![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-2296270968-e1791881938810.jpg?w=2048\")
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Middle powers are trending.<\/p>\n
Since Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned the world\u2019s middle powers at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January to get \u201cat the table\u201d or else end up \u201con the menu,\u201d a movement has gathered momentum\u2014built on the optimism that the way through today\u2019s geopolitical uncertainty runs through the middle.<\/p>\n
This vision rests on a flawed premise. The middle powers argument assumes the nation-state is still the primary actor in great-power competition. This is not the case.<\/p>\n
The competition ahead will be one where private-sector actors already are, and will keep, pursuing global power.<\/p>\n
This is not a moment of national dominance. It is the dawn of multi-stakeholder geopolitics\u2014and middle powers are arriving late to the table after the private sector got there first.<\/p>\n
Nvidia now has a market capitalization that sits just below Germany\u2019s annual GDP and just ahead of Japan\u2019s. Apple\u2019s ranks below Japan but above India. Amazon\u2019s is wedged between Canada and Brazil.<\/p>\n
After decades where public policy shaped and constrained private firms, corporations are now setting priorities, building bridges, and leading on global challenges.<\/p>\n
Biotech firms developed and distributed the mRNA vaccines that helped end the COVID-19 pandemic. The world\u2019s electronics, consumer products, and innovation sectors run on the output of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the Taiwanese chipmaker.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s approach to diplomacy mirrors the rise of the private sector. On a state visit to the United Kingdom last year, Trump offered investment deals in place of trade concessions. And when he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state dinner at the White House in September, he invited a vast coterie of corporate chief executives and finance-industry leaders to attend.<\/p>\n
Nowhere is the private sector\u2019s geopolitical influence more apparent than in AI. Increasingly, state actors are relying on non-state, private sector technology firms for capabilities that were once solely the domain of national agencies. Private firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin are leading 21st<\/sup>-century space exploration. Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink satellite network has reportedly been deployed across conflict zones from the Sahel to Iran and provides civilian internet access and battlefield intelligence in Ukraine.<\/p>\n AI models are being folded into operational planning, simulations, and cyber operations in service of foreign policy. Earlier this year, Anthropic, the AI safety company, clashed with the U.S. administration over how its models could be used by the Department of War. The Trump administration designated Anthropic a supply chain risk to U.S. national security\u2014a first for an American firm.<\/p>\n Already in 2026, privately developed AI is being deployed for influence campaigns, biological weapons development, cyber operations, and surveillance by malign actors. Anthropic\u2019s September threat report identified cases of misuse or attempted misuse of its Claude model for malicious activity. These instances include a cyber operation targeting a Southeast Asian government agency to extract civilian records; a threat actor based in China that used Claude to progress work on an undersea weapons system; and suspected Russia-based threat actors using AI with the intention of building an autonomous kamikaze <\/em>drone swarm.<\/p>\n And, finally, Anthropic said it disrupted a plot by Iran to use Claude to target U.S. Navy warships in the Middle East.<\/p>\n To counter such activity, private AI companies are stepping into roles once held by national intelligence and defense agencies. There is no longer any denying that private sector actors are geopolitical actors.<\/p>\n The emergence of private sector actors as a source of global power does not, on its own, mean that states have become merely bystanders. The bad news for middle powers, though, is that they are only tangentially playing in the AI field amid its expanding influence.<\/p>\n According to Stanford University\u2019s 2026 Artificial Intelligence Index report, for instance, AI model development remains highly concentrated within the U.S. and China. Through 2025, the U.S. had 59 \u201cnotable\u201d AI models (models meeting certain notability criteria including citation rate, compute costs, and usage levels) to China\u2019s 35. The only other country with multiple notable AI models worldwide was South Korea, with eight.<\/p>\n In Davos, Carney spoke of a fading rules-based order\u2014of how the great powers had broken a bargain with their less powerful counterparts. His call is for these less powerful middle powers to withdraw their consent from a global order that no longer serves them and to chart a new path \u201cwith impact.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a tantalizing idea, offered at a moment of great change, when AI is defining how we think, work, fight, and manage risk. Old rules are not just fading but being redrawn entirely<\/p>\n But as the debate over AI safety shows, there\u2019s no global consensus about how to govern the future\u2019s most powerful technology. The leaders of private firms are stepping into that vacuum of state-led leadership and beginning to set the rules we live by.<\/p>\n The seats at the table are being taken not by middle powers but by private sector actors.<\/p>\n And so long as middle powers are not leading on AI development, attracting AI investment, or dominating parts of the AI supply chain\u2014so long as they are not on the AI field\u2014they will not exert geopolitical leverage in this emerging world.<\/p>\n Instead, it will be private sector actors, alongside national leaders in the U.S. and China, who shape the next global system.<\/p>\n The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of <\/em>Fortune.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Middle #powers #losing #race #Nvidia #Anthropic #Big #Tech<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Middle powers are trending. Si… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[428,237,2380,4237,5716,770,848,1721,385],"class_list":["post-6740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-anthropic","tag-big","tag-geopolitics","tag-losing","tag-middle","tag-nvidia","tag-powers","tag-race","tag-tech"],"yoast_head":"\nRedrawing the rules<\/h2>\n