Big Tech’s financial power and global reach increasingly resemble that of nation states
Concerns over digital dominance are pushing calls for technology sovereignty
Zoho positions itself as a long-term challenger to global software incumbents in India
Sridhar Vembu Revives East India Company Analogy, Says 'Big Tech Bigger Than Nations'
The Zoho cofounder has reignited debate around the growing power of global technology firms, comparing their influence to that once held by colonial trading giants
Sridhar Vembu, Zoho
Summary
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Zoho Corporation cofounder Sridhar Vembu has once again drawn parallels between modern Big Tech and the British “East India Company”. He said today’s global technology firms command financial and strategic influence on par with the sovereign states.
“Big tech is bigger than most sovereign nations. ‘East India Company’ is the way to think about them,” Vembu wrote on the microblogging site X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.
His remarks came in response to a post highlighting how Alphabet raised $32 billion in debt in just 24 hours, an amount that could take the Indian government nearly 100 days to raise. The post also contrasted Alphabet’s 100-year bond issue with India’s 40-year sovereign bonds.
This comment underscored the sheer financial muscle of Big Tech firms and their ability to attract capital at scale and speed.
It is pertinent to note that this is not the first time Vembu has drawn parallels with the East India Company. In January, he commented on France’s move away from the US-based video conferencing tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to a homegrown platform, Visio.
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He called the development “ironic”, saying Europe was only beginning to acknowledge how concentrated digital power had become. Vembu even called for “technology sovereignty”, while urging countries to assert greater control over digital infrastructure.
The comparison with the East India Company points to a larger concern: that corporations armed with vast capital, advanced technology and global reach, can increasingly steer markets and influence national policy in ways once reserved for sovereign states.
Even in October 2025, Vembu reflected on the start-up’s long journey and recalled how he had anticipated competition with Microsoft 18 years ago.
He shared a screenshot of a web article titled “Can Zoho steal Microsoft’s customers?” Vembu noted that Zoho had made little impact in the market even five or ten years after the article’s publication. However, today the company’s tools are widely regarded as the primary competitor to Microsoft’s suite in India.
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Last week, Zoho launched its suite of productivity and communication tools, which were endored by several senior members of the Indian governments. The leaders urged officials and citizens to adopt the home-grown platform as a “Swadeshi” alternative to foreign software.