Topline
Younger Americans hold more negative views than positive views of AI and a mostly pessimistic outlook on the economy, a new poll published on Thursday conducted by CNBC and Generation Labs found, which also found a majority distrust the billionaire leaders of AI companies like Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg.
An unofficially-installed poster critical of Elon Musk’s wealth is displayed on a bus shelter on June 11, 2026 in Tottenham, England.
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Key Facts
In a new CNBC/Generation Labs survey that polled 1,088 Americans between the ages of 18 and 34, about 45% said AI would have a negative impact on their careers, compared to 10% that said it would help them.
A majority of respondents said they distrusted the leaders of major companies investing in AI—81% said they distrusted Palantir CEO Alex Karp, 79% distrusted Palantir chairman Peter Thiel, 76% distrusted Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, 74% distrusted Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, while around 70% said they distrusted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Microsoft’s Satya Nadella was viewed as the most trustworthy, but not by much—about 35% of respondents said they trusted him, while 65% said they distrusted him.
Younger Americans also had a negative view of the data centers needed for AI, with a majority 60% saying new construction should be slowed down, compared to only 15% who said it should be sped up.
The poll also found young people have a pessimistic view of the economy—about 45% described it as “bad,” while another 27% described it as “very bad” and 6% said it “couldn’t be worse.”
It also showed a rising popularity of democratic socialism among young Americans—about 46% of respondents said they held either a “somewhat favorable” or “very favorable” view of the ideology, while only a combined 23% said they had either “somewhat unfavorable” or “very unfavorable” views on it.
Forbes Valuation
We value all of the CEOs mentioned in the polling as billionaires. OpenAI’s Sam Altman is worth about $3.3 billion as of Thursday, while Microsoft’s Satya Nadella is worth an estimated $1.3 billion. Alphabet and Google’s Sundar Pichai is worth about $1.3 billion, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei is worth an estimated $15.5 billion. We estimate Palantir’s Alex Karp is worth about $15.9 billion, while the company’s co-founder and chair Peter Thiel is worth about $31.9 billion. Zuckerberg, Musk and Huang are among the wealthiest people in the world. The Nvidia CEO is worth about $193.5 billion, making him the eighth-wealthiest person in the world, while the Facebook co-founder is worth about $198.8 billion as of Thursday, placing him at number six. Musk is the wealthiest person in the world with an estimated $889.9 billion fortune, and was briefly the first trillionaire in history after SpaceX’s IPO.
Key Background
The new polling largely tracks with broader polling of Americans of all age ranges done in recent months. A recent Washington Post/Ipsos poll published in July found 65% of Americans disapproved of President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy. Another Reuters/Ipsos poll published in August found 37% Americans favored Democrats on economic issues compared to 36% favoring Republicans—the first time Democrats have polled higher than Republicans on the issue since 2017, according to the data. Some polling has also shown changing opinions on socialism. In 2025, only 54% of Americans surveyed by Gallup had a favorable view of capitalism—the lowest the ideology has scored since Gallup began asking respondents about it. The same poll showed favorable opinions on socialism rising slightly to 39%, matching the highs it reached in 2012 and 2019. This could explain the sustained popularity of democratic socialist politicians like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as well as the success of candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. DSA-endorsed candidates have notched several wins in primary elections this season, including in Democratic House primaries in Colorado and Pennsylvania, as well as in the Washington, D.C. mayoral race. However, Francesca Hong, the DSA-backed candidate in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race, lost in a close race to moderate David Crowley on Tuesday.