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Tech giants, Trump family's business dynasty, defense firms and military communities are becoming ever more important. Made in Germany reveals how power is shifting.
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00:09They have an awful lot of money and influence, tech companies and billionaires.
00:14Some are even aiming for space.
00:16It's now teaming with satellites that use high-tech to monitor every corner of the globe
00:21and have access to vast amounts of data and information.
00:27Added to this is AI, artificial intelligence.
00:31It's still in its infancy, but we're already seeing what's to come,
00:36just how influential this technology is,
00:38and how profoundly it could affect all of our lives sooner or later.
00:46Also on the show, power, money and influence, US President Donald Trump's business empire.
00:56Fewer US troops in Germany.
00:58What does it mean for the local economies near the bases?
01:02And arms instead of machines.
01:06More and more corporations are switching to the lucrative defense business.
01:20Digital platforms have made our lives easier.
01:23The tech founders behind them have become impossibly wealthy and powerful.
01:28Perhaps too powerful?
01:29They control public, formerly public infrastructure.
01:34Does big tech now even pose a threat to democracy?
01:38We need to be a lot more cautious of what's happening here.
01:42One person, one vote is a core democratic principle,
01:45meaning that everyone has an equal say, in theory.
01:49But what about the super-rich?
01:51The owners of Facebook, Amazon and Google each have fortunes worth between $200 and $300 billion.
01:59And then there's Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet,
02:03with an estimated wealth of almost $800 billion.
02:06But with wealth comes influence, especially in the arena of political decision-making.
02:12We have concrete examples that tech billionaires are not just financing parties and causes,
02:19but individual candidates, and thereby have massive influence.
02:24If you look at the U.S. Vice President, J.D. Vance,
02:28he would not have been able to become a senator, actually quite recently, five years ago,
02:34without the massive support of Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires
02:38who basically financed his election campaign
02:40and bought, in quotation mark, the election and the seat.
02:47The second issue is algorithms now deciding which content pops up in each online user's feed,
02:54meaning that the flow of information is fragmented.
02:58Public debate used to largely take place via mass media such as television and newspapers,
03:04meaning a limited number of outlets serving a large audience,
03:07so individuals could see and read the same thing and knew what was shaping public opinion.
03:13Social media is a different world of communication
03:15in which everyone is given a personalized feed, tailored to their profile.
03:20One thing, of course, is access to data.
03:23And these data are controlled by a handful of companies worldwide.
03:29That is a huge problem.
03:32Britain's vote to leave the EU is often cited as an example of this kind of influence.
03:37After the referendum, it emerged that a private sector company
03:40had collected personal data from millions of Facebook users
03:44in order to target voters and influence the vote.
03:48Ten years on, similar influence can be exercised in the form of AI queries.
03:53The responses often seem balanced and objective, but are they really?
04:00Take Elon Musk.
04:01He's been a very vocal and high-profile supporter of the far-right AFD party in Germany.
04:07Plus, critics say his AI chatbot, Grok, has a similar political bias when answering questions.
04:14For instance, I have found in my recent study that the AI toolbox, Grok, by Elon Musk,
04:23is basically running an election campaign for the AFD in Germany.
04:27And that's one example how, you know, rich individuals and their companies are exerting political influence
04:36through the media, through social media, through AI.
04:40And I think we only have seen the beginning of that.
04:45It's going to get a lot worse, and we need to be a lot more cautious of what's happening here.
04:50And space has become another area where Musk enjoys a dominant position, in terms of Internet satellites at least.
04:58The EU is building its own network with just under 300 satellites scheduled to provide secure connectivity and communications by
05:052030,
05:06a fraction of the 10,000-plus satellites that Musk already has in orbit.
05:10They've now become indispensable to Ukraine's military, for example.
05:16Kiev first turned to Musk for help via his Starlink network shortly after the Russian invasion in 2022.
05:23And to this day, many of the advanced drones used by Ukraine to strike back against Russian forces and assets
05:29depend on Starlink satellites for guidance.
05:33So, does a single individual now have the power to influence the course of a war?
05:39I'm personally surprised that the US defence ministry and security agencies still allow Elon Musk so much latitude
05:54when it comes to national security interests.
05:58I think the problem at the moment is that these monopolies have too much power
06:05and that they blackmail lots of national and subnational and supranational regulators.
06:15Tech companies are ahead of governments on various fronts,
06:19with an extraordinary degree of power from their ownership of critical infrastructure and mass data collection.
06:24We need to have much tighter control of critical infrastructure
06:30that applies both to AI, to communication networks, to data centres as well.
