Algoritminen kapitalismi globaaleilla talousmarkkinoilla : kuinka algoritmit mahdollistavat uusia tulonhyödyntämisen muotoja

Economic power is increasingly concentrated among actors who do not own productive assets in the traditional sense, but rather control access to data, algorithmic systems, and digital infrastructure. Research on rentier capitalism has, however, largely focused on land and financial assets, leaving the role of algorithmic systems as a mechanism of rent-extraction insufficiently theorized. This thesis examines how algorithmic capitalism reorganizes the internal logic of rentier capitalism, and through which mechanisms algorithmic systems enable rent-extraction in global financial markets. The methodological framework draws on critical realism, and the theoretical framework is grounded in a historical-conceptual literature review tracing the development of the concept of rent across classical, Marxist, and modern political economy. Building on this review, the thesis employs a comparative analysis in which rentier capitalism and algorithmic capitalism are examined across ten dimensions, with a focus on each mode’s internal logic of rent-extraction. The thesis further draws on a single case study in which the asset management company BlackRock and its Aladdin platform serve as an illustrative example of algorithmic rent-extraction. The case study is structured across three layers of critical realist ontology, and the research material consists of BlackRock’s publicly available corporate documents, media sources, documents from international regulatory bodies, and peer-reviewed academic literature. This thesis argues that algorithmic capitalism both intensifies the logic of rentier capitalism and reconfigures it in fundamental ways. In traditional rentier capitalism, property rights and legislation function as external enablers of rent-extraction, whereas in algorithmic capitalism a proprietary ecosystem, algorithmic differential advantage, and network effects mutually reinforce one another such that each cycle of extraction deepens the conditions for the next. The Aladdin case further demonstrates that this dynamic produces a form of epistemic governance that extends beyond immediate client relationships. The thesis concludes that a regulatory liminal space has formed around the system, sustained by jurisdiction fragmentation and conceptual gaps in existing regulatory frameworks. Current regulatory responses identify the problem but do not reach its structural foundations.