The next chapter of American economic competitiveness: A CEO and board agenda in World Economy News 07/04/2026 On the eve of its 250th birthday, can the United States maintain its competitive momentum in the face of disruptive technologies and geopolitical upheaval? Nearly 250 years after its founding, the United States is the world’s most competitive economy. With just 4 percent of the world’s population, the country generates more than a quarter of global GDP and is home to more than half of the world’s top 100 companies by market capitalization. But with AI redefining industries and geopolitics reshaping supply chains, what will it take for the country to maintain its historical lead? McKinsey’s Eric Kutcher and Olivia White are coauthors of “At 250, sustaining America’s competitive edge,” a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute that traces the trajectory of US competitiveness. In a recent McKinsey Live webinar, Kutcher and White joined Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to discuss the United States’ history of reinvention and the challenges and opportunities ahead. You can watch the replay of the full discussion above, including the Q&A, or explore the following transcript, which has been edited for clarity and length. An economic powerhouse Lucia Rahilly: Olivia, you spent months deep in the research for this report. What did the data reveal? Olivia White: Some of the data points showed what we expected to see—for example, the US has 26 percent of global GDP but only 4 percent of the global population, and 59 of the top 100 firms by market cap are American. The numbers show that the US is doing incredibly well in some areas, such as its role in gen AI and in creating notable AI models. The numbers are big compared to the population—but are they big enough to retain the competitive position we’ve been in for more than a century? That was our starting point. Lucia Rahilly: Is US economic strength a story about a few good companies, or is the strength more broadly distributed? Olivia White: It’s really a story about both. The US has been home to more than half of the world’s top ten market-leading firms over the past century. But what made this so? It’s dynamism at the top. Different firms appear in that top ten list decade after decade, and that dynamism runs deep: US firms are more dynamic, all the way down to smaller firms, than those in other economies. That means they grow faster when they’re productive and disappear faster when they’re not. There’s a lot of new firm creation linked to innovation. Lucia Rahilly: Eric, you talk to CEOs and boards across North America every day. As the competitive landscape becomes less stable, some of the ground the US has historically held is now being contested in ways that should give business leaders some pause. Where do you see the most significant pressure points? Eric Kutcher: First, I want to go back to what Olivia was saying. The fact that the US has maintained its position on that top ten list speaks to the underlying values that have allowed the US economy to be what it is. That’s why I don’t bet against the US. If you believe in those underlying values and in the entrepreneurial spirit as core to who we are, then you have to believe it will continue. But it’s not a foregone conclusion—there’s a lot that must happen to enable it. Regarding what’s on the mind of CEOs, topics one, two, and three are AI, and topic four tends to be geopolitics. And geopolitics is the level of u