06:37The Data Act or the Data Governance Act do not go far enough.
06:41What we would need instead are strict rules that the data that the few companies at the moment monopolise
06:52should be used by many different companies.
06:55And I would go one step further.
06:57Ultimately, critical infrastructure has to be majority-owned by society.
07:03So, it's about who owns it.
07:05It's not just about regulation.
07:07But that's easier said than done.
07:10The rights to that infrastructure, on Earth and in space,
07:14belong to the corporations that built it.
07:17So, when it comes to political equality and democracies too,
07:21some people are more equal than others.
07:24Tech billionaires wield tremendous influence,
07:27as long as they retain control of a vital infrastructure
07:30and vast troves of our data.
07:40Through property, cryptocurrency and deals worth billions,
07:44the Trump family and its associates are involved in lucrative business ventures around the world.
07:50Trump has brought his entire business empire into office with him,
07:54turning the White House into something of a corporate headquarters.
07:58Never before has a President of the United States
08:01been as active in international business as Donald Trump.
08:05Many are asking,
08:07where is the line between political power and billion-dollar deals?
08:15Donald Trump is probably the wealthiest person to serve as U.S. President.
08:19Forbes magazine put his fortune at more than $6 billion in 2026.
08:24Even in office, his businesses continue to make money.
08:28We have seen nothing on this scale with respect to making money off the presidency.
08:36What role does the Trump family play?
08:39And what happens when the man running the country still has a private business empire?
08:54The U.S. Constitution is designed to protect the government from outside financial influence.
09:01It restricts officials from accepting certain benefits from foreign states.
09:07The Constitution of the United States specifically prohibits anyone in the United States government
09:13from making profits and benefits, emoluments, from business dealings with foreign governments.
09:19But the problem is we don't have a way to enforce that.
09:24To avoid conflicts of interest, presidents may sell assets or place them in a blind trust.
09:31Trump did neither.
09:32He kept ownership while handing control to his sons, Eric and Donald Jr.
09:39The best way of thinking about this, we need to take one step backward, that Trump and others
09:47like him in the world are busy, but especially Trump and his family are busy turning the state
09:54itself into a family business.
09:58The center of his business empire is the Trump Organization, now run by his sons.
10:04Its name appears on dozens of real estate projects around the world.
10:11India is one of its biggest foreign markets, with several major Trump-branded developments.
10:18Before Trump's first presidency, his international property network looked like this.
10:26From 2017, more Trump-branded properties were added.
10:32After his re-election in 2025, the network grew again.
10:41Then there's Eric and Donald Jr.'s move into cryptocurrency.
10:45The brothers play a prominent role in World Liberty Financial, a crypto company in which
10:51the Trump family holds a financial interest.
10:55WLFI, a digital token, is one of its products.
10:59The family is estimated to have made several billion dollars from crypto ventures.
11:08But at times, the token's price fell well below its previous highs.
11:14The sales appear to have primarily benefited the platform and its owners.
11:22The losses were presumably borne by investors.
11:29The Trump family has gained over two billion dollars from the sale of these cryptocurrencies.
11:35The actual investors in those, many times the American people or foreign governments, have
11:44lost two billion dollars, right?
11:46So, in essence, it's just simply a transfer of wealth.
11:53Then there's Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
11:56He serves as a special peace envoy primarily to the Middle East.
12:00He also owns Affinity Partners, an investment firm reportedly managing more than six billion dollars.
12:07Much of its capital is said to come from Gulf states.
12:12We're talking about very suspicious real estate deals in certain parts of the world.
12:17We're talking about some very suspicious injections of large amounts of capital in the billions
12:23of dollars from sovereign wealth fronts, from the Saudis to the Qataris to the Emiratis.
12:28A private investor and a U.S. envoy working for peace in the Middle East.
12:33So how does Kushner explain this double role?
12:36Technically, I have not joined the administration, so I'm still just a volunteer like other businessmen
12:42who, you know, who volunteer to help the government when asked.
12:46President Trump has built strong ties with the Gulf states during his time in office
12:50and brokered numerous arms deals.
12:53His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also appears to have benefited through his investment firm.
13:00When business and politics overlap, questions about conflicts of interest are never far behind.
13:07That's also true in the debates surrounding Iran.
13:11Critics argue that Kushner's business ties in the Gulf region could cast doubt on his independence.
13:19So can the private interests of presidents be kept in check?
