The article traces tech’s rise from cloud in 2016 to today, showing software firms now rival entire economies in market cap. It then draws parallels to 19th-century railroads, explores AI’s potential to reshape corporate hierarchies, notes stablecoins shifting toward payments, and examines plunging trust in mass media among younger generations.

• The ten largest public companies by market cap now exceed the combined GDP of the G7 (excluding the US), achieved within roughly a decade of cloud computing's rise.
• Railroads once commanded up to 63% market share and forced the invention of modern corporate hierarchy; some argue AI could similarly flatten management structures today.
• Stripping out speculative and treasury flows, stablecoins generated $350–550 billion in genuine payment transactions last year, with consumer usage growing fast.
• Trust in mass media has collapsed from 72% in 1975 to 28% in 2025, with young Americans increasingly relying on social platforms instead.