Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, warns the AI boom risks worsening inequality, with rewards flowing only to a handful of firms and investors. In his annual letter, he noted that AI threatens to repeat—and amplify—a pattern where wealth accrues to those who already own assets. His solution: more people should invest in capital markets rather than rely on homeownership. The warning comes as BlackRock manages $14tn and Fink’s own $30.8m pay package has drawn shareholder scrutiny.

Larry Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, has issued a stark warning: the artificial intelligence boom is not just the next technological frontier—it is a potential engine for historic inequality.

In his annual letter to investors, the head of the world’s largest asset manager argued that while AI will generate “enormous economic value,” the rewards are poised to flow only to a select few. “The massive wealth created over the past several generations flowed mostly to people who already owned financial assets,” Fink wrote. “And now AI threatens to repeat that pattern at an even larger scale.”

He noted that companies possessing the data, infrastructure, and capital to deploy AI at scale—such as Nvidia, now valued at $4.3 trillion—are “positioned to benefit disproportionately.” For everyone else, Fink warned, prosperity may feel “increasingly distant.”

Yet Fink’s diagnosis came with a self-serving prescription. Rather than focusing on housing, which he claimed yields lower returns due to taxes and maintenance, he urged citizens to turn to the stock market. “If prosperity is increasingly being created in the capital markets, part of the answer is to make sure more people are invested in them,” he said.

Critics may note the irony: BlackRock manages $14 trillion and Fink recently took home $30.8 million in a pay package that only 67% of shareholders supported. As AI reshapes the global economy, Fink’s letter leaves an uncomfortable question unanswered: if the solution to inequality is more investing, who gets to own the market when the market is owned by the people selling the tickets?