AI wealth surges as layoffs hit a new high

AI is creating a fortune for a narrow circle of founders, investors and early employees even as layoffs hit workers at a pace not seen for a May in six years. U.S. employers announced 97,006 job cuts in May, and the same month Anthropic said it had raised $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation while OpenAI confidentially filed a draft S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 8.

The split is increasingly visible in the layoff data. Challenger, Gray & Christmas said AI was the leading reason cited for job cuts for a third straight month in May, accounting for 38,579 announced cuts in the month and 87,714 through the first five months of 2026. Tech employers alone announced 38,242 cuts in May, the most in a single month for the sector since August 2024.

That matters because the current wave is no longer being explained only by overhiring or a broad slowdown. Companies are increasingly tying reductions to automation and AI adoption, shifting the burden of transition onto employees while the upside is captured by a small group of insiders. Anthropic’s financing was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital, a roster that underscores how aggressively money is chasing the sector’s winners.

The wealth being created at the top is moving toward public-market scale just as the labor market absorbs the shock. Reuters reported that OpenAI’s filing and Anthropic’s move are part of a race toward the stock market as investor demand for AI shares intensifies. Anthropic confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO on June 1, and OpenAI has said it has not yet determined the timing of further action.

The pressure is falling hardest on younger workers trying to enter the field. Stanford-linked reporting on the 2026 AI Index found that employment for software developers ages 22 to 25 fell nearly 20% from a 2024 peak, a sharp drop for workers who entered the industry expecting the clearest path into the AI economy. That comes after a separate 2024 tech correction that already produced more than 124,000 layoffs in one widely cited tally.

The political risk is simple: companies can present AI as a productivity strategy, but the gains are accruing fastest to a tiny class of founders, executives and investors. For everyone else, the transition is showing up first as a pink slip.