Big Tech

In the late 20th century, IBM, Microsoft, and Apple dominated the worldwide information technology industry. After the dot-com bubble wiped out most of the Nasdaq Composite stock market index, surviving tech startups expanded their market share and became dominant in their markets. The term Big Tech began to appear around 2013, when some economists speculated that a lack of regulation could lead to concentrated market power. The concept of Big Tech is similar to how the largest oil companies were called Big Oil following the 1970s energy crisis, and the largest cigarette producers were called Big Tobacco, as Congress attempted to regulate those industries. == Companies ==

Alphabet Alphabet is the parent company of Google, which operates several of the world's most widely used Internet services. As of 2024, Google is a major provider of online advertising (Google Ads), web search (Google Search), video sharing (YouTube), email (Gmail), web browsers (Google Chrome), web mapping (Google Maps and Waze), mobile operating systems (Android), and cloud storage (Google Drive). Its cloud computing division, Google Cloud Platform, ranks third in global market share behind Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Google and Meta are often referred to as a digital advertising duopoly. Advertising accounted for 82% of Google's revenue in 2021. Alphabet is involved in various research and development initiatives in emerging technology fields including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and autonomous vehicles. In 2019, Google announced that its Sycamore processor had achieved quantum supremacy. In 2021, Alphabet's subsidiary Waymo launched public robotaxi services in the United States. Alphabet reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion for the first time in January 2020, becoming the fourth U.S. company to do so. Amazon Amazon is one of the largest global e-commerce companies and operates several other business lines, including cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. As of 2024, Amazon accounts for 38% of e-commerce market share in the United States. The company's Amazon Web Services (AWS) division is one of the most widely used cloud platforms and has generated the majority of Amazon's operating profit since 2014. Amazon was the second U.S. company after Apple to reach a $1 trillion market cap, briefly doing so in 2018 and again in early 2020. It closed above that threshold for the first time in April 2020. Although Amazon's valuation fell below $1 trillion in late 2022, it recovered in 2023 and surpassed $2 trillion in June 2024. Apple Apple designs and sells electronics and software, including the iPhone, Mac computers, and the Apple Watch. It also offers services such as the App Store, iCloud, and Apple Music. Apple and Google form a mobile operating system duopoly, with iOS holding 27% global market share and Android 72%. In August 2018, Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization. It reached $2 trillion in August 2020 and $3 trillion in January 2022—the first U.S. company to reach each of those milestones. Apple briefly fell below $2 trillion in January 2023 but again closed above $3 trillion later that year. Meta Meta Platforms owns and operates major social media and messaging services, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp. Meta generates most of its revenue through advertising, which accounted for 96.69% of total revenue in 2024. The company entered the virtual reality market with its 2014 acquisition of Oculus, and in 2021 rebranded from Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms to reflect a broader focus on the metaverse, a term referring to digital environments built around virtual and augmented reality technologies. Such efforts are grouped under the umbrella term "Reality Labs" in its financial statements. Microsoft is also the second-largest cloud provider through Microsoft Azure, after Amazon. It also owns Microsoft Gaming, one of the largest companies in the video game industry. Microsoft reached a $1 trillion market cap in April 2019, crossed $2 trillion in June 2021, and in October 2021 briefly overtook Apple as the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company. Other companies Several other publicly traded U.S. companies are occasionally associated with Big Tech due to their market capitalization, product reach, or cultural influence. These include Adobe, AMD, Analog Devices, Broadcom, Cisco, Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Intel, Micron, Netflix, OpenAI, Oracle, Qualcomm, Salesforce, Tesla, X Corp and Uber. Nvidia Nvidia is a software and fabless semiconductor company that designs and supplies graphics processing units (GPUs), application programming interfaces (APIs) for data science and high-performance computing, and system on a chip (SoC) units for mobile computing and automotive markets. Nvidia is the dominant supplier of hardware and software used by artificial intelligence systems. Nvidia reached a $1 trillion market capitalization in May 2023, and by late 2024, it had surpassed both Amazon and Alphabet in market value. Nvidia subsequently became the most valuable publicly traded company in the world. Tesla Tesla is primarily an automaker, which has led to debate over its categorization as a technology company. In 2022, Fortune included Tesla in its coverage of Big Tech, and The Washington Post likened Tesla vehicles to iPhones in terms of ecosystem integration. Critics, including analysts at Business Insider, argue Tesla should be classified strictly as an automaker. ''Barron's'' acknowledged Tesla's position as a tech company but emphasized that its business model differs from that of traditional IT companies. Part of the rationale for Tesla's inclusion among technology companies stems from its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous driving, and robotics technologies. Yahoo Finance and Reuters have both noted that Tesla's stock performance has been increasingly decoupled from its vehicle sales and more closely tied to its technological ambitions. Tesla first reached a $1 trillion market capitalization in October 2021. Its valuation declined during the 2022 stock market decline, dropping from $1.3 trillion in November 2021 to $495 billion by the end of 2022, including a 40% loss in December alone. The company again surpassed a $1 trillion valuation in November 2024, before a decline throughout the first quarter of 2025. Asian companies The large Chinese tech companies: Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, collectively referred to as BATX, have also been referred to as Big Tech. The South Korean tech conglomerates: Samsung, LG, and SK; Japanese tech conglomerates: Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi and LYC; Indian tech conglomerates: Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCLTech, Cognizant, Wipro and Tech Mahindra; and Taiwanese chip manufacturers TSMC and Foxconn have also been referred to as Big Tech. == Nicknames ==

