Those three tech behemoths held a total of $464 billion in cash at the end of last year, according to a Moody’s report published Wednesday.
Apple (AAPL, Tech30) alone had a stunning quarter-trillion dollars of cash thanks to years of gigantic profits and few major acquisitions. That’s enough money to buy Netflix (NFLX, Tech30)three times. It’s also more cash than what’s sitting on the balance sheet of every major industry except tech and health care.
All told, non-financial U.S. companies studied by Moody’s hoarded $1.84 trillion of cash at the end of last year. That’s up 11% from 2015 and nearly two and a half times the 2008 level.
Roughly $1.3 trillion — 70% of the total — is being held overseas, where the money isn’t subject to U.S. taxes. Apple, Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL, Tech30), Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30), Cisco (CSCO, Tech30) and Oracle (ORCL, Tech30) hold 88% of their cash overseas.
Moody’s said the tower of money stashed abroad reflects the “negative tax consequences of permanently repatriating money to the U.S.”
The Trump administration has proposed a one-time tax holiday to encourage companies to bring that cash home. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in Marchthat the fact Apple has “all this cash” is a symptom of the high U.S. corporate tax rate relative to foreign rates.
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