The game is wealth acquisition and the players are young and aggressive technology innovators. I happened to meet some of them courtesy of my local academic contacts in my speaking and lecturing tours. Here in Hyatt's Hotel Sofia along Plaza Pius XII, we are speaking English in the heart of Barcelona. We are discussing how these financial wizards and technology geniuses have amassed wealth beyond the average minds' capacity for comprehension.
Top of our minds is Elon Musk's game of acquiring Twitter for the mind-boggling price of $44 billion. Although the deal has gone sour and is now in court for nasty damage suits, Musk is smiling and knows that the endgame will be big profits for him. Litigation is part of his strategy. This guy, at age 51, is a business magnate and a genius in investment. He is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of SpaceX, CEO and product architect of Tesla. He has a long list of many technology innovator companies, like Neuralink and OpenAL. His net worth is $234.4 billion but he is able to buy companies twice or even thrice that net worth. Not even Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg would carry out such risks as Musk's games.
The game changers are able to amass wealth in the midst of an impending global recession, and despite rumors of political and military conflicts, tensions, and turmoils being triggered by Vladimir Putin of Russia, Joe Biden of the USA, Xi Jinping of China, and now Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Ebrahim Raisi of Iran. Game changing includes disrupting transportation technologies in the world's biggest cities, DNA sequencing as a technology for public health amidst global pandemics. The game changers are able to surmount tremendous challenges brought about by the confluence of macro and micro threats on the natural environment, on the global balance of political powers, on the rise of high tech terrorisms and cybercrimes. They make money out of global risks and turn threats around into financial opportunities.
Mark Zuckerberg became a billionaire before his 24th birthday because of Facebook. He engineered the photo phenomenal success reaching beyond one billion users each day. He engineered the quantum leaps of photo-sharing services of Instagram, and added more feathers to his cap by his $22 billion acquisition of WhatsApp and the virtual reality platform Oculus for $2 billion.
A Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann acquired the world's biggest beer giant, Anheuser, producer of Budweiser. In partnership with Warren Buffet, he bought Burger King and Heinz, maker of the famous ketchup. Now he is rewriting the rules of the game in the food and beverage business. Coke and Pepsi better wake up.
The latest game changing technologies include quantum computing changing the paradigms in the field of data analytics. Then there is this thing called transformer neural network architecture which is revolutionizing natural language processing capabilities. There is a new phenomenal app in China called WeChat that combines the functions of WhatsApp, PayPal, Facebook, and LinkedIn, all in one. Also, Qentinel, a cloud-based automated intelligence testing. Related to cryptocurrency awareness, it is a magical mechanism for blockchain security and compliance monitoring systems. FIDO2 is the most amazing technology that has a far-reaching impact on human behavior and cybersecurity. There are others: AutoAI on artificial intelligence and anti-microbial visible light, a breakthrough in detecting microbes, viruses, and germs.
All these technologies at the hands of financial wizards create multi billions for young innovators who always think outside the box. The products of human geniuses have the potential to ending pandemics and famines, poverty and human suffering. On the other hand, they also have the potential of destroying humanity and exploding the entire planet.
It is my distinct privilege to be drinking beer, wine, and vodka with young geniuses who can either save the world or annihilate the entire humanity. I'm sick and tired of the petty politics and parochial bickering back there at home. I have elevated the levels of my conscientiousness by rubbing elbows with the most brilliant minds in the world. I have found my proper place and I am perfectly happy where I am.