Acronyms Acronyms such as FANG, FANG+, FAANG, FAANG+, GAFA, GAFAM, MAMAA, GAMMA, MAGA, and others have been used to refer to the Big Tech companies. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, may be represented by G in these acronyms, and Meta, the rebranding of Facebook, may be represented by F. FAANG The acronym FANG was coined in 2013 by Jim Cramer, to refer to Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. Cramer called these companies "totally dominant in their markets." Cramer stated that the four companies were poised to "take a bite out of" the declining market, giving a double meaning to the acronym, according to Cramer's colleague at RealMoney.com, Bob Lang. Cramer expanded FANG to FAANG in 2017, adding Apple to the list because its revenue made it a potential Fortune 500 company. Following Facebook's name change to Meta Platforms in October 2021, as well as the 2015 creation of Google holding company Alphabet, Cramer suggested replacing FAANG with MAMAA, replacing Netflix with Microsoft because Netflix's valuation had fallen behind the other companies. With Microsoft, these companies were each valued at over compared to Netflix's . BATX At the international level, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, collectively referred to as BATX, are often seen as Chinese competitors to Big Tech. Futurist Amy Webb referred to the combination of the Big Five, IBM, Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent "G-MAFIA BAT." Big Four In the early 2010s, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Meta were referred to as the Big Four, The Four, the Gang of Four, and the Four Horsemen. and are able to influence user behavior and control large amounts of user data. As such, they have been criticized for creating a new economic order called surveillance capitalism. According to Simon and Galloway, this distinguishes them from other Big Tech companies such as Microsoft and IBM. In the late 2010s, Microsoft changed its business strategy, causing its market value to increase, leading to its widespread inclusion in Big Tech and creating the term Big Five. Big Five Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft are known as the Big Five tech companies. They are among the most valuable public companies. In 2020, the Big Five ranked as the second through sixth most valuable public companies in the world, behind Saudi Aramco. The Big Five are among the most prestigious employers in the world. In the 21st century, the Big Five tech companies surpassed the market capitalization of the historically dominant Big Oil companies BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell. In 2019, Jason Whittaker stated that they also outpaced Big Media companies such as Comcast, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery by a factor of 10. In 2017, the Big Five had a combined value of over $3.3 trillion, and made up almost half of the Nasdaq-100. Magnificent Seven A larger group known as the Magnificent Seven adds Nvidia and Tesla to the Big Five, based on their contributions to the S&P 500. In 2023, the Magnificent Seven accounted for approximately two-thirds of the S&P 500's gains. Over the course of the year, the Magnificent Seven delivered a groundbreaking 107% return on investment, which analysts credited to the AI boom and expected interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. By January 2024, the Magnificent Seven accounted for 29% of the S&P 500. In February 2024, as the Magnificent Seven approached a combined valuation of $13 trillion, Deutsche Bank stated that the group exceeded the valuation of the total stock market in every country in the world except Japan, China, and the United States. By mid-2024, Morgan Stanley stated that the Magnificent Seven accounted for 31% of the S&P 500. Some analysts expressed concern that the group's extreme concentration could trigger a downturn similar to the dot-com crash or the crash of 1929. Others argued that the companies could continue to outperform the broader market. The nickname Magnificent Seven was coined in May 2023 by Bank of America analyst Michael Hartnett as a reference to the 1960 film of the same name, and popularized by Jim Cramer on Mad Money. == Causes ==

Nikos Smyrnaios argued in 2016 that four phenomena allowed Big Tech to emerge: technological convergence, deregulation, globalization, and financialization. Without the legal requirement for content moderation, online services could innovate freely and achieved rapid growth in the early days of the Internet. According to Alexis Madrigal, the innovation that initially characterized Silicon Valley has been replaced by a strategy of growth through acquisitions. For example, Apple started in 1976 as an engineering-focused startup company, and quickly claimed market share from less innovative competitors like Xerox. However, large companies tend to focus on operational efficiency instead of new product development. On the other hand, Wu stated that Microsoft's concentration of market power created a platform for new kinds of innovation. According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, "Virtually all so-called killer acquisitions represent the technologies and capabilities the companies view as critical to their competitiveness. If they purchase a company innovating within this zone, they are far more likely to