Dr. Khaled Walid Mahmoud
The global economic landscape is no longer governed solely by the familiar cycles of growth and recession, nor by state strategies or central bank policies. Instead, a quiet transformation has taken place: seven private companies - with no armies and no seats at the United Nations—now enjoy influence greater than that of major industrial states. In an age where power is measured by data, computation, and artificial intelligence, these companies have become parallel sovereign entities operating outside the traditional nation-state framework, redrawing the maps of economics, politics, and rights at a global scale.
These entities - Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Google - now control one-third of the market capitalization of the S&P 500, which exceeds $51 trillion. It is an unprecedented moment in economic history, led by Apple and NVIDIA, reflecting the rise of mega-entities that operate above national economies. These are no longer merely technology companies; they are transnational power structures reshaping global markets and imposing a new logic of influence beyond the authority of states and central banks.
They are systemic powers that control the infrastructure on which the modern digital economy is built.
At the core of their power lies a crucial shift: these companies no longer merely produce technology - they engineer the digital environments in which we live. They construct closed ecosystems where data, algorithms, cloud architecture, and computational hardware interlock, creating enclosed economic and cognitive spaces governed solely by their rules. Users, consumers, developers, and even governments are not simply clients of these companies; they are integrated elements within digitally interconnected networks, in which relationships are shaped by algorithms rather than law.
As these ecosystems expand, their influence now reaches domains once considered the exclusive realm of the state: scientific research, cybersecurity, education, media, government services, and communications infrastructure. This is a new kind of soft power—more penetrating and far-reaching; a power that does not operate across borders, but instead renders borders irrelevant, because its influence grows with every data transfer, every computational process, and every cloud connection.
NVIDIA today stands at the center of this transformation, with a market capitalization surpassing $4.4 trillion - greater than the entire economy of Japan. Its achievement is not a commercial success in the traditional sense but a revolution in global computing architecture. NVIDIA’s chips have become the “engine” powering modern artificial intelligence -effectively a supplier of cognitive energy to the world. NVIDIA’s power now resembles the control of electricity in the twentieth century or oil in the 1970s; it governs the infrastructure of knowledge and computation -the foundation on which industry, scientific research, and the digital economy all rest.
A technological revolution… or a bubble disguised as progress?
The world is witnessing an unprecedented surge in the valuation of technology companies, a surge capable of turning a few thousand dollars into immense wealth in just a few years. A simple $7,000 investment in 2015 would be worth roughly $470,000 today. Yet behind this meteoric rise lies a more complex question: does this reflect a historic transformation driven by the AI revolution, or are we simply reproducing the logic of a bubble—where technical narratives replace economic realities and valuations become a reflection of expectations rather than fundamentals?
This concentration is not just a financial risk - it is a structural imbalance that encourages valuation excesses and creates a market environment fuelled as much by euphoric optimism as threatened by sudden pessimism. In this context, the observation of Dr. Rayan Limand, CEO of New Vision Wealth Management, serves as a compass for understanding the moment: “Take advantage of the bubble while it lasts… but remember that it will burst.”
This is not a possibility—it’s a law of markets: every extreme rally carries within it the seeds of correction, no matter how convincingly it wears the clothing of technological revolution or relies on AI narratives.
Power beyond economics: The fear of unchecked influence
The story does not end with financial indicators or Silicon Valley profit charts. The monumental rise of these companies has created a new layer of authority extending beyond the traditional economy into more sensitive domains: shaping public consciousness, engineering human behaviour, and controlling the digital infrastructure that has become the lifeblood of states and societies. This is why the concerns have moved from economic analyses to United Nations halls. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has warned that the concentration of economic and data power in the hands of only seven companies represents a structural threat to democracy and human rights, creating a configuration unprecedented in modern history.
Today, the influence of these companies extends to:
- The personal data of billions of individuals, now the raw material for generating algorithms and training AI systems.
- AI tools capable of shaping perception, influencing individual choices, and even reprogramming collective behaviour.
- Social platforms that serve as laboratories for manufacturing public opinion and steering political and social debates.
- Cloud and computational infrastructures upon which governments, banks, media, and healthcare institutions now depend.
This is no longer a profit model—it is a governance model. These companies can direct information flows, influence election outcomes, tilt political balances, or disrupt national networks and paralyse economic sectors with a single technical decision.
Some economists and thinkers have therefore described this phenomenon as the birth of “supra-sovereign powers.” These companies are not constrained by geography, lack effective regulatory oversight, and operate globally in ways that outpace the ability of legislation to catch up.
Humanity now faces a delicate duality. On one hand, these companies have produced a technological revolution driving new productivity and positive industrial and societal transformations. On the other hand, their absolute dominance has led to market distortions, global political anxiety, and growing fears that artificial intelligence will transform from a boon of innovation into a tool of domination.
The central question remains:
Can the international system develop global governance frameworks capable of restraining technological excess and protecting democracy and human rights?
Or are we heading toward a future crafted by companies that have become, in fact, bigger than states, more influential than governments, and more visible than traditional institutions?
Ultimately, the “Magnificent Seven” constitute a new socio-economic phenomenon: trans-state powers shaping the future, yet potentially threatening the foundations of the global order - unless checks are imposed to protect people before technology and rights before algorithms.
The writer is a researcher specialising in cyber politics, holding a PhD on the topic of “Cyberspace and Power Shifts in International Relations.”
The writer is a researcher specializing in cyber politics, holding a PhD on the topic of “Cyberspace and Power Shifts in International Relations.”
