Tech giants are at the forefront of progress

They shuttle money from country to country to avoid paying tax. They are laying waste to whole industries.

They have jeopardised the secure working career and subverted democracy with an avalanche of fake news.

The technology giants have not yet been accused of spreading the plague or eating babies for breakfast, but perhaps it is only a matter of time.

And yet amid all the accusations, and the calls for regulation and control that invariably accompany them, it is easy to lose sight of an important fact. The same companies are also leading capitalism’s latest reinvention of the world.

The extraordinary sums they are pouring into blue-sky research dwarfs anything the state could afford.

And while...