develop its innovation than to bury it. In doing so, they often make the technology available faster and to more people than would otherwise be possible. If companies are prevented from making acquisitions, they are more likely to copy the products or develop alternative innovations than they are to ignore them. Assuming incumbents don't violate intellectual property laws, this type of competition is both legal and socially beneficial." Competition between cloud platforms including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform contributed to open-source software infrastructure including LLVM and the Linux kernel. The "cloud wars" also caused Big Tech companies to invest in data centers and undersea cables. The operational efficiency of Big Tech technology stacks means startup companies typically must use Big Tech infrastructure instead of building their own. Business strategy Nikos Smyrnaios argued in 2016 that Big Tech companies concentrate power by vertically integrating data centers, Internet connectivity, computer hardware (including smartphones), operating systems, applications (including Web browsers), and online services. He also argued that they concentrate power by horizontally integrating different services such as email, instant messaging, online searching, downloading, and streaming across platforms. According to The Economist, "Network and scale effects mean that size begets size, while data can act as a barrier to entry." == Criticism ==

According to The Globe and Mail, both left-wing and right-wing politicians have criticized Big Tech. Progressives have alleged "runaway profit-taking and concentration of wealth," and conservatives have alleged "liberal bias." According to The Hill, libertarians oppose government regulation of Big Tech due to their support for laissez-faire economics. Scott Galloway said Big Tech companies "avoid taxes, invade privacy, and destroy jobs." TESCREAL is believed to use the threat of human extinction to justify risky investments without sufficient government oversight. Censorship and election interference In the United States, conservatives and Republican politicians frequently allege censorship of their viewpoints and ideas, however, research has not supported the allegation that social media companies are biased against conservative viewpoints. The practice of banning hate speech has also received criticism from conservatives. Following the 2020 United States presidential election, CNN described a "yearslong intimidation campaign led by Republican attorneys general and state and federal lawmakers" to make social media companies "platform falsehoods and hate speech" and thwart those "working to study or limit the spread" of it. Republican-introduced bills in many states have allowed for civil lawsuits against social media companies over perceived "censorship" of posts, especially those related to politics or religion. and the Pew Research Center found that more social media influencers leaned conservative (27%) than liberal (21%). In July 2020, the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law interviewed the CEOs of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. During the hearings, some members of Congress alleged bias against conservatives on social media. Matt Gaetz protested Amazon's ban on donations to hate groups, stating that Jeff Bezos should "divorce from the SPLC." On November 5, 2020, President Donald Trump alleged "historic election interference from big money, big media, and big tech." Conservative newspaper The Washington Times criticized Trump's claims as lacking evidence. During Trump's speech that incited the January 6 United States Capitol attack, he accused Big Tech of rigging the 2020 election and promised to "get rid of" Section 230. According to Trump, "They rigged it like they have never rigged an election before, and by the way, last night, they didn't do a bad job either." After Trump's Twitter account was suspended, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief spokesman Steffen Seibert noted that Merkel found Twitter's halt of Trump's account "problematic," adding that legislators, not private companies, should decide on any necessary curbs to free expression if hate speech incites violence. Conservatives argued that Facebook and Twitter limiting the spread of the Hunter Biden laptop controversy "proves Big Tech's bias." In some cases, Big Tech platforms reversed actions perceived as censorship. The YouTube channel Right Wing Watch was banned for showing far-right content to expose extreme views, but the channel was restored after viewer backlash. Human Rights Watch stated that excessive content removal, especially on Facebook, meant losing evidence of human rights abuses. Warren accused the company of having the "ability to shut down a debate" and called for "a social media marketplace that isn't dominated by a single censor." In 2025, Meta's Facebook, Elon Musk's X, Google's YouTube, and other tech companies agreed to address online hate speech by enforcing a revised code of conduct aligned with European Commission rules. Henna Virkkunen, the EU tech commissioner, stated that Europe has zero tolerance for hate speech, whether online or offline. She approved the tech companies' commitment to enforcing the code of conduct mandated by the Digital Services Act (DSA). Misinformation and disinformation inaction Following Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Facebook was criticized for failing to curb disinformation. In the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Facebook users were targeted for political propaganda based on their online activity, which Facebook monitored and shared without consent. In 2019, a Senate Intelligence Committee report criticized Facebook and Twitter for failing to stop the spread of misinformation. In response to criticism of their handling of misinformation and disinformation during the 2016 election, Big Tech companies cracked down on fake accounts and trolling. