Margarida Silva researches the political and economic power of Big Tech at the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO). She has published research on Amazon’s marketplace dominance in Europe, Big Tech’s monopolisation strategies and their pushback against the Digital Markets Act. Before joining SOMO she researched and campaigned against the political influence of Big Tech and other corporate sectors over EU policymaking at Corporate Europe Observatory.
Fellowship project
Margarida’s research applied follow the money investigative techniques to the value chain of generative AI startups. The intention was to identify chokepoints created by Big Tech firms and the potential and actual impacts of their involvement. Expanding beyond the traditional competition policy framework, the investigation paid special attention to the hidden role of labour and the expected business models for AI. The research bridged the competition, labour and digital rights communities. This fellowship was supported by Çağrı Çavuş, who has a background in digital competition law, and other SOMO colleagues with expertise in researching complex corporate structures.
Margarida’s work
“The real winners of the AI Race: Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Nvidia” SOMO, July 2023.
Key findings:
- Start-ups are highly dependent on Big Tech firms:
- 11 start-ups use Nvidia for the AI-specialised chips used to train and deploy genAI;
- 10 rely on Amazon, Microsoft, and Google for the AI infrastructure needed to train and run their models; and
- 9 commercialise their models via Amazon, Microsoft, and Google platforms.
- Big Tech companies have also established partnerships with genAI start-ups, increasing their ability to dominate the development and commercialisation of AI.
- GenAI start-ups do little to fostering diversity or competition in digital markets. Big Tech companies continue to exercise significant control over the market for new products, even those developed by other companies.
- As AI is increasingly taken up by business and public services, public authorities – particularly competition regulators – must scrutinise the market closely and act decisively to prevent greater concentration of power.