Market

Federal policymakers canpromote a robust competition toolkit, with a particular focus on abuse of dominance in the AI supply chain and energy sector.

Structural Separation

Structural separation is a tool to break up big companies so they cannot own multiple stages of a supply chain. In the AI market, structural separation may look like preventing cloud companies from participating in the market for AI foundation models, requiring that Big Tech firms divest their cloud computing businesses from the rest of their corporate structure, preventing AI foundation model companies from participating in other markets related to AI, or preventing chip designers from investing in AI development companies. It also may look like preventing private-equity firms from owning energy utility companies and power companies, or Big Tech companies from owning energy companies and data centers.

Heightened Scrutiny of Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships

Require heightened scrutiny of mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships involving Big Tech hyperscalers and/or private-equity firms and their subsidiaries.

Bright-Line Rules

Rather than rely exclusively on enforcement of antitrust laws after a harm has already occurred, ex ante rules proactively prevent harm before it can occur. Enforcers can use these proactive regulations to prevent Big Tech hyperscalers from self-preferencing their own products or engaging in discriminatory treatment.

Quick measures to put market players on notice could include warning letters or use of subpoena power to scrutinize financial transactions within the sector, particularly those involving circular spending deals or those that use special-purpose vehicles (SPVs) to obscure information from investors. 

Data center deals are becoming increasingly convoluted and opaque, with Big Tech firms using distinct legal entities known as special-purpose vehicles (SPVs) to fund and execute data center deals. These deals are “off-balance sheet,” meaning that the deal—and any debt the SPV has raised—is not listed on Big Tech firms’ balance sheets, thus masking a clear picture of a company’s financial health.¹ Federal policymakers should prohibit public firms from using SPVs and other financial vehicles to hide data center investments on balance sheets, or should fully investigate the terms of these deals. 

1. Advait Arun, Bubble or Nothing: Data Center Project Finance, Center for Public Enterprise, November 2025, https://publicenterprise.org/wp-content/uploads/Bubble-or-Nothing.pdf. ↩︎

Data centers are increasingly financed through complex, opaque, and highly leveraged deals. Banks, insurance companies, private credit funds, real estate investment trusts (REITs), pensions, mutual funds, and retail investors are increasingly exposed to risk and could suffer significant losses in the event of a market downturn.¹ Federal policymakers should establish financial safeguards to prevent pension funds and other important institutional investors from acquiring or retaining exposure to speculative securities linked to data center infrastructure. Such safeguards might include mandated divestment (i.e., requiring pension funds to divest from securities whose underlying collateral depends on data centers), heightened fiduciary duties for the administrators of pension plans or the managers of other investment portfolios, or more stringent transparency and exposure reporting requirements.

1. Warren et al., Letter to Secretary Scott Bessent Re AI Debt, U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. ↩︎

AI companies comprised over 80 percent of US stock market gains in 2025, and stock market ownership represents nearly 30 percent of the net worth of American households.¹ We cannot build a successful and sustainable economy around one concentrated industry. The stock market gains attributed to AI mask a bleak economic picture: Across the US job growth is slowing,² daily life is becoming more unaffordable,³ and many of the vital institutions that support our civic and social lives are facing budget cuts and austerity demands. We need to invest in industries that equip people with good jobs, pass strong regulations to check concentrated corporate power, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our economy.

1. Arun, Bubble or Nothing. ↩︎
2. Justin Lahart and Danny Dougherty, “America’s Job Market Has Entered the Slow Lane,” Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2026, https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/jobs-employment-2025-df2fa311. ↩︎
3. Madeleine Ngo, “Food Prices Were Stubbornly High Last Year,” New York Times, January 13, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/business/economy/inflation-cpi-report-food-prices.html. ↩︎