We had internet and it was very democratic anyone/anywhere could build something, then smartphones came and it created new age of similar oppurtunities.

However, It feels to me that AI age is different only companies with unlimited funding can come up with models and new advances (midjourney/openai)... and rest have to either sit and watch or rely on their tech stack which is a risky proposition (if you core tech is third party then they can increase prices, kick you out, or launch competitor to you)

In many ways AI wave in tech is similar to bio advances, a domain of select few corporations and VCs.

Do you agree? Am I not seeing something?

Unless you are some brilliant PHD grad students with triple focus on Math, ML, and Neuroscience. It seems you have not many options and even then you need a lot more of resources to actually train your models.