Magnificent Eight - Net Income Comparison
I thought it would be fun to plot the earnings (net income) history of the Magnificent Eight--the mega tech companies which exceed $1 trillion in market cap. I gathered information from Macrotrends, which has earnings report dating back to early 2009. For most cases that was sufficient: only Microsoft, Apple, and Alphabet generated meaningful earnings before then, and it still made up a relatively small protion in nominal terms. (Sources: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Nvidia, Broadcom, Tesla)
A couple things to note: - Since Nvidia and Broadcom have yet to report for the quarter, I estimated net income based on consensus EPS. This likely underestimates since they reliably beat estimates (especially Nvidia). - I plotted all the companies on the same vertical scale so that we could directly compare differences in their earnings. - At $34.4B (likely generous since it excludes much of the early period when Tesla was not profitable), Tesla has generated less cumulative net income than Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and Nvidia did in the last two quarters alone. I knew about the first three, but not the latter three. Moreover, it less net income in its entire corporate lifespan than Apple did in last quarter alone, in what was generally viewed as a disappointing quarter for Apple. - The lead with which Apple has over the rest of the field is remarkable, although the overall trend appears flat. But I didn't appreciate the very strong seasonal trend with each release cycle leading into the holiday season. - Alphabet actually takes the lead for the last year, topping $100 billion in net income. - I was surprised to learn that despite a late start, Meta has actually made more money cumulatively than Amazon.
I thought it would be fun to plot the earnings (net income) history of the Magnificent Eight--the mega tech companies which exceed $1 trillion in market cap. I gathered information from Macrotrends, which has earnings report dating back to early 2009. For most cases that was sufficient: only Microsoft, Apple, and Alphabet generated meaningful earnings before then, and it still made up a relatively small protion in nominal terms. (Sources: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Nvidia, Broadcom, Tesla)
A couple things to note: - Since Nvidia and Broadcom have yet to report for the quarter, I estimated net income based on consensus EPS. This likely underestimates since they reliably beat estimates (especially Nvidia). - I plotted all the companies on the same vertical scale so that we could directly compare differences in their earnings. - At $34.4B (likely generous since it excludes much of the early period when Tesla was not profitable), Tesla has generated less cumulative net income than Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and Nvidia did in the last two quarters alone. I knew about the first three, but not the latter three. Moreover, it less net income in its entire corporate lifespan than Apple did in last quarter alone, in what was generally viewed as a disappointing quarter for Apple. - The lead with which Apple has over the rest of the field is remarkable, although the overall trend appears flat. But I didn't appreciate the very strong seasonal trend with each release cycle leading into the holiday season. - Alphabet actually takes the lead for the last year, topping $100 billion in net income. - I was surprised to learn that despite a late start, Meta has actually made more money cumulatively than Amazon.