The argument
Leverage, not labor, now determines the winner.
For a century, large firms existed because human judgment was scarce and expensive to coordinate. That arrangement is under pressure. AI does not replace judgment, trust, or accountability, but it can absorb a growing share of the routine coordination that once justified thick payrolls and thick middle layers. Intelligence Capitalism separates a firm into three parts — the customer relationship, which has to be owned; the operational middle, which is most exposed to AI compression; and capital-intensive infrastructure, which can often be rented — and follows that logic through the companies already built on it.