The cloud was once seen as belonging to no one—or at least, that’s how it felt.
Despite being built and operated by someone, we’ve long used it freely, entrusted our data to it, and become dependent on it, without treating it like “land” that can be owned. The cloud exists physically on some server somewhere, yet where it is has never seemed important.
In that sense, “cloud” was a triumph of branding.
But now that AI has become foundational to everything, and computational resources have emerged as the new currency of power, the cloud is once again under scrutiny.
Whose is it?
Who owns it?
Who has the right to use it?
Who controls access?
Just like land, water, or energy once did, the cloud now wavers between being public and private.
Today, decentralized data centers—what could be called distributed cloud infrastructures—are starting to appear in various regions. These are not provided by governments, nor should they be monopolized by any single corporation. Ideally, they should be owned by communities, used by schools and hospitals, and joined by citizens. These networks of computational resources could function as part of the societal infrastructure, much like waterworks or power grids once did.
Of course, this may be inefficient. It might be costly. Integration with existing infrastructure won’t be easy.
But between a future where everything is entrusted to one massive compute environment somewhere far away, and a society where small, reliable pockets of compute capacity exist across regions—surely the latter deserves more attention and discussion.
Beyond technical concerns, the cloud also needs diversity—politically and culturally.
This diversity means freedom of computation, freedom of thought, and freedom of choice.
So who owns the cloud?
I believe that should be decided by its users.
Perhaps it’s time to shift from a model where we’re merely “allowed to use” the cloud, to one where we “own it together.”