Make Us Rich, We'll Take Care of the Rest. Sam Altman's Techno-Capitalist Manifesto

Make us rich. Make us a mountain of money. We’ll take care of the rest. We’ll find a way to rebalance the system. While Elon Musk was stealing the world’s attention by announcing his final break with Donald Trump and the creation of his own party (America Party), Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, shared one of his most controversial and popular posts ever on X.com . Published on July 4, long enough to seem more like a political manifesto than a request to the ruling class, the post begins with the most classic of American liturgies: “I am proud to be an American.

I think it’s the greatest country that’s ever existed on earth.” He continues: “I believe in techno-capitalism. We should encourage people to earn tons of money and then find a way to distribute the wealth widely and share the magic of compounding. One doesn’t work without the other; you can’t raise the floor and not raise the ceiling for a long time.”

What does “techno-capitalism” mean?

This is the first time Altman publicly mentions techno-capitalism. An economic model in which technology is the main engine of the economy. It is technology that creates value, economic growth and above all it is technology that changes, transforms society in the capitalist structure.

A textbook definition, for example, is that of Shoshana Zuboff who in Surveillance Capitalism (Luiss Press) gives a definition of techno-capitalism as the 'digital' evolution of capitalism. A phase of capitalism where technological evolution becomes the perfect tool to increase productivity and profits. But techno-capitalism by its nature also implies the concentration in the hands of a few, very few companies, of enormous power, both financial and decisional. Especially because of the link that these establish with political power. In the long run, for some theorists, the power of technological capitalism and political capitalism merge, a bit like what was feared in the most idyllic months of the relationship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

The concentration of money and power in the hands of a few

Altman is the head of one of the most advanced Artificial Intelligence companies. Chatgpt came out of the OpenAI laboratories, 1.5 billion unique users per month in just over two years of life. Acceleration never seen before in the history of technology. Acceleration made possible only by one element: the enormous amount of money that this company has, both to develop its own technologies and to pay the best engineers in the world to do it. Something unthinkable for public research anywhere in the world.

This, in the long run, would naturally lead to new forms of monopoly. Making money, “tons of money,” is a way to accumulate more and more wealth and power in the hands of a few people. These are also textbook dynamics of classical capitalism, just taken to the extreme by digital capitalism. And, considering the composition of the list of the richest men in the world today, the direction seems already marked. Techno-capitalism is already in place.

The Gothic spire of the new rich, an infinite tension towards the sky of the god of money

Hence the second part of Altman's message. The new rich are the roof that rises ever higher, a gothic metaphor of elevation to the sky, patrimonies like the spires of a cathedral. And those who remain below are the floor, which must be supported in some way.

How? Altman doesn't say it, but he has always supported the usefulness of a universal basic income. It is no coincidence that he celebrated Trump's decision to give a thousand euros to every American child in the budget law (it will be called the 'Trump Fund'). To prevent the floor from giving way - or sooner or later rebelling - it must be cared for, supported, satisfied with the bare minimum because the automation of work and the efficiency imposed by machines have only one possible outcome: sooner or later a good part of human work will be useless, and without a guaranteed income to consume the goods put on the market by the technology industry, the technology industry would have no reason to exist.

Altman, with a net worth of 1.7 billion, is in good company. There is a long list of entrepreneurs - from Peter Thiel (23.3 billion) to Marc Andressen (2 billion) - aware that the advance of new technologies will lead to an inevitable scenario: the strong reduction, if not the total extinction, of work. A scenario that, combined with the monopolistic concentration of digital capitalism where these technologies are produced by a small number of very powerful companies, leads to a crossroads: either a way is found to redistribute at least part of this wealth, or the world is destined to collapse politically.

Altman's Political Turn, "Political Orphan" Only for Convenience

This fork in the road helps us better understand the second part of Altman's post. He defines himself as a political orphan (as Musk was before him), but he donated a million dollars to Trump's inauguration ceremony. The Democrats are too distant now. Too left-wing today, with Zohran Mamdani who with a strongly progressive program wins the New York primaries and becomes the new hope of the American gods.

Altman, 41, gay, married to Oliver Mulherin, one son, has always said he was progressive on the rights front. Less so on the political front where Trump is now better with his promise of fewer rules and fewer taxes, especially for the rich. But he is a techno-capitalist. Today he wants the victory of digital capitalism in every area that guides contemporary society. Perhaps more Trumpian than Musk, at least for now.

More Power. More Technology. More Data. More Surveillance

Techno-capitalism is beyond neoliberalism. For some, it is a strengthened version of it. It brings with it a series of contradictions that are difficult to list. But in a techno-capitalist scenario, inequalities will tend to increase. And to some extent we are already within this tendency.

The new rich of digital capitalism have accumulated immense fortunes, which have increased in recent years where 1% of the population holds 90% of the world's wealth (Oxfam data): Elon Musk (Tesla), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Larry Page (Google), Segey Brin (Google), own fortunes as large as the GDP of entire states. And behind them are hundreds of managers, engineers, and bosses who compete with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual salaries. Immense fortunes. Distributed among very few. A few hundred, perhaps thousands of people among billions. Their number will perhaps increase in part, but the gap with the rest of the world will increase.

Their power will increase, and consequently their decision-making power will increase, as will their ability to influence people's opinions through social media and AI-packaged responses. To do so, they will exploit data, and monetize that of people who will have no choice but to give it up to access essential services to be able to live. A vicious circle destined to feed itself and keep itself in balance between the promise of increasingly effective technologies and the need to use them to keep up with a world where one technological marvel follows another. A scenario where technology, progress and social control intertwine, becoming one. The path has already been taken. @arcangelo.rociola