Tech Titans are Geopolitical Actors and Europe has None

If you were writing a list of the five most powerful people in the world who would be on it?

My list is Trump, Xi Jinping, Putin, and Musk. There is competition for fifth place between Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta.

Macron and Starmer do not make the top five. They may not even make the top ten as, arguably, the CEOs of the Magnificent Seven all have the ability to wield greater influence. Macron cannot run his own government. Starmer cannot manage the UK economy.

Leading tech companies have market capitalisations in excess of the GDP of most nations. They control technology which the majority of nation states do not have. It is tech companies that enable controversial political figures to speak unfiltered and in real time to their followers. It is tech companies that enable Ukraine to thwart Russian cyber attacks and it is a tech company, not NASA, that will bring US astronauts back to earth.

As Europe’s leaders rail against Musk and Zuckerberg and the UK demands Apple grants access to the private data of their citizens, they are evidently hung up on how they believe the world should be. They are increasingly out of step with how the world is.

Tech CEOs role as geopolitical actors is permanent. Their power will grow as the importance of the technology they control increases and the power of the nation state retreats. The technology they control does not respect state boundaries or the sanctity of elections. The harnessing of its potential is a key determinant of military strength.

Shouting at these power brokers to stay out of politics is as futile as telling the tide not to come in. Offering the controllers of the metaverse a seat on the UN Security Council may be a more realistic response.