They are cutting and sharing the world again, not with armies or colonial treaties this time, but with algorithms, data, and artificial intelligence (AI). The new industrialists, the ultra-rich and their machines, are redrawing the map of global production and wealth creation. When Britain and France carved Africa with compasses, they sought gold, land, and labor. Today’s empire is built on datasets, computing power, and digital platforms. The boardroom has replaced the battlefield, and the algorithm is the new weapon of conquest. As AI permeates every factory, company, and government, those who control it are quietly reshaping the foundations of capitalism.
In this new order, the pursuit is no longer about creating jobs or shared prosperity; it is about extracting maximal value from every process with minimal human involvement. Automation has made efficiency a god, and AI has made control an art. The assembly line no longer requires a thousand workers, it only needs a few engineers and a network of intelligent systems.
Across industries, machines are learning, optimizing, and replacing humans. The moral narrative of “job creation” that once justified industrial expansion has been rewritten into “productivity and shareholder value.” And the new script favors those who own the algorithms, not those who serve them.
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Data reveals the trajectory clearly: productivity rises, profits expand, but wages stagnate. Wealth concentrates at the top while millions compete for relevance in an economy where cognitive machines outperform human labor. AI-driven systems are compounding inequality faster than any previous industrial revolution. Just as colonial trade routes once extracted raw materials from Africa and Asia to build European wealth, today’s AI routes extract human behaviour, attention, and intelligence to feed digital empires. And like before, the margins of the world are providing the data fuel while the center consolidates the capital.
Yet, this epoch also presents a paradox. The same AI that widens inequality can also democratize opportunity if societies choose differently. Nations that invest in human capital, reimagine education, and build local AI industries will not be mere consumers of algorithms but participants in the grand game. But make no mistake, this phase of capitalism is not about benevolence. It is about power and control.
Those cutting and sharing the world with AI are not asking for inclusion; they are defining who will own tomorrow. And for nations and people, the imperative is clear: either learn the tools of this new order or be managed by those who do. Nigeria and Africa: shine ya eyes!
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