Big Tech: A3M3 already rules the world

Some time back FAANG was coined to signify the biggies in Big Tech: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix & Google. Some replaced Netflix with Microsoft and called it FAAMG. But with the name changes and developments, right now the Big 6 are: Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and (Elon) Musk's companies or AAAMMM or maybe A3M3.

A deeper dive into each of these companies...

Apple.

Apple never had a monopoly over the desktop or laptop market. It doesn’t have one over the global smartphone market too. The iPod era has already ended. Despite this, Apple became the first company in the world to touch a market capitalization of $2 trillion. Why is that?

For one, it is the most innovative tech company around. The mouse. The graphic user interface (GUI). The connected printer (and hence the desktop publishing (DTP) revolution). The MP3 player. iTunes. The smartphone touchscreen. Apple popularized all of that and transformed the industry more than once.

The second is its sheer ubiquitousness. It is the only dominant player in all three markets: Desktops, laptops and smartphones. It also rules the troika of hardware, software and services. Finally when you look at the domination of tomorrow, the thing that may really set it apart is the Apple ecosystem.

Most of the powerful people in the world are part of this ecosystem. Once in, you will end up embracing the iMac, Macbook, iPhone, Apple Watch and most of its services. It is the only tech giant that can take on Google’s Search, YouTube and Zuckerberg’s social networks. Add the Apple Car to the mix and it could emerge as the most powerful ecosystem ever.

Amazon.

Centi-billionaire ($100 billion) Jeff Bezos has been looking at total global domination from the very beginning. He personally owns the global newspaper Washington Post. He recently sent Captain James T. Kirk into space. Star Trek: The Original Series debuted in 1966 and William Shatner soared into space in 2021, courtesy Blue Origin, the Bezos space company, which is a NASA contractor and has worked with Boeing and DARPA.

Bezos is known more for his dealings on Earth. Amazon has been called by many, “one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world”. Outside of China, there is no global competitor to Amazon.com in the world of ecommerce. Amazon Prime is the largest such membership customer’s club in history.

The EU is wary of his influence and he is slowly taking over the biggest market after China: India. He has managed to put a spoke in the newest member of the centi-billionaire club: Mukesh Ambani. I am talking about Reliance’s attempts to take over the Big Bazar group.

Amazon has its own robust supply chain. Prime Air has 70+ planes while Amazon Logistics is a comprehensive delivery network. Amazon is getting ready for the brave new touchless world with drones and driverless vans. An example is its project for an electric van fleet of 100,000 by 2030 with built-in routing software integrated into the Amazon logistics management system. Alexa will be built in.

The future is cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the biggie. In the global market, AWS is an undisputed leader garnering more than Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud put together. Which do you watch? Netflix? Disney+? Amazon Prime? It really doesn’t matter to AWS as it powers everyone in the Big Three.

Alexa, Audible, Amazon Music, Kindle, Amazon Publishing, Twitch, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, IMDb, Fire, Ring, CreateSpace, Kuiper Systems, Whole Foods Market… They are all part of the Bezos stable. That is the present. Amazon firmly has an eye of the future.

If Meta Mark Zuckerburg has the greatest data related to the personal habits of global citizens, then Bezos has the greatest data related to the buying habits of the same. The data crunching and Artificial Intelligence abilities of Amazon are among the best in the world.

Alphabet.

The Alexa global page rankings have a steady No. 1 in the form of Google Search and No. 2 in the form of YouTube. That’s two top monopolies right there. Google Images and Google News perfectly complement Search. More than 1.7 billion Gmail accounts have been created and it’s a clear market leader. Chrome has vanquished its browsing rivals.

Android has emerged as the clear frontrunner in the world in the smartphone market. Google Drive is becoming indispensable to cloud productivity. Google Meet is competitive in the collaboration world. For the smart home there’s Google Home. Google Maps, Google Analytics, Google Earth… the list is endless.

