The Year in Technology: 2016 in Charts
It was a good 2016 if you were a superpower. Otherwise, not so much.
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▲ Tech Superpowers Eat the World: For the first time this year, technology companies at times held each of the top five spots of the world's most valuable public companies. The combined market value of tech's Five Fab -- Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. -- was $2.4 trillion as of Dec. 27, or more than 11 percent of the S&P 500's value. That means tech superpowers are inching toward the 16 percent share of the S&P 500 they held at the peak of the tech bubble in March 2000. The bad news: Big Tech's growing power makes them a target of politicians worldwide.