From the Computer Utility to Cloud Computing - To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World - page 58

of ideas” (Hardy 2012c). The Big Four are now active in engineering,
innovating, and testing new semiconductors, including one Intel installed
in September 2011 but did not introduce to the general public until March
2012. Intel admits that its willingness to absorb the potential production
problems associated with a new chip that has not yet been released to the
general public in order to have the latest semiconductor “was a new thing”
for the company (ibid.). Meanwhile Apple, which has been dependent on
Samsung for the bulk of its chips, is seriously contemplating manufacturing
more of its own, partly because of the Korean manufacturer's announce-
ment in November 2012 that it would boost chip prices sold to Apple by
20 percent. But this is also because Apple simply wants to control more of
the production process (Whittaker 2012). Patent battles with Samsung
are certainly an issue, but the need for control and the ability to carry it
out are even bigger.
Large cloud companies are challenging irms at all points in the chain
of production, from small cloud competitors to chip manufacturers. They
are also going after companies that manufacture computers. Amazon,
Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook all now build their own and
challenge companies like Intel and HP to meet or exceed performance
speciications. Perhaps the most surprising for its activity in this area is
Facebook, because it has not been among those identiied with devices.
The company has joined with both HP and Intel in the public announce-
ment of a new chip. Google has even developed its own semiconductor
but has not patented it because the company is concerned that doing so
might reveal too much about its plans (Hardy 2012c). Amazon is building
a global computer system including its own customized computers, data
storage systems, networking systems, and power stations (Hardy 2013a).
These examples demonstrate some of the ways that large cloud com-
panies are expanding to control the market. They are integrating inter-
nally to rationalize production from hardware to software, applications,
and pricing. These moves enable companies to extend their control over
cloud computing markets and, from there, establish key positions in the
development of informational capitalism. One way to look at this process
is to see it as a series of steps on the way to the computer utility. That
would be accurate but, as was noted earlier, with no regulatory apparatus
in place or on the horizon, it is also reasonable to see them as steps on the
way to a global cartel, different from but also similar to the oil cartel that