A Major Backlash Is Brewing Against Big Tech. Here’s Why Investors Don’t Care
- Facebook, Alphabet, Microsoft shares hit new records this week
- Ads, cloud and iPhones bewitch analysts, not antitrust talk
Facebook Finds Itself at Center of Russia Investigation
Facebook Inc. and Google are being blamed for helping Russia get Donald Trump elected, and there are calls to restrict their growing influence. Amazon.com Inc. is being forced to get customers to pay more sales tax. The Chinese government refuses to use Microsoft Corp.’s latest Windows offerings, and Apple Inc. faces a 13 billion euro tax bill.
Everywhere you look, tech regulatory risk abounds. Yet aside from today’s industry-wide selloff, investors aren’t losing sleep. Shares of Facebook, Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft hit new records this week while Amazon and Apple are close to all-time highs. They occupy the top five spots in the ranks of the largest U.S. companies by market capitalization. Up 34 percent this year, the $800 billion they’ve added in value almost equals the combined worth of the biggest five companies at the bottom of the bear market in 2009.