Beautiful Virgin Islands

Saturday, Oct 18, 2025

How big tech got even bigger

How big tech got even bigger

The tech industry’s titans were already huge before Covid-19, the subject of soaring valuations and snowballing antitrust investigations. The pandemic has only made them bigger. A lot bigger.

In almost every facet of life—the tools we use to work, study, and play; how we shop and interact; the way companies operate and market their products—people and businesses have become more reliant on technology over the past year. Even amid one of the most punishing economic downturns on record, spending surged on computers, videogames, online retail, cloud-computing services and digital advertising.

The result was dizzying growth for some of the largest corporations in history—and for their stock prices. At a time when companies such as airlines and bricks-and-mortar retailers struggled to survive, combined revenue for the five biggest U.S. tech companies— Apple Inc., AAPL -0.31% Microsoft Corp. , Amazon.com Inc., AMZN 0.63% Google-parent Alphabet Inc., and Facebook Inc. FB 0.60% —grew by a fifth, to $1.1 trillion. Their aggregate profit rose an even faster 24%. And their combined market capitalization soared by half over the past year to a staggering $8 trillion.

Their economic sway expanded in other ways, too, including employment: Amazon alone added 500,000 new workers in a single year, roughly equivalent to the entire population of Atlanta.

Lawmakers and regulators may yet find ways to rein them in, but the economic and societal forces propelling Big Tech to even higher heights seem likely to outlast Covid-19. Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella has said that he expects spending on technology to double to 10% of gross domestic product from its current level of 5%. This month he said he now expects that to happen even faster.

Here is a closer look at the rise of the big five:

Apple


Apple was one of a number of companies that saw demand soar for laptops, tablets and other devices as many people stayed home for work and school due to Covid-19 lockdowns. The Cupertino, Calif., company unveiled a variety of new iPhone models in the year, a device that makes up a substantial portion of its annual profits. Sales of its Mac computers fell in the January-to-March quarter compared with the same period in the previous year before shooting up in the rest of 2020.

Microsoft


Microsoft has enjoyed surging sales as companies and individuals adapted to pandemic life, with its Xbox videogames, Surface laptops and myriad cloud-computing services in hot demand. Its Teams software suite, the company’s workplace collaboration tool that includes video functionality similar to Zoom Video Communications Inc. and text chat like Slack Technologies Inc., has seen average daily use numbers more than triple. In the latest quarter, the business selling ads on its Bing search engine, which struggled early in the pandemic, also turned the corner. Microsoft shares are up more than 30% over the past year and trading at all-time highs, giving the software powerhouse a market valuation above $1.8 trillion, second only to Apple.

Amazon


Pandemic-fueled online shopping powered a rapid shift to e-commerce among consumers, and few benefited as much as Amazon. The company’s revenue jumped 38% to $386.1 billion last year. To meet the uptick in demand, Amazon went on a hiring spree, adding roughly 500,000 workers. It now employs 1.3 million people globally, and if the rapid pace of hiring continues, Amazon could overtake Walmart Inc. in the coming years as the largest U.S. employer.

Alphabet


Google, the advertising behemoth, powered through the pandemic as more people spent time on the internet and increasingly shifted their spending to digital channels through the health crisis. The Alphabet unit was hurt in the first half of 2020 as advertisers paused spending in the early pandemic months, but the business rebounded later in the year. The eponymous search engine has been the advertising breadwinner for years but the company has said YouTube is seeing strong growth in ad spend.

Facebook


Facebook was already a social-networking giant prior to the pandemic, but its swath of services including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger continued to add users world-wide through 2020 as people spent loads of time online as stay-at-home orders grounded in-person activities.

The company has been introducing new features such as shopping into Instagram to capitalize on the e-commerce boom and strengthened the connections among its platforms to help it better compete with tech rivals. The moves also are aimed to make its products hard to quit.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
×