The Economist (July 31)
“America’s biggest technology companies are combining Silicon Valley returns with Ruhr Valley balance-sheets. Investors who bought shares in Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft a decade ago are sitting on eight times their money, excluding dividends.” Their hard assets multiplied with data center investment and their property, plant and equipment is now “worth more than 60% of their equity book value, up from 20%” a decade ago. Even more eye popping, combined with Amazon and Oracle, their capex spending is estimated to account “for a third of America’s economic growth during the most recent quarter.”
Tags: Alphabet, Amazon, Balance sheets, Book value, CAPEX, Data centers, Dividends, Eye-popping, Hard assets, Investors, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Returns, Shares, Silicon Valley, U.S.
WARC (June 13)
“Alphabet, Amazon and Meta dominate the advertising market outside China: they’re set to account for 54.7% of that total in 2025 – equivalent to $524.4bn – rising to 56.2% in 2026. The introduction of AI stands to disrupt some ad revenue models, particularly in search, but Google’s dominance of that market will likely persist in the near term,” according to WARC’s Global Ad Forecast Q2 2025.
Tags: $524.4bn, 2025, 2026, Ad revenue, Advertising market, AI, Alphabet, Amazon, China, Disrupt, Dominance, Dominate, Global Ad Forecast, Google, Market, Meta, Persist
Wall Street Journal (April 28)
“The Magnificent Seven drove the stock market’s bull run. Now, their bruising losses pose a new test for markets.” Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla “helped fuel a gangbusters rally that lifted stocks out of the 2022 bear market and toward dozens of all-time highs,” with their shares reaching “eye-popping levels.” Now, however, “the Magnificent Seven are off to their worst start to a year since the 2022 slide,” with each stock falling over 6.5%, collectively destroying “$2.5 trillion in market value.”
Tags: $2.5 trillion, 2022, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bear market, Bruising, Bull run, Eye-popping, Gangbusters, Losses, Magnificent Seven, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Rally, Stock market, Tesla, Value
Barron’s (March 17)
“They’ve gone from the Mag Seven to the Lag Seven.” Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon.com, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Tesla collectively represented over “half of the S& P 500’s gain of 23% in 2024 as they rose an average of 60%.” This year they are “down an average of 15%” and “now account for about 95% of the index’s decline of 6% in 2025.” However, the Mag Seven “aren’t destined to fail or fade into insignificance. They remain too dominant…and too reasonably priced, with six of the seven trading for 18 to 30 times projected 2025 earnings. (Tesla, at 85 times, is the notable exception.)”
Tags: 2024, 2025, Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Decline, Dominant, Earnings, Fade, Fail, Lag Seven, Mag Seven, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Reasonably priced, S&P 500, Tesla
IR Magazine (November 11)
“It was a bad few weeks for tech companies with the Twitter and Meta layoffs, and then Amazon lost $1 tn in market value….For perspective, that’s almost like losing what Google’s parent Alphabet is worth, which is now around $1.13 tn. The loss makes Amazon the first public company ever to lose $1 tn.”
Tags: $1 tn, Alphabet, Amazon, Bad, Google, Layoffs, Loss, Market value, Meta, Tech companies, Twitter
Barron’s (August 19)
“Apple is the first U.S. company to achieve a valuation of $2 trillion,” a valuation that Saudi Aramco has also achieved. There are three other “stocks with a valuation above $1 trillion.” Amazon.com and Microsoft are each about $1.6 trillion with Alphabet trailing at $1.0 trillion. “Facebook (FB) is the next-closest U.S. stock to the 13-digit level, with a valuation of $748.1 billion.”
The Economist (January 27)
“Not so long ago, GM and its peers seemed to be on a path to extinction. Technology firms such as Alphabet, Uber and other pushy newcomers had started a race to develop software that would control driverless cars and to offer ride-hailing and ride-sharing services that are expected to thrive at the expense of car ownership.” However, there’s been a sharp reversal in market sentiment and GM has taken pole position. “A scorecard issued annually by Navigant, a consultancy, puts GM ahead of the AV pack of carmakers and tech firms, with Alphabet’s Waymo in second place.”
Tags: Alphabet, Car, Driverless cars, Extinction, GM, Market sentiment, Navigant, Ownership, Ride-sharing, Technology, Uber, Waymo
