The modern economy is becoming increasingly different from the old model in which capital primarily meant a factory, land, machinery, warehouses, transport, a bank, or a financial asset. None of these forms of capital has disappeared. Factories still produce goods.

Tesla cannot be described as an empty company. It manufactures electric vehicles, battery systems, charging equipment, software and energy-storage systems. It has factories, employees, technologies, cash reserves and a functioning industrial business.

The loss of Nokia for Europe was not simply the story of one unsuccessful company. It was the moment when Europe lost its own mass technological door into the human pocket. The phone stopped being only a communication device. It became a screen for access to banks,...