Cloud finance gives Chinese platforms a power Americans cannot match

Evidence

But it is becoming worryingly apparent to America’s rulers that China’s cloudalists have already acquired a power that US cloudalists are struggling to emulate: the power stemming from a successful merger of cloud capital and finance – or cloud finance. … This is technofeudalism-with-Chinese-characteristics. Since its emergence, it was only ever going to be a matter of time before the geopolitical struggle for hegemony between the US and China would divide the world into two, conflicting, super cloud fiefs. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 582

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘cloud finance’ as the fusion of cloud capital and finance that defines Chinese technofeudalism.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 582
• XREF: connects to: The internet’s connectedness is uneven and dominated by US and Chinese firms; China operates a self-contained cloud empire as advanced as the West’s — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 210; Cloud capital lets China extract US rents without needing the dollar or trade deficits — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 588 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Central banks funded cloud capital that destroyed market sovereignty #expands (0.80) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 440
• China prioritized cloud-capital self-sufficiency over short-term trade gains #complicates (0.75) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 597
• Cloud platforms consolidated the platform into a powerful business model #expands (0.72) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 58