I don't think it happens quite that distinctly in the world we live in now (technology, etc.). It's not like a big tech company can go attain the same direct power as the East India company way back in the day. It's much more likely that companies continue to gain lobbying and "soft" power that directs the military into doing things. Large corps do have more money than many countries, so if a huge company wants to setup manufacturing or gain benefits in a smaller country they do have outsized power, but its rare that a huge company has more power than their own country from what I know (potentially oil companies are the exception which is why national oil companies seem to have so much weight in so many countries). For example sure the big tech companies are very powerful, but the US military budget per year is still nearly the same size as the largest tech companies market cap. Whereas you are right that a US big tech company has more revenue than say...Guatemala, or Morocco.

I guess I am splitting hairs but "spare capacity" heavily implies it's a non physical resource or it's able to be used in an instant. Almost like how if you had a global based missile system like a GBI (or not quite global but long range like a THAAD) you could near instantly have someone "bid" to use your missiles in an emergency scenario. Building short range interceptors and selling them or renting them is closer to the model of AWS itself, building a knowledge base hosting your own platform (Amazon.com retail) and then selling that knowledge to others. In this case building anti missile systems to protect data centers and then selling a packaged model to other companies. But it's not "spare capacity", it's selling expertise and helping to fund your own R&D.

I dunno about defense as a service since those are pretty short range systems you mentioned (how would someone go "buy" excess capacity), but datacenters already cluster around common resources (water, etc.) so group buying some equipment to put in a ring around the datacenter area seems like it would be what they do.

Yeah the use consumer grade rocket components made SpaceX become viable compared to bloated rocket companies. Short range anti missile systems are not large ordinance, they rely a lot on technology for tracking targeting, and they are not a "weapon" (as in they prevent damage not cause it except inadvertently) so it actually seems like something pretty feasible for a tech company. Build it with consumer grade hardware and you could deploy a ton of them.

Do you have a source for that last part? As far as I heard the Taliban and Pakistan are fighting which is the opposite of what you are saying.

I wonder sometimes if this is actually about the job as people say, or if it has something to do with that's convenient to ask. Your job is arguably one of the most public facing things about you, and is also somewhat impersonal. I've been other countries where they launch straight into "how many kids do you have?" (or plan to have), "how much money do you make", "what neighborhood do you live in" and I kinda missed just being asked about my job.