But Jakobsen said that the U.S. administration needs to focus on education, creating new jobs rather than preserving existing ones, and increasing spending technology research.
“So the issue in the U.S. is not about keeping jobs, it’s about how next generation of jobs are being created. And they will come through electrification, from leading the mechanical engineering that will come from it,” Jakobsen told CNBC.
U.S. technology companies have been investing heavily in areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Much of Google’s new Pixel 2 smartphone announcement Wednesday focused on this, for example.
But while U.S. technology firms are leading the way now, Jakobsen said that could change in the future, partly because many of these companies aren’t able to access the Chinese market.
“They have the leadership. But if you look 10 years down the road, does Google have a footprint in China? No. Do they have the ability to change that? Probably not,” he told CNBC.
“So the point is yes, they (U.S. tech firms) are very, very successful, they have very high profit margins in my opinion because they have monopolies… (but) if you look down the line… there will be a Chinese version of this inside the next zero to six months.”
