The Engineer Who Helped Build the Tech Economy Is Now Running to Challenge Those Who Control It

CA-11 candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, a founding engineer at Stripe, announces sweeping AI plan as Meta, Oracle, and Amazon cut tens of thousands of jobs

SAN FRANCISCO — Saikat Chakrabarti helped build the financial infrastructure that powers much of the modern internet. Now, he is running for Congress to make sure the next wave of technology, artificial intelligence (AI), doesn't leave workers behind.

Chakrabarti, a candidate in California's 11th congressional district, today announced a comprehensive AI policy plan that includes a federal jobs guarantee for workers displaced by automation, a transition to a 32-hour workweek with no reduction in pay, a publicly owned national AI lab, and requirements that AI companies cover the full cost of the energy infrastructure their data centers consume.

The announcement comes as AI-driven layoffs sweep across the tech industry at a historic pace.

Just days ago, Meta announced it is cutting 8,000 jobs while planning to spend $115 billion on AI infrastructure this year. In March, Oracle laid off up to 30,000 employees, roughly 18% of its global workforce, weeks after reporting its best growth quarter in 15 years. Amazon laid off 16,000 workers in January. In total, nearly 96,000 tech workers have lost their jobs in 2026 so far, according to Layoffs.fyi, at a rate of 864 people per day.

These are not struggling companies. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2026 "the year that AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work," adding that projects that once required entire teams can now be done by a single person. He was right, and the workers losing their jobs are paying the price.

"Three years ago, AI was a novelty. Today, it's writing code and running complex tasks inside major companies. Tomorrow, it could wipe out millions of jobs," Chakrabarti said. "We have an opportunity to shape how this technology impacts people's lives, but we need to act now to ensure it works for everyone."

San Francisco sits at the center of this transformation, home to OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and many of the companies building the world's most advanced AI systems. Chakrabarti says that gives the region a unique responsibility and obligation to help shape how the technology is governed.

"San Francisco has a responsibility to lead on this, not simply host the companies doing it. Right now, the decisions shaping all of this are being made by a handful of CEOs accountable only to shareholders. AI belongs to all of us — and its benefits should too," Chakrabarti said.

Chakrabarti's background makes him an unusual voice for that argument. He began his career as a founding engineer at Stripe, one of the defining companies of the last tech era, before serving as Director of Organizing Technology for Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign and later as Chief of Staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He has watched the industry from the inside and the outside and says the industry he helped build is now at an inflection point that demands a public response.

His plan calls for the creation of a publicly owned national AI lab, structured like the Federal Reserve rather than a White House agency, to ensure that AI development serves the public interest rather than the balance sheets of a small number of corporations. No president or administration would have any control over its research agenda or the systems it builds.

The plan is organized around six core goals addressing job displacement, utility costs, AI-generated scams and deepfakes, children's safety online, and the growing concentration of power in a small number of technology companies.

For the full plan, visit saikat.us/en/policies#ai .

Chakrabarti is available for interviews.