Is Big tech taking over?
Executive summary
Big Tech’s footprint grew in 2025 through massive AI and data-center spending—companies like Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon planned more than $320 billion in AI investments and expansions [1]. Large-scale contracts and deals also tightened ties between tech firms and states: Palantir signed as much as $10 billion with the U.S. Army and similar corporate‑state relationships are central to arguments that Big Tech is reshaping sovereignty [2] [3].
1. Big money, bigger influence: the $320 billion AI arms race
Corporate capital is the clearest metric for “takeover.” Executives and earnings calls show Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon planned collective AI and data‑center investments exceeding $320 billion in 2025, a scale that rewires markets, supply chains and public procurement priorities [1]. That influx encouraged horizontal consolidation—major tech M&A in 2025 centered on acquiring AI capability and infrastructure, with headline deals like Google’s $32 billion bid for Wiz and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s $13.4 billion purchase of Juniper Networks [4].
2. From contractors to quasi‑state actors: Palantir and the Pentagon example
Reporting highlights a shift from vendor relationships to deeper governance roles: Palantir’s roughly $10 billion contract with the U.S. Army consolidated dozens of procurements and is presented as an instance where corporate software becomes embedded in state decision systems—central to the thesis that Big Tech is “rewiring the American state” and transforming sovereignty [2] [3]. Sources frame this as more than influence: it’s operational dependency.
3. Market dominance and market cap: scale translates to leverage
Market capitalization and strategic assets afford leverage. By late 2025, firms such as Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft ranked among the largest tech companies by market cap; Microsoft’s multibillion‑dollar AI data‑center spending and Palantir’s government ties are cited as markers of where market power concentrates [3]. That scale matters: it affects lobbying clout, procurement bargaining and the pace of standards-setting in AI and cloud services [1] [3].
4. M&A and talent capture: buying capabilities, buying influence
A prominent strategy in 2025 was acquisitive growth aimed at AI capabilities and talent. Tech M&A lists for 2025 emphasize deals driven by AI—acquihires and buyouts accelerate concentration of expertise inside large firms [4] [1]. The CRN overview and industry trackers show established vendors actively buying startups to fill technology gaps, reinforcing incumbents’ dominant positions [4].
5. Pushback and regulatory friction: authorities are reacting
Consolidation triggered oversight. UK regulators opened merger inquiries into some large deals, signaling that competition authorities view these transactions as potentially harmful to competition [4]. The reporting shows two competing dynamics: Big Tech’s capital and strategic deals versus growing governmental scrutiny over market structure and state dependencies [4] [2].
6. Not just takeover — an ecosystem reshaping with winners and losers
The picture is mixed: while Big Tech is buying scale and embedding infrastructure and services into economies, the same period saw vigorous startup activity, capital raises and sectoral diversification—Databricks reportedly negotiated a multibillion fundraising at a high valuation, and many startups continued to attract attention, showing continued entrepreneurial vitality [5] [6]. Sources note that M&A was also a response to depressed valuations earlier and a pathway for liquidity, not only domination [7].
7. What the phrase “taking over” hides: power, dependency, and choice
Framing this as a “takeover” conflates different phenomena. There is clear leverage—huge investments, big contracts, and consolidation—but available reporting also emphasizes countervailing trends: active regulatory probes [4], ongoing startup dynamism [6], and governments asserting policy choices about data, sovereignty and procurement [2] [5]. The debate is therefore about degree and direction: whether influence becomes control, and whether publics and regulators can steer outcomes.
8. Bottom line — Not an absolute takeover, but a decisive shift
Evidence in current reporting shows Big Tech dramatically increasing influence over infrastructure, AI supply chains and some state functions through spending, contracts and acquisitions [1] [2] [4]. Sources document both the mechanisms of that influence and the institutional responses. Available sources do not mention a single, definitive moment of irreversible “takeover”; instead they describe a structural reshaping of markets and governance where tech firms hold far greater leverage than a decade ago [2] [1] [4].