Venture capital, the fetish of artificial intelligence, and the contradictions of making intangible assets

Abstract

This paper examines the venture capital-driven process of making intangible assets in platform start-up firms.By examining the case study of the rise and fall of a venture capital-backed 'unicorn' firm developing a digital health platform, this paper argues that the process of real valorization of capital invested in platform start-up firms involves the making of algorithmic systems and data as intangible assets as well as the experimentation with strategies of exploitation and appropriation, which are inherently linked to the future-oriented financial valorization process of equity shares since unprofitable start-up firms continuously require outside capital to expand operations.While the fetish of 'artificial intelligence' posing the firm's chatbot for self-diagnosis as an intelligent 'doctor in your pocket' plays an important role in financial valorization, it is the failed real valorization process in making profits that ultimately leads to the

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