This year, Nvidia became worth more than Germany's entire economy. A few companies now hold more capital, compute, and reach than most countries.
That means the decisions that used to belong to public institutions increasingly happen inside private ones: what rules a model follows, what billions of people see, which technologies get built next.
But they answer to shareholders, not the public.
Once our world runs on these systems, that setup is much harder to unwind, while the usual check, regulation, has been lagging behind.
How did we solve for this before? Earlier eras built institutions to hold it: antitrust, public utilities, oversight. The AI age needs its own institutions, so answerability can be built into the systems. Think shared infrastructure, open models no single company holds, tools to audit them, and funding for public goods.
Building that is our next frontier. On November 7 and 8, the Funding the Commons Forum brings two hundred researchers, engineers, policymakers, funders, and citizens to San Francisco to work on how power this large stays answerable.
If you're building the models, mechanisms, or institutions this takes, come. Early-bird tickets close September 6.
Join us:
luma.com/ftcforum-sf-2026
Apply to speak:
forms.gle/XmsYbz2W5YNPZvyP7