Web3 Foundation Report Estimates Big Tech and AI Earn $831,000 from Each US Internet User

Big Tech and AI companies generate up to $831,497 in commercial value from each American internet user over a digital lifetime, according to a report by the Web3 Foundation. The study, titled The Hidden Price of Free: What Your Data Is Really Worth, estimates that this equates to roughly $268 trillion across the US population over 60 years.

The report calculates that companies earn up to $6,565 per year from US users, $1,605 in the United Kingdom and Europe, and $265 elsewhere. On a global scale, this represents an annual value of about $694 per internet user. The analysis includes data from 150 major companies, with 129 qualifying as Big Data firms. Among them are Amazon, Alphabet, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Meta, each earning up to $1,000 annually per user through data monetization.

The Web3 Foundation's study examined how user-generated data fuels revenue across advertising, AI subscriptions, enterprise licensing, data brokerage, and algorithmic recommendations. It concludes that the internet economy depends heavily on personal data, often collected and monetized without user control or compensation.

The foundation argues that Web3 technologies could offer a more equitable model by giving individuals ownership and control over their digital assets and data-sharing terms. The organization, based in Switzerland, supports the development of decentralized internet infrastructure and will host the Web3 Summit in Berlin on June 18–19, 2026.