Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said the United States is likely to be a "big winner" from artificial intelligence, describing the technology as a structural shift in the global economy.
Speaking during an European Central Bank summit in Sintra, Portugal, Warsh said AI represents a "paradigm shift" for both economic policy and business activity. He added that the world is still in the early phase of the transformation, which he described as being in the "first or second inning,'' reported ABC News.
Warsh said AI investment is already influencing U.S. economic performance, pointing to increased spending on chips, data centers, and infrastructure that has supported recent growth trends, according to Yahoo Finace.
Economists and policymakers have linked that investment cycle to stronger output in parts of the U.S. economy, particularly in technology-heavy sectors tied to artificial intelligence development, as reported by The Hill.
The Federal Reserve chair said the same wave of investment is also shaping expectations around productivity and labor markets, with companies continuing to expand hiring and capital allocation tied to AI systems, according to Baha Breaking News.
Elsewhere, Warsh also linked artificial intelligence to inflation dynamics, noting that while investment demand is boosting economic activity, longer-term productivity gains could alter supply conditions across the economy.
Technology investment has also been a major driver of equity market performance this year, with semiconductor companies and AI infrastructure firms contributing significantly to gains in major stock indexes.
At the same time, some analysts have pointed to a gap between the scale of AI-related spending and near-term revenue generation, as companies continue to invest heavily in infrastructure ahead of widespread monetization.
The Trump administration has also been focusing on getting the U.S. government involved in the AI boom. In this context, OpenAI has reportedly proposed giving the U.S. government a 5% ownership stake in the company.
The proposed stake would be worth about $42.6 billion, based on OpenAI's latest valuation of $852 billion, and is said to be part of broader discussions over how the public could share in the economic gains from AI, CNBC reported.
According to the Financial Times, which first reported the discussions, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman suggested the government receive a 5% stake as part of a wider arrangement under which Washington would hold similar stakes in the country's leading AI developers through a government investment vehicle.
Altman reportedly argued that allowing the public to benefit financially from AI's growth would be the most effective way to distribute the technology's economic gains. It remains unclear whether any of those companies would support such an arrangement.
