Global technology giants are hoarding their cash

I came across a fascinating graphic which illustrates just how strong the cash flows are of the world’s leading technology businesses like Apple, Google, Cisco and Microsoft…

The chart is shown below. It shows the total net cash balances reported by the 10 largest tech companies whose shares are listed in the US, together with the total for the next 60+ largest tech companies.

The data is from the Wall Street Journal and suggests that the most profitable tech companies are getting wealthier. The 10 tech companies with the most cash and equivalents listed on the S&P 500 have $210 billion in net cash, while the next 62 tech companies from the S&P have just $108 billion in total.

The top ten companies have added $68.7 billion to their cash balances over the last two years - not a bad performance in the face of the global economic downturn!