It’s a very good time to be one of the companies that collectively make up Big Tech. Apple, Microsoft and Google have all posted their most recent sets of financial results and they’re definitely the sort that would be stuck up on the fridge by proud parents CEOs.
Apple and Google have both set records with this batch of financials, while Microsoft is just doing rather well at present. However you look at it, none of the companies mentioned is in any trouble at all when it comes to making cash during the pandemic.
Big Tech likes big money
Apple’s fiscal Q3 results (which over the literal Q2) are gigantic, with a total revenue over the quarter measured at $81.4 billion — a number so large we’re not even going to convert it into rands. Okay, fine, it’s about R1.2 trillion. Of that, sales of the iPhone account for nearly half — $39.6 billion was made from the various iPhone models on offer.
Those are some big numbers but Apple spends a lot to make a lot — net income for the reported quarter is $21.7 billion — a 93% increase year-on-year. Apple made R321 billion in profit for the period of April to June 2021.
Google, which measures its money a little differently, made $61.9 billion in Q2 2021 (which is the same thing as Apple’s fiscal Q3). It’s not quite a trillion rand in revenue but it’s close — R917 billion over the three-month period. In terms of net income (read: profit), Google’s parent company Alphabet made $18.5 billion (R273 billion) — which is nipping at Apple’s heels, despite the lower revenue. Most of this cash was made by Google’s advertising and search engine arms, but most of the company’s divisions saw an increase in earnings.
The final member of Big Tech to post mad results is Microsoft, which reported its Q4 earnings results. Over the period Microsoft made $46.2 billion (R684 billion), with a net income of $16.5 billion (R245 billion in local currency). Most of this 47% year-on-year increase is being laid at the door of its cloud services and business subscriptions. Given how many people have transitioned to remote workplaces (even if some of them are thinking of going back soon), this makes a whole lot of sense.
