Face-to-face socialising has seen a sharp decline over the last 15 years, while 41% of people under 30 report speaking to AI companions every week. Some users spend up to 300 hours with a chatbot within 21 days, and one in five say they have replaced a human confidant with an AI. These are no longer rare behaviours; they are becoming mainstream.

Technology

C

CNBC TV18•19-01-2026, 05:31

AI Widens Global Wealth Gap: Billionaires Thrive as Middle Class Shrinks

•Artificial Intelligence (AI) is projected to threaten 400-800 million jobs by 2030, according to a McKinsey report.
•Oxfam reports that billionaire wealth grew three times faster in 2025, coinciding with an AI-fueled stock market boom in the US.
•The 'Magnificent Seven' tech giants invested over $400 billion in AI infrastructure, leading to a 27.5% gain in their stocks last year.
•The AI boom created at least 50 new billionaires in 2025, with Surge AI founder Edwin Chen becoming an 'AI billionaire' with $18 billion.
•Oxfam highlights that the wealth of the 10 richest billionaires ($2.4 trillion) exceeds that of the poorest 4 billion people, warning of political inequality and democratic erosion.

Why It Matters: AI's rapid advancement is exacerbating global wealth inequality, enriching billionaires while the middle class shrinks.

Read Full Article on Cnbc in English

✦

More like this

Loading more articles...