AI's Three-Body Problem: no single force can dictate the outcome
Fortune 51 ● 8 sources
The AI economy in 2026 is described as a three-body system where frontier labs, open-weight models, and application companies each influence the others but none can control the final outcome. Spending on AI is estimated at between 0.5 and 1 percent of all US white-collar salaries, driving scrutiny of ROI and pressure for cheaper alternatives as competition intensifies. Open-weight models and applications gain momentum as prices face downward pressure and the market shifts further toward multi-model choices.