Larry Fink knows a thing or two about markets. Over the past 38 years, the veteran fund manager has built BlackRock into the world’s largest asset manager. In January, he co-chaired the World Economic Forum, absorbing the collective wisdom of the Davos crowd.
Yet in his annual letter to investors this week, Fink highlighted the unnerving uncertainty of our times caused by wars, technological disruption and the reordering of international trade. A common refrain, he noted, was: “We’re not sure how to navigate this moment.” The old model of global capitalism was fracturing. But it was unclear what new model would emerge.
One core feature of the capitalist future, however, seems certain to be the increasing dominance of the giant AI-enabled tech companies. This staggering concentration of corporate wealth and power has sweeping implications for all other companies, employees, investors and politicians. “The economy is rewarding scale like never before,” Fink noted, observing how the leading companies in many industries were surging ahead while the rest struggled to keep pace.