Who Owns the Cloud, Owns the Future
“Cloud infrastructure isn’t just technology—it’s empire. Whoever owns the cloud controls sovereignty, economics, and the future of democracy itself.”
Part 2 – Who Owns the Cloud, Owns the Future
How infrastructure concentration creates new forms of empire in the digital age
The New Commanding Heights
In the mid-19th century, British control over global shipping lanes allowed the empire to dictate trade routes, extract tariffs, and project military power anywhere the sun touched its territories. In the 21st century, that control has shifted from sea lanes to data lanes. Whoever owns the cloud owns the choke points of the modern world.
In 1962, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson declared that the "commanding heights" of the economy—steel, coal, railways, and telecommunications—must remain under national control to preserve economic sovereignty. He understood that whoever controls critical infrastructure controls the nation's future possibilities.
Today, the commanding heights have shifted to the cloud. The servers, data centers, and digital platforms that power modern civilization have become as strategically vital as ports, railways, a…
