Sell-Off Prompts Soul Searching: Is Peak Tech Nigh?

There are two companies in the history of American business that have been worth a trillion dollars. First came Apple Inc., which crossed into thirteen-figure territory on Aug. 2. It stayed there for exactly three months, before closing the trading day on Nov. 2 valued at a paltry $986.6 billion. Next was Amazon.com Inc., which spent a portion of a single day in early September as a trillion-dollar concern.

The milestone served as a reminder of how much the technology industry has come to dominate the economy — and capped a remarkable, decade-long run that ushered in sweeping changes in American business and society. But Silicon Valley's recent downtick raises the possibility that the industry may have come over the summit. Apple has lost about 20 percent of its market value since its peak; Amazon is down 26 percent. On Monday alone Apple’s shares shed 4 percent of its value. (Amazon’s were down 5 percent.) Wall Street has also been punishing the other giants of the American technology industry this fall, with Alphabet Inc. down about 20 percent from its peak, and Facebook down twice that much. Microsoft Corp. shares have dropped 10 percent.