Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and the parents of Facebook and Google Lost $ 2.7 trillion this yearWhich represents almost the entire GDP of the United Kingdom.

And what did the companies do with this beating on Wall Street? Microsoft has doubled its employee bonus fund, Google has promised to hire more engineers, and Apple has awarded a $ 200,000 prize to the best talent in technology..

The dissonance between the stock market’s relative panic and the tech giants “nothing happens” calm is a period when analysts, investors and economists predict that the world’s largest companies will continue to lead in relevant markets.

The Optimism Reflects on his abilities to understand that Companies are tightly capturing some of the world’s most lucrative businesses: social media, high-end smartphones, e-commerce, cloud computing and search. Its dominance in these areas and its presence in other businesses Should alleviate the pain of inflation, While these challenges have hit big companies like Walmart and Target and the stock market is approaching bear market area.

The S&P 500 Index spent most of Friday below the threshold, which is considered to be the bear market threshold, which is usually defined as 20 percent lower than its latest rate, before returning late in the afternoon. The index ended the week with a 3 percent decline, its seventh consecutive weekly decline. This is the longest losing streak since 2001.

In the coming months, Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Amazon are expected to increase hiring, acquire more companies, and emerge stronger and stronger on the other side of the depressing economy.; Even if they have lost part of its overall appreciation and its relentless growth in recent years.

Big tech companies might say, “Forget the economy,” said Richard Kramer, founder of London-based consulting firm Arete Research. With cash, he said, “they can invest during the cycle.”

The plans of large companies are sharply opposed to the wave of cost reductions that is erupting the rest of the tech sector.. A sharp drop in the shares of unprofitable companies such as Uber, which fell 45 percent, and Peloton, which fell 58 percent, forced their CEOs to quit their jobs or consider firing. Startups are declining as venture capital funding declines.

Falling value for these companies will create buying opportunities, said Tony Sakonag, a technology analyst at research firm Bernstein. Big deals can be tricky as the Federal Trade Commission scrutinizes acquisition moves by Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, he said, but smaller deals for emerging technologies or engineers could spread.

During the Great Recession, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft acquired more than 100 companies in 2008-2010, according to Refinitive, a financial data company. Some such deals have become crucial for his business today, such as Apple’s acquisition of chip company PA Semi, which helped develop its new laptop processors, and Apple’s acquisition of Google from AdMob, which helped create a mobile advertising business.

“Big companies will grow and poor companies will become poorer“- said Michael Kuzumano, associate dean of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “This is how network effects work“, He added.

This feeling of insecurity follows his warnings. The plans of large companies can always change if the economy deteriorates and consumers cut costs further. And some big companies are more vulnerable than others.

Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company, has performed worse than its competitors as its business faces long-term challenges. The company saw its profits fall as its customer growth slowed amid growing competition from TikTok and changes to Apple’s privacy policy hampered its ability to personalize ads.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded by temporarily freezing some employees. During the last meeting of the staff, the staff asked if there would be any dismissal. Zuckerberg said the company’s current plans do not provide for job cuts and are unlikely to happen in the future. Instead, the company focused on containing costs and limiting its growth.

Amazon told its employees the same thing after posting disappointing results last month. Speaking to analysts, the company’s CFO Brian Olsawski said that Amazon will try to limit spending on warehousing and staffing costs after climbing pandemic orders.. When people return to work and travel, they make fewer purchases from Amazon, leaving the company with more space and staff than it needs.

However, Amazon Profitable Cloud Business, Amazon Web Services, or AWS, is still very profitable. The company plans to succeed in the coming months by increasing data center costs. He also promised to increase the base salary for his corporate staff from $ 160,000 to $ 360,000. In addition, it is investing in a plan to build a satellite network to offer high-speed Internet by launching 38 rockets into space.

The first test for large tech companies will be contagious to competitors. Shares of Amazon owned by electric car maker Rivian Automotive fell more than 65 percent to a nominal loss of $ 7.6 billion. Analysts suggest that cutting ads from app developers (who rely on venture capital funding to fund their market) could hurt sales of Apple services. And startups are considering spending on cloud services, potentially slowing the growth of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, according to analysts and cloud executives.

“People are trying to figure out how to spend wiselySaid Sam Ramji, Chief Strategy Officer at data management company DataStax.

The Regulatory Challenges What is being considered in the future may also obscure the prospects of large technology companies. The European Digital Market Act, which is expected to enter into force soon, is designed to increase the openness of technology platforms. Among other things, this could prevent Apple from paying about $ 19 billion from Alphabet’s billing to make Google the default search engine on iPhones, a change that Bernstein estimates could remove up to 3 percent of Apple’s pre-tax profit.

However, The companies are likely to appeal the law in court, Which could stop it for years. The likelihood of the law being suspended confirms to analysts their view that:Large tech companies will become more powerful. And what is being done about it? Any“- concluded Kramer from Arete Research.

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