Advertisement
Opinion | Why world cannot rely on tech giants to solve its problems
- If the tech sector cannot solve climate change and social inequality – the two existential issues of our time – the state must step in
- Unfortunately, geopolitical tensions are such that governments appear more preoccupied with rivalry and industrial policies than solving problems
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
3
The Kennedy-era guru on capitalism John Kenneth Galbraith presciently proclaimed in his 1967 book, The New Industrial State, that “the imperatives of technology and organisation, not the images of ideology, are what determine the shape of economic society”.
Advertisement
The clash of ideology is killing people around the world. In the meantime, investors are chasing tech stocks such as Nvidia, while the rest of the world swelters in what are the hottest years on record.
According to the World Inequality Report 2022 stated, the richest 10 per cent of the world’s population takes in 52 per cent of the income, owns 76 per cent of all wealth and accounts for 48 per cent of global carbon emissions.
At the same time, the workforce is concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence and automation, which will have an unknown impact on jobs. Those in lower-skilled work are likely to lose their job, and there is a skewed demand for those with high knowledge and intensive creativity.
What we see today is a winner-takes-all competition in technology, geopolitics and education, with those who cannot adjust as fast at risk of being left behind. The Magnificent Seven group of tech stocks represents the cutting edge of the interaction between the three forces that drive innovation – markets, speculators and the state. Venture capitalist William Janeway called this the “three-player game”.
Advertisement
The Magnificent Seven have a combined market capitalisation of about US$13.2 trillion. So far this year, five of them – Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon – are still creating value while Apple and Tesla are facing new headwinds. Nvidia rose from US$300 billion in market cap in October 2022, after it announced its new Hopper graphics processing unit, to more than US$2.2 trillion now, an evaluation that is larger than the Canadian economy (US$2.1 trillion).
Advertisement