The plucky firms that are beating big tech
Garmin, Dropbox and MercadoLibre show carving out a lucrative niche is possible
BIG TECH keeps getting bigger. So far this year the combined market value of America’s five digital behemoths—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft—has soared by half, to around $9trn. That is almost a quarter of the total for the S&P 500, an index of America’s largest companies (which has risen by just 17% in the period). The five account for almost 60% of sales, profits and spending on research and development of all the technology firms in the index. They are widely expected to be the main winners from the artificial-intelligence (AI) revolution.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Survival guide”
Business September 16th 2023
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