13:41Critics hope the current debate will lead to tougher rules on financial conflicts of interest
13:55The U.S. president wants to significantly reduce American troop levels in Germany.
14:01The bases are not only a symbol of military strength, but also a key economic factor in the areas where
14:06they're stationed,
14:07and they have been for many decades.
14:09According to Trump's plans, around 5,000 U.S. soldiers are to be withdrawn from Germany.
14:15Details are still being worked out, but unease is growing in areas with bases nearby.
14:20The lucrative business generated by U.S. soldiers could soon come to an end.
14:31For decades, U.S. armed forces in Europe have been not just a boost on the defence front.
14:37A lot of the Americans do fund almost all of their money into your guys' economy.
14:41Which President Trump is keen to weaponise, as seen with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz earlier this year.
14:48Ever since Trump said he'd withdraw 5,000 American troops from Germany,
14:51the towns hosting those bases have been wondering which will be affected and when.
14:57Really nervous.
15:00The U.S. maintains more than 30 military bases across Europe,
15:04with at least 76,000 personnel stationed there permanently.
15:08Around half of them are in Germany, making it the biggest American military hub on the continent.
15:15This is the sleepy little Bavarian town of Vilsäck,
15:18with 6,000 residents and a U.S. military training area on its doorstep.
15:23It's a place steeped in tradition.
15:27This hotel, for example, has been run by the same family for 14 generations.
15:32And it's popular among the families of American troops stationed nearby.
15:38They want a place that has some character, where the old stairs still creak.
15:43They find it cosy.
15:48It's a world away from home for the guests from across the Atlantic.
15:52I'm from North Carolina, the United States, yeah.
15:56My husband, he's in the military, so that's what brings us here.
16:01A U.S. troop withdrawal would have serious consequences for the local economy.
16:08We have a relatively good infrastructure here,
16:11with supermarkets and car dealerships and other businesses
16:13getting most of their custom from the military training area.
16:17Annually, it generates 650 to 700 million euros in economic activity.
16:25While the United States Army garrison in Bavaria comprises under 17,000 military personnel,
16:31add on civilians, retirees and families, and that figure more than doubles.
16:36Entire neighborhoods have been built to serve those families,
16:40complete with churches and kindergartens.
16:42Local construction firms have learned to adapt to U.S. standards and measurements.
16:47For this particular company, the American military accounts for half of annual turnover.
16:56We've had quite a lot of projects for their armed forces.
17:00Last year, around 100 building sites, generating over 50 million euros in revenue.
17:07As for Trump's plans for troop reductions,
17:10some local businesses are more worried than others.
17:16It's bound to affect us to a degree.
17:18It depends which personnel are removed from where.
17:21So, of course, we're following developments pretty closely.
17:27You don't know.
17:29Trump changes his mind from one day to the next, so it's hard to say.
17:35My business is based on German customers.
17:38Any Americans coming here are a plus.
17:41It's been discussed so many times before that we can't see it happening.
17:47Around 40% of shoppers at the supermarket are American,
17:51and they are highly valued customers.
17:55They shop differently to Germans, less price-oriented, more impulsive.
18:01While Germans look for special offers, Americans tend to buy what they feel like having.
18:09And the locals don't just appreciate American customers for the money they spend.
18:17They're generally very polite.
18:19They take off their caps and say,
18:21yes, ma'am, thank you, ma'am, have a nice day, ma'am.
18:24Better manners than a lot of Germans.
18:27And they're better tippers, too.
18:31The bill might be 12 euros, and they'll give you 20 and say, keep the change.
18:36I tell them I'd rather they gave me 15 instead and came back more often.
18:41But if they insist, then I'm not going to say no.
18:46The economies of towns like Filsek depend on the money spent by the American military communities.
18:53While the troops' future whereabouts will be decided by their president,
18:56and it's clear many of them are likewise happy with the status quo.
19:00It's a beautiful place. Beautiful place.
19:02I like it a lot. It's very clean. It's very peaceful here.
19:05I love the scenery.
19:06I love the trees. It's much cleaner than America.
19:15The German economy is faltering.
19:18Many corporations that have been successful for decades are now in trouble.
19:23Whether they're automakers or machinery manufacturers,
19:26many companies are looking for new business areas.
19:28The defence industry seems to be increasingly lucrative.
19:32Due to recent conflicts like the war in Ukraine,
19:34the global demand for weapons has skyrocketed.
19:38A 175-year-old manufacturer of printing presses is now building military vehicles.
19:44Just one example of the transformation taking place in German industry.
19:52Germany's industrial base is shrinking.
