Why Black Folks Need to Own AI, Not Just Use It

We're doing it again. Right now, Black folks are all over AI: creating fire content with ChatGPT and building businesses with these tools. We're early adopters, power users, the culture drivers that make tech cool, and just like with every other tech wave, we're about to get played again because while we're busy being the best consumers AI has ever seen, somebody else is cashing the checks.

Let's Talk About What's Happening

AI is the biggest wealth transfer opportunity since the internet itself, except this time it's moving much faster and the stakes are higher. I’m talking about technology that's going to touch everything: who gets jobs, loans, into college, who gets pulled over by police using facial recognition, and who gets their medical symptoms taken seriously.

And my people? We're mostly sitting in the audience while other folks write the script.

The numbers are brutal. Black founders get less than 2% of venture capital funding. At the big AI companies (OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic), Black people are barely visible in leadership. The people building the future don’t look like us, and they're getting stupid rich doing it.

Meanwhile, we're the ones training their algorithms for free every time we use their products. Our data, our culture and our creativity: it's all getting fed into systems that other people own and profit from. Sound familiar?

We’ve Seen This Movie Before

Remember social media? Black Twitter basically created the culture that made Twitter valuable. Black creators turned Vine into a cultural phenomenon, drove engagement on Instagram and made TikTok what it is. We made the platforms cool and worth billions. Who got rich, not us. Jack Dorsey got rich. Mark Zuckerberg got rich. The pro investors who funded them got dumb rich. Meanwhile, the Black creators who made these platforms culturally significant got followers, maybe a few brand deals if they were lucky, but no equity or ownership.

We built the culture while they built thier wealth, and now AI is the same setup, except it moving way faster and with much bigger consequences because AI isn't just about entertainment, it's damn near everything.

Why Ownership Matters

I need to be clear about what I’m talking about when I say ownership. I don't mean just having a good job at an AI company. I mean starting or investing directly in AI businesses or into the businesses that make stuff needed by AI businesses; because that's where the real money is. I mean owning equity that can turn into millions when those companies succeed, that's the difference between a good salary salary and a $5M return on your investments. That means owning equity in AI apps and AI infrastructure like servers, chips, data centers, cloud platforms, the infrastructure is the unsexy stuff that still prints money.

The people who own AI companies will make billions. The people who work at them will make good salaries. The people who only use them will pay subscription fees. Which one do you want to be?

Why This Matters

First: The money is mad crazy. OpenAI went from zero to a $157 billion valuation in basically three years. AI startups are raising hundreds of millions. The wealth being created right now will set up families for generations, and if Black folks aren't in ownership positions, we're watching another opportunity to build generational wealth pass us by.

Second: These systems are already biased against us with facial recognition that doesn't work well on darker skin, hiring algorithms screen out Black-sounding names, and healthcare AI trained on data that excludes Black patient data. When the people building AI don't look like or answer to us, these aren't bugs, they're features. Ownership means we can demand better, without it, we're forced to ask nicely.

Third: AI will decide who gets access to everything: who gets approved for a mortgage, who gets accepted to schools, who gets hired, who gets medical treatment, who gets surveilled by police. If we don't own or control some of these systems, we're at the mercy of their algorithms making decisions about our lives.

Fourth: They're building wealth with our data. Every time you use ChatGPT, you're training it. Every image a Black creator makes, every prompt and every interaction is data that makes these systems better and more valuable. We're doing the work while they're getting the rewards.

Two things are holding us back

Knowledge gap: Most of us don’t know that we can invest in these companies directly when they are still young.

Second, we're scared to take the risk. That fear makes sense on the surface. When you're the first in your family to make good money and when people depend on you, taking that kinda of risk can feel irresponsible. But playing it too safe is exactly how we stay behind.

These internal barriers combined with the external ones create a perfect storm that keeps Black folks locked out of ownership. But barriers aren't impossibility, and Black folks have been breaking through impossible barriers since forever.

The Bottom Line

We need to get aggressive about this right fucking now, not in ten years. If you got technical skills, stop waiting for permission and start building. If you have money, stop parking it just in index funds and start angel investing.

AI is happening with or without us, and the question is whether we're going to own a piece of it or just rent access to it.

Every day we wait, the ownership structure gets more locked in. The early investors and founders are already getting rich and the wealth gap is widening. We should be excited about AI because the technology is incredible, but excitement without ownership is just being an excited customer, and Black folks have been customers for long enough.

If we keep playing the same role we've played in every other tech revolution, we're going to wake up in ten years wondering why we're even further behind.

This is the moment, not tomorrow, not next year, but right now while AI is young enough that for people to build or own a piece of the next big thing.

Cheers,

~Abdul

Hey Hey… I’m Abdul I’m the chaiman of Ajo Angels and Shujaa Capital and I’m on a mission to introduce angel investing to 25,000 black folks over the next five years. I’m doing this with the goal of narrowing the racial wealth gap as well as trying to close the billion dollar funding gap for black founders.

This article reflects personal perspective and experience, not financial advice. Every career and investment path involves different risks and opportunities. Make decisions based on your own circumstances and goals.