Cloud Fiefdoms Replace Markets

Major AI/platform firms are not just monopolists within markets but are creating closed, planned commercial ecosystems — 'cloud fiefdoms' — that match supply and demand inside platform boundaries rather than via decentralized price signals. This transforms competition into platform governance, shifting economic coordination from open markets to vertically controlled stacks. — If true, policy must shift from standard antitrust tinkering to confronting quasi‑state commercial planning: data portability, interop, platform neutrality, and new forms of democratic oversight become central.