Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt calls OpenAI and Anthropic modern colonial trading companies
In a Foreign Affairs essay, Eric Schmidt, Niall Ferguson, and Lisa Klaassen argue the US-China AI race will be won by whoever can fund it, comparing OpenAI and Anthropic to colonial trading companies.
Key Takeaways
- Key Highlight：In a Foreign Affairs essay, Eric Schmidt, Niall Ferguson, and Lisa Klaassen argue the US-China AI race will be won by whoever can fund it, comparing OpenAI and Anthropic to colonial trading companies.
- Innovation & Tech：Highlights advancements in OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, demonstrating rapid progress in model capabilities.
- Industry Impact：Reported via The Decoder, offering actionable signals for developers and technology leaders.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, historian Niall Ferguson, and researcher Lisa Klaassen published an essay in Foreign Affairs framing the global AI landscape as a new form of empire. They cast the United States and China as the two dominant AI powers and describe every other country as a dependency, drawing parallels to historical colonial trading companies.
A central claim is that the AI race will not be decided by a single technical breakthrough but by sustained capital. Schmidt and his co-authors argue that US corporations, including OpenAI and Anthropic, function like modern colonial enterprises that extract value from data and talent while concentrating power in a few hubs.
The essay is notable for coming from a former Google CEO who has long been a vocal AI advocate. By using the colonial metaphor, Schmidt signals a shift in tone—acknowledging that the concentration of AI resources and decision-making raises geopolitical and ethical concerns that go beyond pure technology.
The piece is likely to spark debate about AI governance, data sovereignty, and whether non-US and non-China nations can develop meaningful AI capabilities or will remain dependent on the two dominant ecosystems. It adds to a growing body of commentary warning that AI's economic and strategic benefits may be unevenly distributed.
This page provides an editorial summary based on publicly available information. It is not a republished article. Use the source link below for the original report.
Industry Insights & Analysis
As artificial intelligence rapidly evolves, breakthroughs surrounding OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Ex-Google are shifting toward scalable, robust real-world implementations.
Driven by both open-source ecosystems and proprietary model architectures, the integration between compute optimization, data engineering, and agentic workflows is accelerating. This development provides a strategic benchmark for upcoming AI tooling and developer workflows.