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Big Tech was criticized for allowing COVID-19 misinformation. According to Representatives Frank Pallone, Mike Doyle, and Jan Schakowsky, "Industry self-regulation has failed. We must begin the work of changing incentives driving social media companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation." President Joe Biden criticized Facebook for allowing anti-vaccine activism. Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said, "While they fail to take action, lives are being lost." In response to the criticism, Big Tech companies deleted numerous social media accounts and banned health-related false advertising. Human Rights Watch has criticized Big Tech, primarily Facebook, for allowing misinformation to spread in developing countries. Censorship by governments Big Tech companies have faced political censorship. China banned Google in 2010 because Google refused to censor search results critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Meta and X have been banned in China since 2009. The Wall Street Journal stated that Facebook only restricted content criticizing the Indian government, even if government supporters posted false statements. In 2021, Alexei Navalny criticized Apple and Google for complying with a Russian government order to ban the Smart Voting app. On February 24, 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. In March 2022, Russia blocked Facebook and Twitter because of "disinformation" and "fake news." On March 21, 2022, Russia recognized Meta as an "extremist organization," making Meta the first public company recognized as extremist in Russia. Microsoft's LinkedIn has been blocked in Russia since 2016. The United States have been censoring items, Ongoing litigation and the publication of the Twitter Files following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company began to provide some insight into the behind-the-scenes efforts of the Biden White House to censor political opponents and disfavored views. For example, on just the third day of the Biden Administration, the White House emailed Twitter (now X) personnel to demand that a tweet by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. be “removed ASAP.” The directive was not limited to just Kennedy; in the same email, the Biden White House asked Twitter to also “keep an eye out for tweets that fall in this same genre." Environmental impact Reuse of copyrighted content On May 9, 2019, the Parliament of France passed a law intended to force Big Tech to pay publishers for the reuse of substantial amounts of copyrighted content (related rights). The law is aimed at implementing Article 15 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market of the European Union. Based upon the report's findings, the FTC concluded that industry self-regulation had failed and recommended that Congress pass a comprehensive data privacy law. While the companies that the AP's investigation identified as having partnerships with PRC authorities have stated publicly that they have been in full compliance with all laws, sanctions, and export regulations, the AP found that the partnerships were far more extensive than was previously disclosed. The companies the AP identified included Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon Web Services, IBM, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Dell, Cisco, Seagate, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, Intel, Motorola, Western Digital, Esri, Broadcom, and VMware. == Antitrust efforts ==

Concerns over monopolistic practices have led to antitrust investigations in Big Tech from both United States and European Union regulatory agencies. These investigations have raised concerns around Big Tech on privacy, market power, freedom of speech, national security, and law enforcement. In 2019, John Naughton wrote in The Guardian, "It's almost impossible to function without the big five tech giants." United States Under United States antitrust law, the consumer welfare standard assumes that large companies are not automatically harmful. Antitrust enforcement generally aims to prevent harm to consumers. According to some policy analysts, Big Tech innovation benefits consumers. Big Tech CEOs have consistently opposed antitrust regulation. Antitrust investigations of Big Tech began in the late 1990s, leading to the first major case against Big Tech in 2001, when the U.S. government accused Microsoft of illegally maintaining its monopoly position in the PC market. Microsoft imposed legal and technical restrictions on PC manufacturers and users preventing them from uninstalling Internet Explorer and using Netscape or Java. The district court ruled that Microsoft's actions constituted monopolization under the Sherman Antitrust Act, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed most of the district court's judgments. The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on September 6, 2001, that it would not seek to break up Microsoft, and would instead seek a lesser penalty if Microsoft agreed to share its APIs with third-party companies and appoint a three-person panel with access to Microsoft's systems, records, and source code for five years. On November 1, 2002, Judge Kollar-Kotelly accepted most of the proposed settlement, and on June 30, 2004, the U.S. appeals court unanimously approved the settlement. In the late 2010s, Big Tech was investigated by the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions. Some Democratic presidential candidates proposed breaking up Big Tech companies or regulating them as utilities. FTC chairman Joseph Simons said, "The role of technology in the economy and in our lives grows more important every day...As I've noted in the past, it makes sense for us to closely examine technology markets to ensure consumers benefit from free and fair competition." In 2017, Elizabeth Warren criticized Big Tech for offering free services to remain more popular than the competition. The United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law investigated Big Tech in June 2020, and published a report in January 2021 concluding that Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta operated in an anticompetitive manner. On June 24, 2021, the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law held hearings on proposed Big Tech regulations. Pramila Jayapal introduced HR 