From Iron Rails to AI, Asian Americans Built a Nation | Opinion

Featured in Newsweek

NEW YORK, February 2, 2026 – As America prepares for its 250th birthday in 2026, the “America250” commemoration invites us to re-examine our national story. It’s a call to move beyond simple celebration to a more honest, inclusive understanding of who built this country and who is building its future. No narrative better captures this continuity—and this national imperative—than the arc that stretches from the Chinese laborers who laid the Transcontinental Railroad to the Asian American pioneers shaping the artificial intelligence revolution today. They are bookends of American progress, connected by a legacy of foundational labor, profound contribution and a painful struggle for recognition. 

More than 150 years ago, against the brutal granite of the Sierra Nevada, a workforce of 12,000 to 20,000 Chinese immigrants performed the impossible. They hung in baskets to plant dynamite, carved tunnels through mountains and laid the tracks that would bind a continent. Comprising roughly 80 percent of the Central Pacific Railroad's workforce, they laid the groundwork for the United States to become a unified industrial powerhouse. The Transcontinental Railroad was the AI of its day—a breathtaking, risky technology that promised to reshape commerce, communication and national identity. 

Yet, upon its completion in 1869, the iconic “Champagne Photo” at Promontory Summit, Utah, contained not a single Chinese face. This erasure was a prelude to the legal and cultural exclusion that followed, epitomized by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Their labor was essential, but their humanity and citizenship were denied. These indispensable builders were relegated to the shadows of the national myth. 

Today, we are laying down a new set of tracks—not of iron, but of silicon and algorithms. The “digital railroad” of the 21st century is being built by the neural networks of AI, the architecture of cloud computing and the logic of big data. And once again, Asian Americans are its foundational builders. They are disproportionately represented among the researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs at the core of this transformation. From pioneering AI labs to leading tech giants and innovative startups, they are writing the code that will redefine every facet of our lives, from medicine and finance to transportation and art. 

The parallel is striking. Then, they connected coasts. Now, they connect capabilities. The physical railway enabled the flow of goods and people; the digital one enables the flow of information, prediction and automated intelligence. The labor has evolved from sheer physical endurance to intense intellectual creation, but the role remains identical: constructing the critical infrastructure for America’s next epoch of economic and technological dominance. 

This is no coincidence of history; it is an unbroken lineage. It is the story of a community transitioning from building the nation’s bones to building its nervous system. It powerfully refutes the perennial stereotype of Asian Americans as “perpetual foreigners.” How can anyone be foreigners to a nation they have been so instrumental in physically—and now digitally—assembling? This narrative places Asian Americans not at the margins of the American story, but at its vital, productive core. 

However, the parallel also extends to a sobering continuity of challenge. The “bamboo ceiling” in corporate leadership and Asian Americans' persistent underrepresentation in executive suites and boardrooms echo the exclusion from the Promontory Summit photograph. Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China have, once again, cast a shadow of suspicion over scientists and engineers of Chinese descent, risking a modern-day McCarthyism that conflates ethnicity with loyalty. The tools of exclusion have changed from discriminatory laws to visa restrictions, racial profiling and glass ceilings, but the pattern of being valued for one’s labor while being distrusted in one’s belonging stubbornly remains. 

This is where the promise of “America250” must become concrete. The commemoration cannot be just a look back; it must be a commitment to a more complete future. Recognizing the link between the railroad and AI is a perfect starting point. It does three vital things: 

First, it corrects the historical record. It stitches the contribution of the Chinese railroad workers back into the fabric of our national identity, honoring them not as passive laborers but as active nation-builders. 

Second, it frames contemporary contributions correctly. It allows us to see Asian American tech professionals not as a recent demographic trend, but as the latest chapter in a long saga of American innovation. Their work on AI is not separate from the American story; it is a direct continuation of it. 

Third, it provides a moral imperative for inclusion. If we can see this unbroken line of contribution, we must dismantle the unbroken line of exclusion that has accompanied it. We must ensure that the builders of our digital future are full participants in its governance, its profits and its narrative. 

As we celebrate the nation's 250th birthday, let us discover this fuller story. Let us celebrate the Chinese laborers of the 1860s and the AI architects of the 2020s as part of the same American tradition of gritty, visionary work. Let their linked history inform our policies on immigration, education, technology and anti-discrimination. The lesson of the two railroads is clear: America has always been built by those it once underestimated. Our next 250 years of prosperity and unity depend on finally, fully, recognizing them. 

About the Author

John Wang is the founder and president of the Asian American Business Development Center (AABDC), which promotes recognition of Asian American professionals, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. AABDC bridges cultures, drives economic opportunity, and connects U.S. and Asian businesses.