GAFAM Watch
Some stories are bigger than one company.
When Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft move in the same direction at the same time — spending, cutting, lobbying, building — that is not five separate stories.
That is one story about the concentration of power in the digital age.
GAFAM Watch covers the patterns, the trade-offs and the consequences that only become visible when you step back and look at all five together.
Infrastructure spending. Mass layoffs. Geopolitical pressure. Market concentration.
The race no single company can afford to lose — and no regulator can afford to ignore. This is the view from 30,000 feet. And it is often the most important view of all.
Still Digging: Nvidia’s Record Quarter and the $1.3 Trillion Bet Europe Isn’t Making
Nvidia just answered the question hanging over AI: the boom isn’t slowing, it’s accelerating, with five US giants set to spend $1.3 trillion next year. Boom or bubble, the scale is staggering — and Europe, able to regulate AI but not to build it, is barely at the table.
It Was Never About the Pictures
The debate about AI is stuck on pictures — too perfect, too soulless. It’s a comfortable decoy. The real danger isn’t a machine that wakes up and hates us. It’s that we hand over our judgement, our choices, our relevance, one reasonable step at a time — and never notice the moment it stopped needing us.
Meta on Trial for Addictive Design — the Business Model Europe Already Regulates
Meta is on trial in California over features allegedly designed to addict children, with its own leaked memos as evidence. Seen from Europe, it’s a slow, painful demonstration of why the Digital Services Act regulates this design up front — while America litigates it one case at a time.
The Last Resort Arrives: ChatGPT Gets Ads, and the Oldest Trap Repeats
OpenAI’s “last resort” is here: ads are now live in ChatGPT across five more markets. A defensible way to keep AI free — and a repeat of the internet’s original sin, on the most intimate surface yet. Notably, the EU and Switzerland aren’t on the list.
The Bet Europe Didn’t Make: AI’s Trillion-Dollar Capex Panic
Wall Street wiped out a trillion dollars over AI spending fears, then a big bank doubled its capex forecast. Whichever is right, Europe never placed the bet — and that may be its quiet advantage.