A video-game megacorporation becomes a business plan, and the satire asks why nobody seems surprised
In AI Industry Begins Building Arasaka, the satire begins with a reference to a fictional corporation from the Cyberpunk universe. Arasaka is not a real company; it is a dystopian symbol – a megacorporation with its own army, its own laws, and its own skyline. The comedy lies in the suggestion that the AI industry is turning fiction into fact. The article implies that we are not heading toward a cyberpunk future; we are already building it. The satire is that no one is surprised. The article suggests that we have accepted corporate sovereignty as normal.
The literary criticism here concerns the genre of cyberpunk. Cyberpunk was a warning. It depicted a world of mega-corporations, surveillance, and inequality. The article implies that the warning was read as a brochure. The satire is that the AI industry is not creating a new future; it is fulfilling an old prophecy. The article suggests that Arasaka was always, in part, a business plan. We just called it science fiction.
The piece also targets the language of innovation. AI companies describe themselves as pioneers, explorers, and visionaries. The article implies that they are also builders of empires. The satire is that the empire is called a platform. The article suggests that the difference between a corporation and a government is becoming a matter of branding.
When the Warning Becomes the Blueprint
In literary terms, the article works through the metaphor of the megastructure. Arasaka is a building, a corporation, and a state. The article suggests that the AI industry is building similar structures. The satire is that these structures are both visible and invisible: vast data halls on the ground, and a cloud that seems to float above jurisdiction. The article implies that the cloud is a kind of country. And the country has no citizens, only users.
The deeper theme is the privatization of governance. The article suggests that AI companies are taking on functions that once belonged to states: communication, identity, security, and increasingly infrastructure. The satire is that no one voted for this. The article implies that the transfer of power is not a coup; it is a subscription. We sign up for the service. We accept the terms. And the terms become a kind of law.
The tone is ominous, almost prophetic. The article does not laugh at the comparison; it insists on it. The reader is invited to imagine the future: the corporate campuses, the private security, the digital borders. The satire is that much of that future is already under construction. The article suggests that Arasaka is not only a warning; it is becoming a model. And the model is being built.
Ultimately, the piece is a meditation on the relationship between fiction and capitalism. The article suggests that capitalism often builds what has already been imagined. The satire is that cyberpunk imagined the future, and industry is now pouring its foundations. The article implies that the critics were, unintentionally, the architects. We should have listened. But we were too busy reading.
The Real Infrastructure Behind the Metaphor
The comparison is not idle. In January 2025 OpenAI announced The Stargate Project, a new company intending to invest 500 billion dollars over four years in AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States, with 100 billion to be deployed immediately. The announcement explicitly framed the project as providing “a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”
SoftBank’s own press release lists the initial equity funders as SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX, with SoftBank holding financial responsibility, OpenAI operational responsibility and Masayoshi Son as chairman. A private company building national-security infrastructure under a science-fiction name is precisely the premise the London Prat is teasing – it just prefers the franchise with the neon.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk/ai-industry-begins-building-arasaka/