IāmĀ Azeem Azhar. I conveneĀ Exponential ViewĀ to help us understand how our societies and political economy will change under the force of rapidly accelerating technologiesāand, of course, Covid-19.
The near future
šø The rich get richer. In the face ofĀ 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.Ā 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 prospectsā¦
