It’s as if the Department of Justice (DOJ) is living in the 1990s. Google has just been found guilty of illegally maintaining a search monopoly. The DOJ’s proposed remedies, however, sound like a Greatest Hits album from the Microsoft antitrust era: split off Chrome, share data, and refrain from exclusive deals. All while Google has quietly acquired over 30 AI startups with zero regulatory pushback as the lawyers write memos. Google has just been found guilty of illegally maintaining a search monopoly As the DOJ prepares to fight the last war, Big Tech has already seized the next battlefield. Consider the numbers. Five companies have 75% of all AI compute. Three companies account for 90% of all AI models. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have all invested more than $100 billion in AI infrastructure their smaller rivals can’t access, let alone afford. When even the Federal Trade Commission’s Lina Khan says there’s “no AI exemption from antitrust laws,” you know regulators are grasping for answers to a problem they barely understand. Five companies have 75% of all AI compute. Three companies account for 90% of all AI models Federal Trade Commission’s Lina Khan says there’s “no AI exemption from antitrust laws,” What regulators are missing: AI monopolization is not just about market share, but about infrastructure control. When AI startups must choose between Google Cloud, AWS, or Azure to train models, when inference requests must route through Big Tech’s servers, when datasets must reside in their storage buckets, the race for real competition in AI is already over. It’s why the crypto industry has accidentally stumbled upon the solution. In developing decentralized alternatives to traditional financial infrastructure, the building blocks for breaking AI’s emerging monopolies are already being built. Instead of connecting these dots, we’re watching two parallel universes play out in the same world. Big Tech consolidates the keys to AI control, while crypto develops the infrastructure for everything except. No clearer than in the explosive growth of AI agents. Autonomously-operating software programs are being spun up by the thousands each week with one individual agent having generated enough activity to nudge a memecoin into a $1 billion market cap. Yet every single one of these agents is wholly dependent on centralized AI providers. We have built digitally native economic actors that are fundamentally and forever beholden to Big Tech’s digital infrastructure. The technical solution is already in plain sight. Decentralized AI networks like Bittensor have competitive accuracy with zero central control. Akash Network has compute that’s 76-83% cheaper than AWS. Render can provide GPU access without any lock-in. The parts already exist, it’s the connective tissue that’s missing to make it a viable alternative to Big Tech’s entire stack. Decentralized AI networks like Bittensor Akash Network has compute that’s 76-83% cheaper than AWS Enter decentralized cross-chain infrastructure as the unexpected hero. AI agents need to be able to call compute from one network, pull data from another, fetch model weights from a third, and settle on-chain payments on a fourth. Today’s blockchain bridges are too slow, too costly, and too vulnerable to hacks for production-grade AI workloads. We need purpose-built infrastructure that treats cross-chain comms as a first-class primitive rather than an afterthought. Regulatory tailwinds are finally aligning. The GENIUS Act creates a stablecoin framework for instant programmable payments between AI agents, while the CLARITY Act’s commodity designation provides much-needed legal certainty for token-incentivized networks. After two years of unprecedented antitrust action, with proposed legislation passing in both chambers of Congress, we are in a narrow window where regulation helps rather than hinders decentralized alternatives. But the true catalyst isn’t regulatory, it’s economic. JPMorgan’s COIN AI is saving 360,000 legal hours annually, but they are entirely at the mercy of centralized providers who can change terms, raise prices, or suffer outages with zero warning. Every Fortune 500 company faces the same choice: adopt AI or be left behind, but choosing AI means ceding unprecedented control to Big Tech. JPMorgan’s COIN AI is saving 360,000 legal hours annually Decentralized cross-chain AI infrastructure provides a third path. Rather than making the choice between Big Tech lock-in or AI abstinence, enterprises can access the best-in-class AI capabilities without any vendor lock-in. Smart contracts can enforce SLAs are met. Token incentives align network participants. Cryptographic proofs can verify integrity of computation. The technology works — it just needs the rails to run on. The irony of Big Tech’s AI spending is that it will accelerate their own disruption. Every new AI capability they develop becomes a blueprint for decentralized replication. Every model they train becomes a target for distributed alternatives. Every dollar they spend educating the market about AI’s value increases demand for alternatives they can’t control. We are on the cusp of the “agent-to-agent” economy, where AI entities transact directly without human intermediation. These agents need neutral infrastructure, not walled gardens. Permissionless access, not API keys. Cryptographic verification, not corporate promises. In short, they need exactly what decentralized cross-chain infrastructure provides. The time for action is short and each month Big Tech’s AI moat grows deeper. Each acquisition they make makes decentralized alternatives that much harder to bootstrap. Each enterprise that locks into centralized AI infrastructure that much harder to dislodge. The solution doesn’t require regulators’ approval, congressional action, or judicial decree. It requires building. Breaking Big Tech’s AI monopoly won’t happen in courtrooms or congressional hearings, it will happen on mainnet. It will happen when developers have viable alternatives. When enterprises can deploy AI without dependence. When agents can transact without having to wait for permissions. The infrastructure to enable this future already exists in pieces on dozens of blockchains. Our job is to connect them before it’s too late. The DOJ can continue filing briefs on search monopolies. Congress can continue holding AI safety hearings. In the meantime, those of us focused on cross-chain infrastructure will be too busy building the underground railroad for AI independence. The best antitrust remedy is not breaking up Big Tech, but building the infrastructure that ensures they won’t hold all the keys to the future.

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Breaking Big Tech's AI Monopoly Requires Decentralized Cross-Chain Rails

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