Power Concentration in AI — Live Figures

A standing record of the structural figures behind the essay. The argument does not depend on any single number; what matters is that they move, quarter after quarter, in one direction. Last updated: Q2 2026 (June 2026). Each figure is dated as of the quarter shown and re-verified quarterly.

Metric Current (Q2 2026) Prev. Qtr Trend Source
The Money — Scale of Capital
Nvidia market capitalization ~$4.7 trillion CompaniesMarketCap
Combined annual AI capex, top four hyperscalers (2026E) $650–725 billion Company earnings guidance
Amazon annual free cash flow $11B (from $38B) Amazon 2025 10-K
The Inner Ring — Control vs. Ownership
Zuckerberg voting power vs. economic stake (Meta) 61% / 14% Meta DEF 14A
Page & Brin voting power vs. economic stake (Alphabet) 52.7% / 11.5% Alphabet DEF 14A
Microsoft equity stake in OpenAI ~27% Company disclosures
Anthropic board seats appointed by the Long-Term Benefit Trust 3 of 5 Anthropic
The Interlock — Chokepoints
Nvidia share of AI training chips >90% Analyst est. (Mercury / SemiAnalysis)
TSMC leading-edge (≤7nm) share of wafer revenue 74% TSMC FY2025 report
Top-three cloud providers' market share (AWS + Azure + Google) 63% Synergy Research
Microsoft share of CoreWeave revenue 67% CoreWeave 10-K
The Outer Ring — Footprint & Accountability
Data centers' share of global electricity 1.5% (→~3% by 2030) IEA
Data centers' share of Virginia's electricity 26% IEA
Virginia localities approving data centers under NDAs 25 of 31 Univ. of Mary Washington
AI super-PAC money raised this election cycle ~$200 million OpenSecrets

rising concentration structurally stable falling

Figures are point-in-time and reported by the sources above; market values and capex move daily and are shown as of the stated quarter. Structural figures (voting control, board composition) change only when a company restructures. “Prev. Qtr” will populate from the next update onward, building a visible record of change over time.