Today we're talking about something that would have sounded unbelievable not long ago.
AI is no longer just a corporate story. It has become a matter of national strategy.
On one side, presidents and prime ministers are personally courting the biggest technology CEOs. On the other, OpenAI is reportedly proposing that the U.S. government take a 5% stake in the company. Yes, you read that right.
And as if that were not enough, many companies that laid off employees in the name of AI are already reversing course.
Let's take a closer look.
Right now, governments are scrambling to avoid being left behind in the global AI race. Two leaders stand out in particular: French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
What are they doing? They are personally pursuing the biggest names in technology.
Macron convinced SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to invest tens of billions of euros in data centers across France. The two reportedly exchanged text messages directly to finalize the agreement. SoftBank announced plans for 3.1 GW of data center capacity as part of a €75 billion investment program. Macron's biggest advantage? Energy. France generates a large share of its electricity from nuclear power.
Now let's look at India.
Modi hosted many of the world's top technology CEOs at a summit in February.
"India does not fear AI. It sees opportunity. It sees the future," he said.
The results followed quickly. Amazon announced a record $48 billion investment, with $21 billion dedicated to AI and cloud infrastructure, while Google committed $15 billion to build its largest AI hub outside the United States.
You might be wondering, "Why the rush?"
Because India is widely seen as trailing behind. It does not manufacture cutting edge chips, it does not have its own leading foundation model, and it largely missed the stock market rally driven by AI. Modi is now trying to close that gap.
Things become even more interesting here.
It is no longer just governments approaching technology companies. The technology companies are approaching governments as well.
According to the Financial Times, OpenAI has proposed giving the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company.
What does that mean?
At the company's reported $852 billion valuation, that stake would be worth approximately $42.6 billion.
Sam Altman argues that this would allow the benefits of AI to be shared with ordinary Americans. He has proposed creating a government fund that would hold a 5% stake in every major American AI company.
Now you might ask, "Does something like this actually happen?"
It can.
Last year, the Trump administration acquired a 10% stake in Intel following an $8.9 billion investment. Trump described it as "a beautiful thing" that makes Americans "partners in this revolution."
Of course, there is another side to the debate.
Supporters argue that if the government has a financial stake, it will have a stronger incentive to ensure AI succeeds.
Critics, however, wonder whether OpenAI may simply be looking for someone to share the financial risk if things go wrong.
And one major question remains.
What would Anthropic do? Would it really want its biggest competitor to become so closely aligned with the U.S. government?
So far, there has been no indication that Anthropic is considering a similar arrangement.
Now let's move to the second major story.
While everyone talks about AI replacing human workers, something unexpected is happening.
Many companies that laid off employees because of AI are hiring them back.
Take Ford.
The company is bringing back hundreds of experienced engineers to address quality issues that its automated systems simply could not solve.
"AI is a fantastic tool, but it is only as good as the data used to train it," one executive said.
And Ford is not alone.
Australia's Commonwealth Bank laid off more than 40 customer service employees and replaced them with a voice bot.
The experiment failed.
Instead of reducing call volumes, the bot actually increased them.
The bank reversed the layoffs, admitting it had underestimated the complexity of the transition.
Then there is IBM.
The company replaced parts of its HR operations with AI that successfully handled 94% of employee requests.
The problem was the remaining 6%.
Those cases involved ethical questions and complex human judgment.
IBM is now tripling its hiring of new employees.
"If we stop investing in new talent, what happens in three to five years? Eventually, the well simply runs dry," said the company's HR chief.
The numbers tell the same story.
Thirty nine percent of business leaders laid off workers because of AI.
Among them, 55% now admit they made the wrong decision.
In the United States, 32% of hiring managers eliminated a position because of AI, only to hire someone back for the exact same role later.
To understand the scale of the trend, look at the hard numbers.
During the first half of 2026 alone, more than 150,000 workers lost their jobs because of AI.
The growth has been remarkable.
In 2024, around 18,000 AI related job cuts were recorded.
In 2025, that number surpassed 100,000.
By the first six months of 2026, it had already exceeded 150,000.
That is more than eight times higher than the total recorded in 2024.
More than 50 CEOs have publicly announced AI driven layoffs.
Nine companies each eliminated more than 10,000 positions.
Among them were Amazon, Citigroup, Dell, HSBC, Intel, Microsoft, and UPS.
Perhaps the most striking statistic is this.
More than 60% of all AI related layoffs occurred at companies employing over 100,000 people.
And this is no longer just a technology story.
The impact has spread across finance, logistics, consulting, media, retail, manufacturing, and many other industries.
