Larry Fink recently said exactly that. At an event in Waco, Texas in early May, he stated that building the massive AI infrastructure, data centers and power grids, will cost around $10 trillion over the next decade, and a big chunk of that money will have to come from Americans’ savings accounts and pension funds. He wasn’t saying BlackRock is seizing the money, he was talking about forcing investing from retirement savings, like 401(k)s and pensions, into these projects. BlackRock already manages over half its $14 trillion in retirement assets, so they’re in prime position to direct that capital. Fink framed it as a way for regular people to profit from the AI boom, but a lot of folks see it as him pushing to use other people’s money for BlackRock’s big infrastructure play. In his May talk in Waco, he said the $10 trillion needed for AI data centers and power infrastructure will largely come from private capital, specifically people’s long-term savings, pensions, and retirement accounts like 401(k)s. BlackRock clarified he meant investment accounts, not regular bank savings, and framed it as a way for everyday Americans to profit from the AI boom. The part about devaluing property, straining water and energy, or causing health issues isn’t something Fink mentioned. Those are real local concerns with data centers, they use massive amounts of electricity and water for cooling, can strain local grids, and raise worries about noise, air pollution from backup generators, and potential chemical runoff. Whether they actually lower nearby home values is mixed, some studies show little negative effect, others show communities push back hard. Fink’s pitch was basically “invest in the future to grow your retirement.” Critics see it as using regular people’s money to fund something that burdens the same communities.