LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman says the United States is entering a rare window of economic opportunity as AI pushes companies to invest in ways that benefit workers across the country.
In a new post on X, Hoffman says public debate is overly fixated on job elimination and not nearly focused enough on the new, well-paid jobs emerging from the AI boom.
He highlights a new Wall Street Journal report showing how AI is already boosting demand for skilled labor. The piece said the rapid expansion of data centers is creating a surge in domestic hiring and raising wages across construction trades, with welders, electricians and construction workers 25% to 30% more.
“This is the kind of second-order effect that is routinely underestimated in conversations about who benefits from AI. The reality is that benefits from technology spill outward, often dramatically, into the broader workforce. When industries invest with urgency and ambition, the ripple effects are both broad and egalitarian. Decades ago, America saw this in aerospace manufacturing. Later, in cloud computing. Now it’s data centers.”
Hoffman says America now has an opening to strengthen domestic industry at a moment when China is deploying state-backed resources to dominate advanced technologies.
“America’s dynamic economy gives us a unique advantage. When a new sector emerges, we can build it here. In a world where China is making massive state-backed bets to dominate advanced technologies, our ability to mobilize capital, talent, and innovation domestically is an essential form of competition. And it is good for American workers.”
He adds that AI is also creating the conditions for a reboot of US energy production, calling it a critical area where the country is currently falling behind.
“The AI boom has also granted the United States a real chance to reboot domestic energy production. We are in an energy race with China, and right now, they are lapping us. China added over 300 gigawatts of new energy capacity in 2024 alone. The US, by comparison, added around 45 to 50 gigawatts across all sources.”
Hoffman says the combination of AI investment, energy expansion and domestic talent demand marks the start of a rare opportunity for broad-based renewal.
“We are on the cusp of a generational economic opportunity. AI is pushing American industry to invest in ways that have immediate, measurable benefits for everyday workers. If we extend that ambition and apply the same spirit of innovation and coordinated action to energy, the result will be a broad-based renewal of the American workforce.”
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