Three years ago, Apple needed about 17 seconds to generate the equivalent of the average U.S. worker’s annual salary. Today, it takes less than 15 seconds, according to a new report.
Insuranceopedia’s latest analysis also looked at other Big Tech giants and found that Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon now generate a year’s salary in just 12–27 seconds, with Amazon and Meta seeing the biggest improvement over the past three years.
The Insuranceopedia team analyzed the net income of Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and NVIDIA between fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2025, comparing it with the average U.S. annual salary of $53,000. The research measured how long it took each company to generate the equivalent of a year’s worth of average pay in net profit and how that time changed over the past three years.
Back in 2023, Apple was the most profitable company in the group, with a net income of $97 billion. That translated into more than $3,000 in profit per second.
Alphabet and Microsoft came closest, taking around 23 seconds to generate a year’s worth of average pay. The gap between them and the rest of Big Tech was much wider, with Meta requiring 42.8 seconds and Amazon 55 seconds to generate the same amount. Two years later, the picture looks very different.
According to their latest full-year financial reports, Big Tech giants are making a year’s salary faster than ever and becoming more evenly matched in the process. Alphabet, now the most profitable company in the group, needed just 12.6 seconds to generate the equivalent of the average U.S. annual salary in fiscal year 2025, 1.8 times faster than in 2023. Apple and Microsoft weren’t far behind, becoming 1.2 and 1.4 times faster, respectively, and now needing just 14.9 and 16.4 seconds to generate a year’s worth of average pay.
Insuranceopedia is a US-focused insurance education and comparison platform built by insurance market professionals.
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