Monopoly Round-Up: The Rage of the Billionaires Is Coming

BIG by Matt Stoller

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Monopoly Round-Up: The Rage of the Billionaires Is Coming<br>As students boo commencement speakers touting AI, and communities reject data centers, billionaires are getting nervous and angry. It's going to get worse.<br>Matt Stoller<br>May 18, 2026<br>∙ Paid

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Lots of monopoly-related news, as usual. Inflation picked up according to the official numbers, kick-ass anti-monopolist Rohit Chopra got a powerful job as a California regulator, and the Supreme Court took a step towards re-regulating trucking.<br>Before getting to that, I want to observe a pick-up in rage from the wealthy, as they begin to hear the public disdain for what they stand for.<br>Let’s start with something that has been happening to a few commencement speakers at college graduations. They bring up artificial intelligence, and get booed by the students getting their diplomas. It’s a spontaneous expression of frustration and disrespect for the powerful, by the next generation. This kind of move stings; public speaking is difficult, and having people reject you en masse stays with you. And it even happened to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Alex Kantrowitz@Kantrowitz

This is incredible. Artificial intelligence getting booed out of the stadium in any commencement speech it’s mentioned. Maybe telling college students AI was taking their jobs wasn’t the best strategy. Must watch —>

4:01 PM · May 17, 2026 · 24.6K Views

9 Replies · 3 Reposts · 38 Likes

The public is extremely angry, and they are centering their anger on AI. Seven out of ten Americans oppose data centers being built nearby. It’s not hard to see why.<br>AI and tech CEOs seem almost proudly villainous. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei routinely says that half of white collar jobs are going to disappear because of his technology. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, noted that “AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there’ll be great companies.” And Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, said during an earnings call that “This is a revolution. Some people can get their heads cut off.”<br>Voters are no longer brushing these comments off. They have experience with social media and enshittification, they don’t believe in the promise of the future. And even if they did, business leaders seem to luxuriate in explaining how terrible things will soon be for the little people. So they are starting to respond with frustration.<br>Yet, the pushback from public opinion isn’t informing the superrich, it is angering them. They are having their various libertarian think tank people frame opposition to data centers as ill-informed or emotional.

Adam Thierer@AdamThierer

the misinformation campaign against data centers is working. You really have to hand it to the anti-AI forces, who just layered on one lie after another to whip up this panic. No matter how many times we debunk them, their lies just keep spreading.

11:41 AM · May 13, 2026 · 138K Views

182 Replies · 124 Reposts · 761 Likes

Shuting Pomerleau@SXPomerleau

Yes. I’ve heard a lot of "concern" about data centers in private DC events lately. It feels like a trendy talking point driven by emotion rather than a conversation based on facts.

Steve Everley @saeverley

Attacks on data centers are dominating headlines, ranging from run of the mill environmental claims to obscure and even bizarre issues.

The broader dynamic should look familiar, because a very similar playbook was used against fracking.

🧵

1:53 PM · May 15, 2026 · 7.15K Views

9 Replies · 13 Reposts · 106 Likes

Scott Lincicome@scottlincicome

Datacenter opposition is quickly joining fracking, GMOs, vaccines, the NWO, the Great Replacement, and other loony fringe beliefs that stagnationists, politicians, & grifters embrace AND that seriously harm the US & global economies. Not good.

Garry Tan @garrytan

Sanders and AOC introduced a bill to pause ALL AI data center construction. 300+ local bills filed. Half of planned 2026 data centers facing delays or cancellation. Each one brings billions to local economies.

The people who say they want American jobs are trying to block the

2:23 PM · May 14, 2026 · 149K Views

98 Replies · 173 Reposts · 970 Likes

Sometimes, they take action directly. Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary accused critics of his giant Utah data center project of working for China and seeking to undermine American national security. A better strategy would be to try and listen to the anger, and then modify the development of AI technology so it doesn’t terrify everyone. China, for instance, is putting in place rules that companies are not allowed to replace workers with AI.<br>But American oligarchs refuse, because doing so is part of their ideology. In fact, they react with rage at any mild attempt to impose any sort of limit on their wealth and power, or even just basic criticism. We saw this situation when Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission sought...