Whilebillboardsgo up in Silicon Valley calling for the break up of big tech , executive at Google and Facebook uphold to debate that the monumental ordered series of their companies is a key asset in the emerging tech cold war between the United States and China .
In aninterviewthis calendar week with CNN , Google CEO Sundar Pichai attempt to change by reversal antimonopoly questions around by pointing to what they say is the eloquent lining of size : Big beats China . In the face of an intensify push button for antitrust action , the tilt has been called tech ’s version of “ too big to fail . ”
“ Scale does offer many benefits , it ’s significant to understand that , ” Google CEO Sundar Pichai say . “ As a company , we sometimes invest five , ten years beforehand without necessarily concern about short term lucre . If you think about how technology leading contributes to leaders on a orbicular economic weighing machine . Big companies are what are investing in AI the most . There are many benefit to fill a foresightful term scene which full-grown company are able to do . ”
Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty)
Pichai , who did allow that examination and challenger were ultimately sound things , made points that echoed argument made by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who made his stage a portion more honestly .
“ I think you have this inquiry from a insurance perspective , which is , ‘ Do we want American ship’s company to be export across the man ? ’ ” Zuckerbergsaidlast yr . “ I call up that the alternative , honestly , is move to be the Taiwanese ship’s company . ”
Pichai never outright say the word “ China ” but he did n’t have to . China ’s come up tech industry and increasingly tense family relationship with the United States
“ There are many countries around the public which aspire to be the next Silicon Valley . And they are hold up their companies , too , ” Pichaisaidto CNN . “ So we have to balance both . This does n’t mean you do n’t scrutinize large company . But you have to balance it with the fact that you want big , successful companies as well . ”
This has been one of Silicon Valley ’s safest disengagement arguing since antimonopoly opinion began earn steam in the United States . But the chronicle of American industry offer a serious counterbalance .
Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu spent much of 2018 outline the compositor’s case for antitrust action . He wrote a book on the subject , The Curse of Bigness : Antitrust in the New Gilded Age , and appeared all over media to make his logical argument . In an op - male erecticle dysfunction for the New York Times , Wu call back to the heated Nipponese - American tech contention of the 1980s .
IBM faced an unprecedented outside challenge in the mainframe computer market from Japan ’s NEC while Sony , Panasonic , and Toshiba made giant leaps forwards . The companies had the strong support of the Nipponese government .
Wu laid out what happenednext :
Had the United States followed the Zuckerberg logic , we would have protected and promoted IBM , AT&T and other American tech giants — the national maven of the 1970s . Instead , the Union governing incriminate the main American tech firms of throttling competition . IBM was subjected to a devastating , 13 - year - long antitrust investigation and trial run , and the Justice Department break AT&T into eight objet d’art in 1984 . And indeed , the effect was to weaken some of America ’s most powerful technical school firms at a key moment of contention with a foreign power .
But something else happened as well . With IBM and AT&T under changeless examination , a whole serial of industries and companies were born without concern of being squashed by a monopoly . The American software program manufacture , freed from IBM , came to life , yielding companies like Microsoft , Sun and Lotus . Personal estimator from Apple and other companies became popular , and after the breakup of AT&T , company like CompuServe and America Online rushed into on-line networking , finally generate what we now call the “ internet economy . ”
Silicon Valley ’s debate , however , does vibrate . The 1980s is not the 2010s and the relationship between China and the U.S. today is significantly insensate and even more complex than Japan and the U.S. three decades ago .
American politician haveechoedsome of openhanded technical school ’s headache about Chinese leadership .
Congress just open up what hope to be alengthy antitrust investigationinto big technical school that barely talked about China .
“ Concentration in the digital advertizing market has pushed local news media to the verge of extinction , ” sound out Representative David Cicilline , a Rhode Island Democrat .
American lawmakers are planning more hearing , depositions , interviews , and subpoena ad testificandum over the next 18 months , accordingto the New York Times .
GoogleMark ZuckerbergSundar Pichai
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