It was a wild ride for the economy in 2025. The economy expanded more than expected, along with the fortunes of tech companies and their CEOs, largely through their investments in AI. However, beneath these statistics lies a more troubling reality, one where tech companies and their bosses continue to amass wealth, while their supply chains harm workers and the environment. This is a concentrated wealth surge where a handful of firms and their leaders capture disproportionate gains.
In December, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product expanded at an annualized rate of 4.3 % in the third quarter of 2025, the fastest pace in two years and well above forecasted figures. The surge was powered by investment in technology infrastructure tied to AI. For example, Apple estimated that fiscal-fourth quarter earnings would indicate that company revenue grew by 10 – 12% on a year over year basis. The companies and their CEOs driving the fast-paced growth are doing pretty well: Also in December we heard that the world’s billionaires added roughly $730 billion to their collective wealth in 2025, with the largest gains tied overwhelmingly to tech and AI.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure underpinning the AI boom is generating serious environmental and social concerns. In her award winning book, Empire of AI, published in May last year, Karen Hao detailed the environmental toll of data centers – facilities that strain local water and power resources while driving up energy costs for surrounding communities. Beyond infrastructure, the supply chains that make AI possible raise even deeper ethical questions. A June report by Global Rights Compliance traced lithium and magnesium used in AI technologies to China’s Xinjiang region, where Uyghur people are subjected to forced labor in mining and processing operations. That investigation linked these minerals to nearly seventy global brands operating in Western markets.
2025 also witnessed the intensity of corporate lobbying aimed at weakening the very regulatory frameworks designed to address these social risks. Investigative reporting revealed how U.S. multinationals, working through industry associations and coordinated lobbying campaigns, successfully pressured EU institutions to dilute the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). What began as a meaningful attempt to hold companies accountable for human rights and environmental abuses was deliberately softened. The final framework reflects sustained corporate influence rather than the scale of the harms it was meant to address, leaving workers in the lurch.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., ranking members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security questioning the slowdown in enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), widely regarded as one of the strongest tools globally to curb forced labor in supply chains. Since its passage, the UFLPA has reshaped corporate behavior and forced greater transparency, yet enforcement data shows declining inspections and fewer penalties. At a moment when forced labor remains embedded in critical mineral and technology supply chains, weakening or neglecting enforcement undermines U.S. law and signals to companies that compliance is optional and that profit continues to outweigh accountability.
In 2025, tech companies and their CEOs flourished, amassing extraordinary profits and market power. At the same time, many of these firms used that influence to shape a regulatory landscape that continues to favor growth and margins over responsibility. The year also made clear that the costs of this boom are not evenly shared: communities bear environmental strain, and opaque supply chains leave human rights abuses largely unaddressed. In 2026, the challenge is not to slow economic growth but to check its excesses, to rein in corporate influence and strengthen the rules meant to curb harmful behavior so that gains are shared more broadly and built on foundations that are both ethical and durable.
