Maersk burned $100M on a platform nobody wanted, then found the AI that prints money

Maersk's TradeLens case demonstrates critical lessons in platform strategy and competitive dynamics. The failure stemmed from a fundamental misalignment of incentives: competitors were unwilling to contribute data to infrastructure controlled by their primary rival, regardless of technical merit. This illustrates the importance of governance neutrality in multi-stakeholder platforms. For practitioners, the key insight is that technological innovation must account for competitive positioning and trust dynamics. Maersk's subsequent success with internally-focused AI applications shows that companies may capture more value by optimizing their own operations rather than attempting to create industry-wide platforms that benefit competitors.