SpaceX’s own filings reveal a private company deeply embedded in US military, intelligence and government infrastructure through satellite launches, secure communications, surveillance, sensing, targeting and long-term public contracts and programmes.

AI draws on centuries of global knowledge, yet American firms and politicians treat its wealth as a national asset, leaving most of humanity outside the settlement they invoke for themselves.

AI can widen access to knowledge while enclosing its ownership. The same machine that helps people understand the world can also concentrate the infrastructure through which understanding is produced today.