Money Talks: Moonshooters

This week Microsoft announced its biggest ever deal, spending $69bn on games publisher Activision Blizzard to advance its ambitions in gaming and the metaverse. The world’s most powerful tech companies are racing to splash their cash on frontier technologies. We crunch the numbers on where they are investing their billions and ask whether these new corporate moonshots will supercharge productivity or further entrench the giants’ dominance in the future.Rachana Shanbhogue hosts, with Kevin Scott, chief technology officer of Microsoft, and Margrethe Vestager, competition commissioner for the European Union. Sign up for our new weekly newsletter dissecting the big themes in markets, business and the economy at economist.com/moneytalks For full access to print, digital and audio editions, subscribe to The Economist at www.economist.com/podcastoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.