Or...
What does MAAMA want?
Sad new acronym - I liked FANG better.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/01/22/big-techs-supersized-ambitions
Quote
Big tech wants to find the next big opportunity, and our analysis of deals, patents, recruitment and other yardsticks shows that cash is flowing into everything from driverless cars to quantum computing. The shift reflects a fear that the lucrative fiefs of the 2010s are losing relevance, and the fact that tech's titans are increasingly moving onto each other's patches (the share of sales that overlap has doubled since 2015 to 40%). So they are all looking to swoop into new territory.
This explains why Apple is planning a virtual-reality headset to compete with Meta's Oculus range and Microsoft's HoloLens. Alphabet, Apple and Amazon have also all placed expensive bets on autonomous cars. And vast sums are being spent on designing specialised chips, and pursuing new approaches like quantum computing, to provide the processing power for whatever new devices emerge.
The maamas' other priority is creating software platforms that will allow them to extract rents, by drawing in users, and then relying on network effects to draw in even more. Hence Facebook's renaming and its $10bn annual spending on immersive online worlds, known as the metaverse. Apple has been expanding the walled garden of services it provides to users of its devices, moving into areas such as fitness classes and television shows. Buying Activision may help Microsoft provide a richer experience for its gaming customers, while Mesh, a platform for virtual 3d workplaces, is aimed at corporate users. The cloud-computing platforms operated by Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft literally charge rent to host computing environments for other companies.
> other priority is creating software platforms that will allow them to extract rents
As per Travoli's soothsaying.