By G. Dunkel
May 20, 2026
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed at Arizona State University every time he mentions AI. May 17, 2026.
The Big Six — so big that everyone knows Meta, Amazon, Alphabet/Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Apple — are planning to spend $650 billion on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in 2026 after spending $150 billion in 2022 and $360 billion in 2025. (Bloomberg, Feb. 6)
The business press in the United States call these plans frenzied, especially since the revenue from these investments only amounted to $35 billion in 2023 to 2025. That’s money coming in, not profits.
A study done at MIT found that the return on investment in AI was zero for 95% of the firms making such investments. (Axios, Aug. 21, 2025)
The capitalists who own and control the Big Six, the top U.S. firms measured by stock market value, have created this “gold rush fever” around transformative AI technology, because they sense that it will allow them to replace billions of dollars of high-priced labor (engineers, designers, programmers and many more) with low-cost computer cycles.
AI has more power than just creating fake images, such as Donald Trump as Jesus Christ or Jesus Christ in the body of a shrimp. It can control complex processes to improve their yields and make jobs easier.
For example, at a Bristol Myers Squibb facility in Devens, Mass., workers use machines and an AI process to help make cancer drugs. The AI process lets them monitor important variables in the fermentation of these drugs — such as temperature and oxygen levels — and alert the workers if there are problems, which can be fixed. Before AI, the workers had to wait until the end of the cycle.
AI has boosted productivity at the Devens facility by 40%. (New York Times, May 6)
China’s use of AI
China makes increasing use of AI to improve efficiency in manufacturing. In contrast, U.S.-based AI companies are investing billions to replace workers and concentrate economic power in fewer and fewer companies, whose AI code is proprietary. The World Economic Forum acknowledged innovative uses of AI worldwide: “Of the 223 factories that have made the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network list since 2018, 14 have been in the United States, while 99 are in China.”
China’s planners aim to advance its use of technology and have promoted heavy investment in developing AI and its applications. China’s DeepSeek AI is basically open source and just as powerful, according to some specialists, as the large language AI models produced in the U. S.
In the U.S., “deep fakes” which present a false version of reality — such as Donald Trump as Jesus Christ or a doctor — are certainly allowed. In China, “deep fakes” must be identified as such and a “people-centered” approach to AI is enforced. China is developing AI to make jobs easier and work more productive.
