🔮 Meet the FAAAM; big tech bigger; tiny sensors; fusion power and asteroids++ #272

I’m Azeem Azhar. I convene Exponential View to help us understand how our societies and political economy will change under the force of rapidly accelerating technologies—and, of course, Covid-19.

The near future

💸 The rich get richer. In the face of  increased regulatory scrutiny, big tech companies are acquiring and investing more at the moment. EV reader, Christopher Mims, coined the term FAAAM for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft, the five biggest tech companies. Between them, they have nearly $500bn in cash and are spending it. Indeed, the rate of acquisitions is the fastest since 2015. My comment: These superstar firms have a huge opportunity to expand their footprints. They have long adopted a model of open innovation. Despite deep R&D spends (even Facebook spends c. $3bn a quarter), they depend on a flow of external innovation, secured via acquisitions to meet their product and market gaps. Courtesy of the pandemic, many startups have bleaker than usual prospects…