Power transferring from nation states to big tech companies. By Joel Kotkin at spiked.

These elite tech companies are far more powerful than Trump or any state apart from China. Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon are individually all worth more than Italy, Canada, Brazil, Russia or Mexico. More importantly, these companies increasingly dominate information flows, much of Hollywood and, most disturbingly, have gained an unprecedented hold on society, particularly among younger generations.

Our era is marked by a shift in geopolitical influence from governments towards a handful of elite tech firms which, as National Affairs notes, constitute ‘new superpowers’ on the global stage. …

The relationship between the oligarchs and the political elite more closely resembles that between the barons and King John at Runnymede — although there’s no contemporary Magna Carta in the offing. A clearly cowed Trump [King John] has called for light-touch supervision of AI, which no doubt pleases most of the oligarchs [barons]….

The left might do a deal allowing big tech to rule in partnership with a lefty bureaucratic state:

In all probability, the Democrats will offer something that empowers the current tech oligarchy through a lethal combination of corporate and state power. This was the model favoured by the Biden administration.

Free-market competition, generally the best means of preventing an excessive concentration of power, will give way to AI-empowered oligopolies capable of eliminating competition with what have been described as ‘algorithmic firing squads’. …

Firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic have maintained close links with the Democrats, even as some of their representatives savage them in the press. Sam Altman recently praised governor Gavin Newsom as ‘thoughtful’ on AI.

The right wing techs (at least at the leadership level) include SpaceX, Palantir and Anduril. Most tech employees in California are still solidly pro-Democrat.