> The stock mar­ket gives a glimpse of just how enor­mous these com­pa­nies have be­come in this ex­traordinary pe­riod: Com­bined mar­ket value for the five Bi

> The stock mar­ket gives a glimpse of just how enor­mous these com­pa­nies have be­come in this ex­traordinary pe­riod: Com­bined mar­ket value for the five Big Tech com­pa­nies is now over $8 tril­lion, ac­count­ing for nearly a quar­ter of the to­tal value of the com­pa­nies in the S&P 500. That is nearly dou­ble the per­cent­age five years ago. We need new and revised antitrust laws, and a strong push to enforce them, to restore a fair, competitive environment that welcomes new businesses. Right now these conglomerates are too big, wield too much capital, have too much influence, and can copy others’ ideas freely to keep growing. Anytime we see someone smaller innovate (like Slack), we see a tech giant steal the idea (like Microsoft Teams). Their massive patent war chests make challenging them difficult. Their access to capital means they can loss lead and enter new markets while starving others. And as we have seen with their censorship and deplatforming efforts, they are as powerful as governments, able to control public speech across hundreds of millions of people. What we have today is an unacceptable situation. I also think a new revival of small and medium businesses could be a great way to fairly redistribute power and wealth, within the structure of a competitive market environment, rather than simply redistributing towards equal outcomes for everyone.