Objective
Technofeudalism is a socioeconomic theory popularized by economist Yanis Varoufakis which posits that capitalism has been superseded by a new economic order driven by "cloud capital." According to Varoufakis, the traditional capitalist engine of profit-driven market competition has stalled, replaced by digital fiefdoms controlled by a small cadre of "cloudalists"—such as the owners of Amazon and Meta. In this structure, these platforms do not merely operate within markets but effectively replace them, extracting "rents" from transactions and interactions rather than earning profit through production. This shift, accelerated by the 2008 financial crisis and the privatization of the internet, relies on algorithms that modify human behavior to maximize platform value. Consequently, users function as " cloud serfs," contributing unpaid labor through data generation that further entrenches the power of the platform owners.