A Decade of Growth for GAFAM

Looking back at the past ten years, it seems fair to say that it’s been the decade of tech companies. The smartphone boom and the still ongoing digitization of our lives have helped companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft (“GAFAM”) grow to unprecedented heights, turning three of them into trillion-dollar companies, at least temporarily.

The usual ups and downs notwithstanding, the past decade has been a one of blockbuster growth for the aforementioned companies, with Amazon in particular cementing its status as a growth champion. As the following chart shows, the Seattle-based e-commerce behemoth saw its market capitalization rise by more than 1,300 percent since the beginning of 2010, despite a somewhat disappointing second half of 2019.

Apple also saw its market cap grow by more than 500 percent over the past ten years, making it the most valuable company in the world for large stretches of the decade. Currently valued at $1.22 trillion, the iPhone maker was dethroned by Saudi Aramco this week. The Saudi Arabian state oil company went public this week and is now valued at around $2 trillion.