AI Drives Wealth Inequality and Data Center Backlash

Research from Apollo Global Management, Morgan Stanley, and IESE Business School indicates that artificial intelligence is widening wealth inequality. While high-income, college-educated households benefit from equity wealth in AI-related stocks, lower-wage workers in AI-exposed roles face suppressed real wage growth. Apollo Global Management estimates that 5.8 million workers lose approximately $28 billion annually in wage growth, with the most severe declines affecting service workers and the lowest wage quartile.

Corporate profit margins have reached near postwar highs as firms use AI as a justification to raise prices while maintaining flat wages. IESE Business School found that starting pay at AI-exposed firms fell most sharply for junior roles, and JP Morgan Asset Management noted that payroll growth has slowed to half its pre-pandemic pace.

This economic disparity has triggered a bipartisan public backlash against AI infrastructure. In early 2026, 75 data center projects were blocked or delayed. This opposition culminated in July 2026 when New York implemented the first statewide moratorium on large data centers.