Two things became clear after the World Economic Forum in Davos: America’s historic allies are increasingly skeptical of the country’s leadership and, at the same time, they can’t stop imagining the possibilities of American-designed artificial intelligence technology.
Almost every panel at Davos this year focused on how AI is transforming society. It’s no surprise. In the world of venture capital, 2025 was one of the biggest years on record, with around 70% of all deals going to AI companies. We see it differently. The checks were bigger, but there were fewer of them. In fact, the final months of 2025 recorded the lowest number of individual venture capital transactions in the last 20 quarters.
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This could mean fewer people opening new businesses, fewer new ideas entering the economy, and fewer jobs for those who need them. This is not a recipe for “making America great again”; in fact, it’s the way to make it less dynamic again.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney drew attention in Davos with a speech that challenged the conventional wisdom of the “Pax Americana”, stating that “nostalgia is not a strategy”. He’s right. The image of the United States as the land of opportunity may no longer correspond to economic reality.
In 1940, 90% of children would end up earning more than their parents; today, only 50% of millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) are expected to achieve this result. Currently, it is easier to climb the economic ladder in Sweden, Germany, France and Japan than in the United States.
In 2021, the richest 1% of families held a combined wealth 15 times greater than that of the poorest 50%. This same 1% concentrates around a third of the country’s assets. And inequalities can increase as the top income quintile takes an ever larger share at the expense of everyone below.
This loss of dynamism has negative repercussions for large segments of American society, undermines democracy, contributes to growing polarization, and weakens the security of the United States.
The good news is that we can change course, and some in business are already starting to do so. Over the past year, we’ve interviewed dozens of CEOs, academics, and other business leaders to understand how the economy is shifting from a model that rewards shareholders to one that cares about all stakeholders.
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Former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman was shocked to discover that one of his employees was selling plasma to pay the bills. He quickly set a goal of raising average employee net disposable income from 4% to 20%.
The company increased salaries across the organization, granted stock options to all employees, and offered free financial literacy training. It also reduced employee healthcare costs by 60%. The result: “skyrocketing” productivity and lower turnover.
CEO of global investment firm KKR, Peter Stavros, told us: “To me, it’s crazy to not want the people on the front lines — those who interact with customers and ensure quality and on-time deliveries — to be motivated by the company’s success.”
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That’s exactly what he did at KKR, modifying equity plans across the firm’s portfolio to ensure everyone had a share of the success. When KKR sold CHI Overhead Doors in 2022, the average worker received $175,000.
Publix, one of the largest employee-owned companies in the United States, also tops a consumer trust list among 11 peer companies. As a result, customers are 54% more likely to shop at Publix than their competitors.
More than 8,000 companies are classified in the category of generating a positive impact on society (“benefit corporations”). Among them are businesses such as Room and Board, San Pellegrino, Danone, Aveda, Unilever, Nespresso and Patagonia.
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In the short term, there is a trade-off between profit and values. In the long term, this tends to be less true. Greg Curtis, Patagonia’s former deputy general counsel, described the company’s approach this way: “We were comfortable with the tension between profitability and giving back to society. We didn’t feel like we were making a trade-off, but investing in our future.”
Approximately 18% of US workers have ownership interests in their companies. It’s a great start and something we should expand aggressively. We need to expand access to employee stock ownership plans and worker-owned funds.
There is a need to expand access to retirement investing by offering people good quality savings plans. “Trump Bonds” for every child, debuting this year, will give them all a stake in the capital markets and represent a smart step towards a more equitable society.
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We need to build more transparency in the capital markets so that investors and employees can make decisions knowing which companies favor the top 1% and which help create value and equity in other ways.
Most importantly, we need to reduce the barriers to starting a business from the start. The power of the United States comes from ideas. In 2021, there were more venture capital deals than in any other year, and also a much greater diversity of sectors represented than at any time in the last 25 years.
Today, the opposite is true. A dynamic America requires a broad base of thousands of AI applications, including in manufacturing, logistics and other sectors, not just a few foundational models in Silicon Valley.
In his opening remarks at Davos, Interim President Larry Fink highlighted: “Prosperity is not just aggregate growth. It cannot be measured just by GDP or the market value of the world’s largest companies. It needs to be measured by how many people can see it, touch it and build a future around it.”
This is the test America is failing — and the one the world needs us to pass. Being a beacon to the world doesn’t mean investing a lot of money in a handful of companies, brandishing threats in Greenland, or watching the Dow Jones soar.
It means creating more prosperity, freedom and opportunity for our country and our neighbors. We will restore America’s strength in the world by living up to our ideals, not just as a liberal democracy, but as a place where all who work hard can prosper.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary texts are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
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