For the first time, the world's five most valuable companies are all US techs
Take that, Donald Trump.
A certain finely-coiffed presidential candidate maintains the US has fallen apart. And maybe it has, in some respects — but not in terms of churning out dominant technology companies.
Bloomberg reports that, for the first time, the five most valuable companies in the world are all US techs (see graphic below).
Apple also has the distinction of being the world's most valuable company ever, by market capitalisation (although it's currently somewhat off its peak).
However, Bloomberg doesn't allow for inflation.
If you do, then Microsoft claims that honour. In 1999, during the dot-com boom, the company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen hit a market cap of $US623 billion or $US901 billion today's money.
Donald Trump does it get it. For the Republican usurper, the internet is a porn machine, iPhones are an aid to terrorists and China is winning because it's score the low-margin, low-value work of assembling some Microsoft and Apple products. But in the real world, the tech sector is making a pretty significant contribution to the US economy.
It's no wonder that — barring Facebook director and Xero investor Peter Thiel (a Trump delegate) — Silicon Valley has lined up behind Hillary Clinton.
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For the first time, the world's five most valuable companies are all US techs
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