3825, The Ending Platform Monopolies Act, which passed the committee. The bill proposed prohibiting platform owners from offering products and services on the platforms they own. For example, in 2010, Amazon attempted to acquire Diapers.com. When Diapers.com rejected Amazon's proposal, Amazon started selling diapers at a loss. Facing unprofitability, Diapers.com agreed to let Amazon buy the company even though Walmart was willing to pay more. The committee voted that the reason for Big Tech monopolies is because of the consumer welfare standard, a legal doctrine stating that if the consumer benefits from corporate actions, those actions are generally legal. FTC chairwoman Lina Khan expressed a different view in her publication "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox." On July 9, 2021, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14036, "Promoting Competition in the American Economy," a sweeping array of initiatives across the executive branch. The order established an executive branch-wide policy to more thoroughly scrutinize mergers involving Big Tech companies, with focus on the acquisition of new, potentially disruptive technology from smaller companies by the larger companies. The order also instructed the FTC to establish rules related to the use of data collection by Big Tech companies for promoting their own services. In June 2024, the DOJ and FTC opened an investigation into Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI regarding their dominance in artificial intelligence. In August 2024, District of Columbia U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google held a monopoly in online search and text advertising in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. In April 2025, Eastern Virginia U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google held a monopoly in advertising technology in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Google issued press releases in response announcing that the company would appeal the rulings. European Union In June 2020, the European Union opened two investigations into Apple. The first investigation focused on whether Apple uses market dominance to stifle competition in music and book streaming. The second investigation focused on Apple Pay. Apple limits the use of the iPhone's NFC technology by financial institutions, including banks. According to former European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager, fines are insufficient to deter anticompetitive practices. In September 2021, the United States and European Union began negotiating a joint approach to Big Tech regulation. The European Parliament passed the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in March 2022 to restrict data collection from European users, require social media interoperability, and allow alternative app stores and payment systems for Apple and Google smartphones. The EU also passed the Digital Services Act (DSA) in April 2022, which requires tech companies to take down hate speech and child sexual abuse, and ban advertising targeting gender, race, religion, and childhood. Both the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act were enacted by the EU in July 2022. The EU defined Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft as "gatekeepers" under the DMA in September 2023, and required them to comply by March 2024. On June 24, 2024, the European Union charged Apple with breaching the Digital Markets Act, potentially resulting in a significant fine. The EU is also investigating Apple's new terms and fees for app developers, criticizing the company's restrictions and handling of AI-powered features in the EU. == Alternatives ==

Alt-tech is a collection of social networking services and Internet service providers popular among the alt-right, far-right, and others who espouse extremism or fringe theories, typically because they employ looser content moderation than mainstream platforms. Users of different websites can send and receive status updates and multimedia files across the network. The term "fediverse" is a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe." Web3 (also known as Web 3.0) is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics. Some technologists and journalists have contrasted it with Web 2.0, in which they claim user-generated content is controlled by a small group of companies referred to as Big Tech. The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets (overlay networks) that use the Internet, but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. Through the dark web, private computer networks can communicate and conduct business anonymously without divulging identifying information, such as a user's location. The dark web forms a small part of the deep web, the part of the web not indexed by web search engines, although sometimes the term deep web is mistakenly used to refer specifically to the dark web. Little Tech Some critics have contrasted Big Tech with startup culture, which they semi-humorously refer to as Little Tech. Little Tech has attracted attention for technical innovation and encouraging digital wellbeing. Advocates like Andreessen Horowitz argue that Little Tech is threatened by anticompetitive policies. Little Tech advocates emphasize the importance of investing in startup companies to support technological progress. However, critics differ on the impact of Little Tech and the need for governments to support startup companies. Some critics argue that the Little Tech agenda is a wish list for venture capitalists that seeks preferential treatment for risky investments rather than accelerating innovation. Despite these criticisms, Little Tech companies have demonstrated the ability to solve problems that might be too specific for Big Tech companies to be interested in. Little Tech companies often develop custom solutions for local governments, enhancing public services and promoting digital transformation. Some Little Tech initiatives aim to educate and empower users, such as by helping teenagers understand technology. Organizations like the American Innovators Network support the Little Tech agenda by offering workshops and consultations. == See also ==