Are Mega Companies Stronger than States?

Some companies today have market capitalizations exceeding the GDP of many countries, control critical infrastructure, shape access to information, influence technical standards, and direct an increasing share of global investment. Should we conclude that they have become more powerful than states? States still, in theory, retain a monopoly over law, taxation, coercion, and territorial sovereignty. Yet this presupposes that they possess the political will, administrative capacity, and sometimes the critical mass to truly exercise that power.

Are we witnessing a gradual privatization of power, or rather a new form of interdependence between public authorities and large corporations? Who now sets the rules of the global game? Do giants in technology, finance, or energy weaken states, or do they instead act as relays of a redefined form of power? Is power now shared between them, according to more unstable, diffuse, and harder-to-control balances?