How the AI backlash could cost investors

AI backlash is mounting. Executives are getting booed. Workers are threatening strikes, and protests are frustrating data center development — but that doesn't seem to worry investors who are raining money on companies in the business.

Why it matters: AI hate could slow adoption of the technology, posing an underappreciated risk for investors buying into the current frenzy.

The latest: Even SpaceX's prospectus — which is threaded with AI hype — warns that the backlash is a real threat:

• "If AI technologies are perceived to be significantly disruptive to society, it could lead to governmental or regulatory restrictions or prohibitions on their use, societal concerns or unrest, or, both, any of which could materially and adversely affect our ability to develop, deploy or commercialize AI technologies and execute our business strategy."

Community outcry against AI was a key topic in recent meetings Morgan Stanley strategists had with investors recently in the U.S., they wrote in a note Monday. The two important areas of concern: job loss and electric bills.

• "These issues may increasingly become a part of the political landscape and could result in greater pushback to data center growth."
• The growing opposition to data centers, along with some projects getting canceled, is "sapping confidence" among investors, per a client note from Jefferies, Axios' Madison Mills recently reported.

Where it stands: The AI boom is a clear windfall for a select few who are hoovering up all that money — CEOs, key executives and a coterie of lucky employees inside the big AI startups.

• Meta dangled pay packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a few top researchers; 600 OpenAI employees recently cashed in stock worth $6.6 billion, per the Wall Street Journal.
• And for now, investors are obviously reaping gains, too.

Friction point: With so few people benefiting from this theoretically amazing technology — and with job losses underway and projected — there is bound to be anger.

• The American CEO of London-based Standard Chartered apologized Friday for his comment that the bank would replace "lower-value human capital" with artificial intelligence.
• Communities around the country are bristling at the physical manifestation of AI — the sprawling data centers believed to raise local electricity costs and contribute little to local economies.
• There's also rising concern over AI misuse, misinformation and data privacy, per the Morgan Stanley note.

Case in point: A fight in South Korea over profits between Samsung Electronics and its workers offers a glimpse into how the backlash could play out.

• Employees wanted a bigger share of the AI profit windfall the company has seen this year thanks to the chip boom — Samsung's market cap recently crossed $1 trillion. Workers threatened to strike. (Rival SK Hynix had already offered a better profit-sharing deal with its workers.)

Zoom in: The stakes? The South Korean economy. Samsung's revenue made up more than 12% of the country's GDP last year, CNN notes.

• Thursday, after the two sides reached a deal — not only did Samsung's stock pop, the entire South Korean stock market rose, too.

Yes, but: Samsung's employees are unionized. In the U.S., workers are often at the mercy of their bosses.

The big picture: History is littered with examples of backlash against a technological or economic threat that ultimately proved futile. We see you, Luddites!

• On the other end of the scale is what happened to nuclear power — public protest over its dangers played a role in slowing its adoption.
• Now that AI's energy needs are so great, nuclear is having a moment.

The bottom line: There's AI resistance. Investors are noticing, but for now, the money machine chugs on.