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• Scott Timcke

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31269/sqk8nt89 Keywords: artificial intelligence, financialisation, hegemonic transition, crisis theory, global political economy Abstract

Contemporary capitalism is characterised by persistent overaccumulation, declining profitability, and intensified financialisation under conditions of hegemonic instability. This article argues that the recent surge in artificial intelligence (AI) investment functions less as the basis of a new productive regime than as a crisis response within financialised capitalism. Drawing on Marxian crisis theory, social structures of accumulation, and theories of hegemonic transition, the article shows how unprecedented AI capital expenditure coexists with persistent operating losses, speculative valuations, and fragile revenue models. These patterns indicate a flight toward financial expansion characteristic of hegemonic autumn. By reframing AI as a manifestation of accumulation crisis and hegemonic instability, the article challenges accounts that treat it as an autonomous driver of capitalist renewal. 

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• Scott Timcke

  Dr Scott Timcke is a scholar of race, class, and digital technology. He is a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Social Change at the University of Johannesburg and has written extensively on how generationally defining technologies are shaping democratic institutions. He has published three scholarly books, including Algorithms and the End of Politics.

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