By Steve Holland and Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden warned on Wednesday in his farewell address that an American oligarchy is taking shape among a few tech billionaires who have amassed a "dangerous concentration of power."
Biden warned Americans of a "tech industrial complex," words that echoed President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address in 1961. Eisenhower, closing out eight years as president, had warned of the dangers of a "military-industrial complex" gaining power in the United States.
"Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that really threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead," Biden said from the Oval Office.
He did not mention names, but Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has amassed not just vast wealth but has become a powerful adviser to Donald Trump, the Republican who will take over as president from Biden on Monday.
Musk, as well as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executives of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), will feature prominently at Trump's swearing-in, sitting with the Republican's cabinet nominees and elected officials.
The owner of the social media site X, Musk spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump win the November election, federal filings show, while other social media companies have donated heavily to Trump's inauguration.
SURGING SOCIAL MEDIA FIRMS
Biden referred to Eisenhower's speech in his 15-minute message.
"Six decades later, I'm equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex. It could pose real dangers for our country as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power," he said.
"The free press is crumbling. Pillars are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking," Biden said.
The stock value of seven of the biggest U.S. tech companies has risen so much in recent years that one Wall Street analyst nicknamed them the "Magnificent Seven." The combined value of the group, which includes Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Tesla, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Meta, has risen 46% in the past year, far outperforming the rest of the benchmark S&P 500 share index.
Biden also warned about the dangerous of artificial intelligence and the need to ensure controls on what he called "the most consequential technology of our time, perhaps of all time."
"We must make sure AI is safe and trustworthy and good for all humankind. In the age of AI, it's more important than ever that the people must govern and, as the land of liberty, America, not China, must lead the world in the development of AI," he said.
Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, recently scrapped its U.S. fact-checking program and reduced curbs on discussions around contentious topics such as immigration and gender identity, bowing to criticism from conservatives like Trump.
Musk restricted content moderation on X after buying the platform, formerly called Twitter.
Eisenhower's phrase "military-industrial complex" generally signifies mutually reinforcing interests between the armed forces and the for-profit companies that produce their weapons and provide services. The term is also used to refer to ties with members of Congress crucial for political support for spending on weapons programs and enhanced by political contributions.