The short version

Ben Thompson predicted on January 22, 2020: “The cloud and mobile are not the next big thing — they are the foundation. The most important companies of the next decade will be built on top of them.” Verdict: Called it. Thompson's 'End of the Beginning' thesis: cloud + mobile are the substrate, no platform shift coming. Five years on, the…

Prediction by

Ben Thompson

On January 22, 2020

“The cloud and mobile are not the next big thing — they are the foundation. The most important companies of the next decade will be built on top of them.”

Follow-up

Thompson's 'End of the Beginning' thesis: cloud + mobile are the substrate, no platform shift coming. Five years on, the FAANGs only consolidated power; AI emerged as a layer ON TOP of cloud (OpenAI/Anthropic on Azure/AWS), exactly as he framed it.

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