Andrew Yang is arguing that the next wave of Silicon Valley disruption won’t come from building new AI models, but from startups that make everyday life cheaper for people whose jobs and wages are threatened by AI.

Early warnings and the AI disruption thesis

Yang first rose to national prominence in his 2020 presidential campaign warning that automation and AI would displace workers and concentrate wealth, advocating universal basic income (UBI) as a buffer.¹ That concern has only intensified as estimates of AI-related job losses have mounted, particularly among entry-level workers.²

While some tech leaders, like Elon Musk, lean toward a future where “AI and robots are going to make so much stuff” that societies can simply “issue money to people” in the form of a universal high income,Elon Musk (elonmusk)³ Yang is increasingly focused on market-based mechanisms that directly lower costs for consumers rather than just redistributing cash.

From UBI to “give-back” business models

Inspired by Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, which sells pharmaceuticals at cost plus a flat markup,² Yang began asking what would happen if startups “giv[e] money back instead of extracting it.”¹ He compiled a list of everyday necessities—“housing, education, food, fuel, transportation, media, and wireless”¹—and argued that as AI “compresses wages and eliminates entry-level jobs,” the real opportunity is in making these basics cheaper.²

In September, Yang launched Noble Mobile, a discount mobile virtual network operator that sells service at a fraction of traditional carrier prices and returns money to customers who use less data.¹ The company has attracted “thousands and thousands” of customers, generates “millions in revenue,” and is unit-profitable per subscriber while sharing profits with users to keep them loyal.²

Investors chase AI as Yang touts cost-of-living startups

Yang sees Noble Mobile, Cost Plus Drugs, Misfits Market and minimalist phone maker Light Phone as early examples of a category where “the value proposition is the margin the startup gives back, not the margin it extracts.”² He calls meeting basic needs “less expensively” a “very rich vein of opportunity.”¹

But he says this vision runs against current capital flows. Investors are fixated on AI-native startups, often shunning consumer businesses with thin margins and social missions. One investor told him, “Love you, Andrew… if you could just make this an AI company, we’ll invest.”²

Caught between Musk’s expectation of an eventual abundance-funded “universal high income”³ and Yang’s push for cost-cutting startups plus possible UBI,¹ the debate over how to share AI’s spoils is increasingly shaping where founders and funders bet the next decade will go.