Why Big Tech is threatened by a global push for data sovereignty
Global Majority nations are building ways to store their citizens' data locally. But will they own the datacenters themselves?
[Damilare Dosunmu at Rest of World]
The devolution of data (and with it, software) from the United States to the rest of the world continues apace:
“Developing nations are challenging Big Tech’s decades-long hold on global data by demanding that their citizens’ information be stored locally. The move is driven by the realization that countries have been giving away their most valuable resource for tech giants to build a trillion-dollar market capitalization.”
This has always been true, but was perhaps less of an issue when the US government wasn’t both unpredictable and antagonistic. Now, it isn’t just Europe that is seeking to own its own technology future: Global Majority countries are too. And they’re taking steps to make sure it happens.
Africa is building new data centers. While some more of the wealth and investment will flow into the continent as a result, it doesn’t appear that many of them are actually owned by Africans, which feels like a necessary next step. Otherwise they’re essentially being colonized by tech companies from places like the US and China.
Countries like Nigeria have also become adept at building software. What’s going to be really interesting is when these countries also pull out of tagging and moderating AI data; much of this work has been outsourced to the Global Majority, and companies like OpenAI depend on it. That may have seemed like smart arbitrage from their points of view to begin with, but with the right strategy and underlying legislation, it could begin to look like leverage.
[Link]