It must be said that Alphabet has the most number of monopolies and is working on the most number of projects. Since so many of them have worked in the past, it is reasonable to believe that it may have the most successes in the future too.

Microsoft.

Bill Gates formed the first real monopoly with the Windows series in the desktop era. Wintel Inside was a superhit as was Microsoft Office and its myriad products. That domination continued into the laptop era. Despite being formed way back in 1975, it is the largest software maker in 2021. This despite the fact that it probably has had more failures than successes. Gates has left behind a string of flops, but his superhits dominate.

It has a presence in other domains like collaboration (Teams and Skype), the gaming console Xbox and Microsoft Visual Studio. Interestingly 5% of Americans use Bing search engine and it is a distant second in the global scene. The high profile MSN or Microsoft Network is not dead and goes by the name of Microsoft Start. LinkedIn is part of the Microsoft stable.

Looking at emerging technologies, the Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality smart glasses is something for the future. Recently the US military announced that it was going for HoloLens for its headsets. But most importantly Azure saved the day when Microsoft became a global No. 2 behind AWS but ahead of Google Cloud. You may remember that another old giant IBM lost out because it lost the cloud advantage.

Meta.

If you look at the world’s top social networks by active users, then the list is: Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram. 4/5 are under the stable of Zuckerburg, who is also a centi-billionaire.

To secure the future, he is trying to launch his own cryptocurrency Diem, a successor to Libra. Meta (when it was called Facebook) took over the VR Oculus brand and recently unveiled Smart Glasses with Ray-Ban. Zuckerberg is pivoting to his venture becoming a Metaverse Company, hence the name change. This is how he described it well before the announcement…

“In the coming years, I expect people will transition from seeing us primarily as a social media company to seeing us as a metaverse company. In many ways the metaverse is the ultimate expression of social technology. Think of the metaverse as an immersive virtual world where people can spend time together and hang out, much like you can do today with virtual reality, dialed up to 11.”

Zuckerberg has seen the future and wants to own it.

Musk's companies.

When Covid broke out, Toyota was the most valuable automotive company. Tesla overtook Toyota and if you thought it was a flash in the pan, it touched a marcap of $500 billion. And now in such a short time it has touched $1 trillion. However it’s not just Tesla. Musk, who is the richest man, becoming the world’s first quarter-trillionaire, has a hand in many companies.

With the future being smart, connected and driverless cars, Tesla is one to bet on the future. Tesla Energy is a battery giant. SpaceX is the first private space contractor to match the likes of NASA and is competing with ISRO for low-cost space launches. The Boring Company could revolutionize transport and his Neuralink project could change human-machine interface while Musk has an eye on Artificial Intelligence with his OpenAI project.

Sheer domination!

In terms of the year of foundation of the companies, the journey began with Microsoft in 1975. Apple followed in 1976, Amazon 1994, Google 1998 and Facebook 2004. As far as Musk goes he tried a hand at many things including Paypal. SpaceX was founded in 2002 and Tesla in 2003.

In terms of revenue, the Fortune 500 2021 rankings puts it at…
Amazon $386 billion, Apple $275b, Google $183b, Microsoft $143b Meta $86b and Musk’s companies $35b+. Meta may look like an underachiever and Musk’s companies look really small, but they are ones to watch out for in the future if you look at their vision. But still for a total revenue in excess of $1 trillion. A3M3 is a separate country in its own right.

In terms of market capitalization, (this varies quite a bit day to day), they occupy 6 of the top 7 spots in the world, with Saudi Aramco spoiling the party. So what’s the combined marcap of A3M3?

It’s in the region of $10 trillion! Now that’s in the league of the US and China.

Big Oil and Big Retail dominated the top company lists in the past, but they were known more for Big Money. You used their products and services, and forgot about them. That’s not the case with Big Tech which is building the very world around you, decides your next move and like Big Brother, is always watching you. The influence of A3M3 in particular has been breathtaking.

And come to think of it, they already rule the world!