2025 MIT Platform Strategy Summit

Platforms Continue to Rewire the Global Economy

Platforms have revolutionized the way we conduct business, communicate, and interact with each other. Over the past decade, platforms have disrupted traditional business models and have become an important force in the global economy. We explore how platforms are becoming embedded in the economy in similar ways to the industrial giants that remade the world in the previous century. This year the MIT Platform Strategy Summit will focus on the future of platforms with leading business leaders, entrepreneurs, policy makers and scholars. Among the important trends that will be discussed include:

• As AI agents become power players in digital markets, who truly owns the data fueling them? The shifting landscape of data rights, algorithmic autonomy, and platform power are key topics. How are businesses leveraging agentic AI to shape consumer behavior? What safeguards exist to protect user agency in an era of self-learning systems? And can regulation keep up with AI-driven decision-making?
• Business platforms are no longer just economic engines—they’re geopolitical weapons. Global tech giants, financial networks, and e-commerce ecosystems are shaping international power struggles. Who controls digital infrastructure? How do platform policies reinforce or challenge state influence? And what happens when business interests collide with national security?
• Global supply chains face resource scarcity, trade tensions, and environmental concerns. Platforms can improve resilience and sustainability across sectors including electronics where they optimize e-waste management, while also supporting efficient reaggregation of materials like EV battery components and rare earth metals. Digital platforms advance ‘digital mining’ by connecting buyers and sellers in secondary markets, improving traceability and efficiency.
• Energy systems are undergoing the largest change since electricity was widely introduced a century ago and oil replaced coal in the mid 1900s. Today, increasingly, highly variable sources of supply such as wind and solar are becoming critical parts of the energy mix. Data layers and platforms have emerged to coordinate complex interactions among supply and demand.

Join us on Thursday, July 17, 2025 at the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Building in Cambridge, MA for a rich examination of where the global platform economy is heading next.

IDE Stakeholders and MIT students and academics can participate gratis with a registration code. Contact IDE for details (digital@mit.edu)

Event co-chairs: Peter C. Evans, Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne.

View and download the 2023 MIT Platform Strategy Summit report here.

Pictured above L-R, Geoff Parker, Peter C. Evans, Marshall Van Alstyne.