The new CNN Original Series Land of the Giants: Titans of Tech (first three episodes available now on CNN+) takes you inside five of the biggest tech companies in the world: Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple and Netflix.
Produced in partnership between CNN and Vox, who created the podcast of the same name, it investigates the companies' creation, company culture and future. Each episode focuses on the story of a different tech titan, featuring interviews with friends and employees who were witnesses to their meteoric rises.
We spoke with filmmaker and executive producer David Rivera about what inspired the series and why it's important. Take a look at what he said below:
Q: What drew you to deep dive into tech, and why single out these five companies/founders?
A: There is no more relevant and universal topic in the world today than technology and its effect on our everyday lives.
The five companies, which Wall Street refers to as FAANG – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google – have a combined market value of over $3 trillion, which is about 20% of the S&P 500. That kind of dominance by a collection of corporations, all of which are in the same sector, is unprecedented in modern history. They have changed the way we communicate, how we shop, how we work, what we do in our spare time and how we interact with the world. They all operate in the image of their founders: Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings, Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
These companies are fascinating, but the people who built them are even more so. Above all, we wanted to tell stories about people; Not just the founders, but all of us. We are all on the Internet, connected as never before, carrying in our pockets powerful personal computers with capabilities that were once the stuff of science fiction. And we are grappling with the consequences of this leap in human evolution in real-time. The story of how we got here, and where we may be headed next, is the scope of this series.
Q: Were there any similarities you found between these tech visionaries (Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings, Larry Page and Sergey Brin)?
A: These men come from radically different backgrounds. Steve Jobs was a vegan hippie who preferred being barefoot, while Jeff Bezos was a hedge-fund egghead who dreamed of one day going to space. Reed Hastings had already run a business when he founded Netflix, while the founders of Facebook and Google built their companies between college classes.
What unites them is intelligence, a relentless drive, and the vision to see opportunities before their peers. They are also ruthlessly competitive. One theme that emerges in our series is the interconnections, rivalries and shifting alliances among these corporations and their founders. These men know each other, they study each other’s companies, and they are constantly jockeying for supremacy in the digital age.
Q: These companies started as likable underdogs that people wanted to support. As they grew into global powerhouses, how did public opinion about them change?
A: Very slowly. These technologies are miraculous. Google promises to find anything, answer any question, and show you how to get anywhere. Amazon delivers virtually any product you can imagine to your door. Netflix has more content than you could ever watch in a lifetime and lets you watch any of it, whenever you want. Apple created a supercomputer that you can hold in your hand. Facebook lets you communicate with billions of people, around the world, instantly and for free.
So, it took a long time to see these companies in a different light. We were dazzled. But there’s a famous saying: If you’re not paying for it, you’re the product. People have woken up to that reality.
Q: Where does tech go from here?
A: Technology will only become more interwoven with our daily lives. The next frontier is the human body itself: Wearable tech, whether it is on our eyes, in our ears or around our wrists, is potentially a billion-dollar market. Beyond that lies the metaverse. Facebook’s rebrand, to Meta, is a bet the future lies in creating – and owning – your own private universe.
Or, if you’re Jeff Bezos, you can jet off to new locales within the solar system. His interest in space travel is not a lark, it is a lifelong obsession. Bezos is not the only tech billionaire who believes the future of the human race is off-earth. After all, once you’ve conquered the planet, what else is there?