19:55Around 15,000 manufacturing jobs are lost every month,
19:59with companies from Karmic of Volkswagen to steel producer ThyssenKlub cutting thousands of positions.
20:04Now, some manufacturers are turning to the defence sector in search of new growth.
20:10Intense competition from China, weaker demand in Europe,
20:14and the transition to climate-neutral production are all putting pressure on industry.
20:22So, the current surge in defence orders, along with technologies with both civilian and military applications,
20:29can help offset those losses.
20:34Germany's defence spending has almost tripled over the past six years.
20:39That increase is benefiting not only traditional contractors,
20:42but also companies across a wide range of industries.
20:51We already have a substantial workforce in dual-use industries,
20:55around three and a half million people working on technologies, goods and products
21:00that can also be relevant for security or defence.
21:06Covering one in 12 jobs in Germany, dual-use technology industries have significant potential.
21:13Semiconductors from Dresden.
21:15Optical technology from Jena.
21:18Digital infrastructure from the Frankfurt region.
21:21Metal manufacturing from South Westphalia,
21:24plus mechanical engineering and aerospace expertise from the Lake Constance area.
21:29The automotive industry also brings capabilities
21:32that are increasingly valuable in the defence sector.
21:39The good news is not because automotive manufacturers
21:42can now suddenly start making tanks.
21:47The point is that they profit from already knowing
21:49how to make industrial products on a large scale.
21:57When we look at vehicles,
21:58we're seeing particularly rapid advances in autonomous systems.
22:03And drone systems include not just the aircraft,
22:06but also unmanned ground vehicles,
22:09playing an increasingly important role.
22:11The transition is also reaching mid-sized companies.
22:15Heidelberger Druckmaschinen,
22:17which has been making printing presses for 175 years,
22:20now generates much of its business from packaging machinery.
22:24But the company is adapting its technology for defence applications,
22:28including drones and autonomous ground vehicles.
22:38With all the uncertainties in the world right now,
22:42from geopolitical tensions to trade tariffs,
22:45developing the second line of business helps to make us less vulnerable to those fluctuations.
22:51The company's advanced technology subsidiary aims to generate
22:55an extra 300 million euros in revenue from that diversification over the next three years.
23:00A modern printing press is a highly complex machine,
23:03combining sensors, electric motors and advanced control systems.
23:08And those technologies are also used in drones and unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs.
23:17For this UGV, we bought two batteries, two electric motors and four wheels.
23:23Everything else was made by us,
23:24from the cast-iron parts to the electronics and software.
23:28And we managed to do it all in four and a half months.
23:33A feat only possible in such a short time,
23:36because 80% of the components are produced in-house.
23:39This is still a prototype,
23:41but the company hopes it will soon begin production here in Wiesloch, outside Heidelberg.
23:46You could say that the UGV is still a printing press at heart.
23:53Entering the defence sector requires navigating regulatory hurdles
23:57and complex approval processes.
24:00But the growing market offers German companies new avenues of growth
24:04and could help secure industrial jobs and technological expertise in Europe.
24:16The arms trade is more lucrative than ever.
24:20The alliance between China and Pakistan
24:22is one of the closest defence partnerships in the world.
24:25For years, China has been by far Pakistan's most important arms supplier.
24:31This military cooperation significantly strengthens Pakistan's armed forces.
24:36But this costs money.
24:38Money that's lacking elsewhere in a country struggling with massive debt
24:41and rising energy prices.
24:46Fighter jets, drones, submarines.
24:49Pakistan is ramping up its military.
24:51But who is paying the price?
24:53Conflicts with India and Afghanistan.
24:56Terrorism at home.
24:57Fearing multiple threats.
24:59Pakistan is investing billions in military equipment.
25:03Around 80% of that technology and expertise comes from China.
25:07At the same time, ordinary people are under growing pressure.
25:11Food and electricity prices are soaring.
25:13A large portion of the national budget goes towards debt repayment.
25:17Financial leeway is limited.
25:19Yet military spending keeps rising.
25:21Meanwhile, China has invested around $25 billion in the country's infrastructure.
25:26As economic and military ties between the two nations shift closer,
25:31some warn of growing dependence, security or economic stability.
25:36A delicate balancing act for Pakistan to navigate in the years ahead.
25:44That's all for today.
25:46We've reported on the influence of the world's biggest tech giant.
25:49On US President Trump, who makes billions on the side.
25:54And on the arms trade, which is increasingly lucrative.
25:58Until next time, goodbye.
26:11We'll see you next time.
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