At many conferences, the most meaningful conversations happen after the panels end for the day. At this year’s Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, Worth and Vested brought together a diverse group of executives from private equity, management consulting, life sciences, telecommunications, technology, and finance for an off-the-record discussion about the future of the economy and the forces most likely to shape it over the next couple of years.
The evening was designed around the idea that genuine cross-industry dialogue can yield unexpected and insightful outcomes. As the conversation evolved, the group participated in an informal survey to identify the industry, company, and corporate leader who would have the most impact on the economy over the next couple of years.
The answers revealed not only where influential business leaders believe the economy is heading, but also how the center of gravity in global business has shifted.
AI and technology dominated the industry responses, while defense and life sciences/healthcare were notable runners up. That combination says a great deal about the current moment.
For the better part of the last decade, conversations about economic transformation largely centered around software, social media, e-commerce, and fintech. Today, the mood is more complex and arguably more grounded in existential realities.
Artificial intelligence remains the defining technological force, but leaders are now pairing that optimism with concerns around geopolitical instability, national security, supply chain resilience, healthcare innovation, and demographic change.
The rise of defense as a top economic force would have been an unlikely consensus answer in many executive circles just a few years ago. Today, it reflects a broader recognition that geopolitics and economics are once again deeply intertwined. Wars in Europe and the Middle East, growing tensions between the United States and China, cybersecurity threats, and increased government spending on defense technologies have transformed the sector from a niche industrial category into a central pillar of economic and technological strategy.
At the same time, life sciences and healthcare remain top-of-mind because executives increasingly view human health, longevity, biotechnology, and healthcare infrastructure not simply as social issues, but as major economic drivers. Advances in AI-powered drug discovery, personalized medicine, and preventative health are reshaping investment priorities across industries.
The company responses illustrated where the market believes true influence now resides. While Anthropic led, they were closely followed by NVIDIA and SpaceX. The inclusion of Anthropic, over OpenAI, is particularly telling.
Unlike many household technology brands, Anthropic remains relatively unknown outside of technology and investment circles. Yet among this room of senior executives, the company was viewed as one of the most consequential businesses in the world economy. That reflects how quickly the AI infrastructure race has become central to corporate and geopolitical strategy.
Anthropic’s rise also signals a subtle but important shift in how influence is measured. Scale alone is no longer the defining metric, strategic positioning around foundational AI models, safety frameworks, and enterprise integration may ultimately matter more than consumer visibility.
NVIDIA’s presence was unsurprising. The company has effectively become the picks-and-shovels provider for the AI economy, supplying the computing infrastructure powering everything from large language models to autonomous systems. During the gold rush, the safest bet was often selling the tools, and in many ways, NVIDIA is occupying the same role.
Then there is SpaceX. The company’s inclusion demonstrates how space, satellite infrastructure, and private-sector industrial capability are no longer viewed as speculative frontier industries. Between Starlink’s global communications footprint, launch dominance, and the company’s role in national defense and space commercialization, SpaceX sits at the intersection of several of the themes that dominated the evening.
Finally, the individual rankings may have been the most fascinating result of all. Dario Amodei received the highest number of votes, followed by Jensen Huang. Elon Musk, Jamie Dimon, and Jeff Bezos also received multiple votes.
Again, the emergence of Amodei at the top is revealing, proving that AI model developers may now wield more economic influence than traditional corporate titans. Huang’s appearance reflects something similar. NVIDIA’s transformation from gaming-chip manufacturer to the backbone of the AI economy may ultimately become one of the great business pivots of modern corporate history.
The presence of Musk, Dimon, and Bezos reflects another reality that technology dominates headlines, economic influence still requires operational scale, capital access, infrastructure, and execution.
Dimon remains one of the few CEOs whose views on interest rates, regulation, consumer strength, and systemic risk can move markets simply through commentary. Bezos, meanwhile, represents the continuing importance of logistics, cloud infrastructure, and long-term strategic thinking. Musk exists almost in a category of his own, spanning AI, transportation, energy, defense-adjacent technologies, robotics, and space exploration simultaneously.
But beyond the voting, the dinner underscored something larger about the evolving role of media and executive convenings. The value is not just in content, it is in curation.
In a fragmented information environment where executives can consume endless digital analysis, the real premium has become access to thoughtful peers and high-quality conversation. Bringing together leaders from entirely different sectors often produces more nuanced insights than staying inside industry echo chambers.
A private equity executive hears how healthcare leaders think about AI differently than telecom executives. A technology founder gains perspective from someone managing geopolitical risk in manufacturing or defense. Those intersections are where new ideas often emerge.
The survey results were interesting on their own, but the larger takeaway was how much alignment existed among leaders operating in very different sectors. AI may have been the dominant theme, but underneath it sat deeper concerns and opportunities around resilience, infrastructure, trust, security, health, and human capital.
In many ways, the answers reflected an economy in transition. One moving beyond the purely digital optimism of the last decade and into something more layered, more strategic, and more interconnected with global realities.
This is why conversations like this matter, not because anyone predicted the future with certainty, rather because bringing together smart people across industries to debate what comes next still remains one of the most valuable exercises in business.
