Tech firms at their best since 1983

The last time tech stocks did better in the first half of the year, Apple was introducing the Lisa desktop computer, IBM was the US's most valuable tech company, and Mark Zuckerberg was yet to be born. Nasdaq , one of the three most followed stock market indices of the USA , increased its gains to 32 percent this year . It's the sharpest first-half jump in the tech-heavy index since 1983, when the Nasdaq rose 37 percent .

iPhone News - 02-07-2023 13:44

This is a surprising achievement, given what has happened in the tech industry over the past four decades. Microsoft went public in 1986, sparking a PC software explosion. Then came the Internet browsers of the 1990s, giving rise to the dot-com bubble years and the rising prices of e-commerce, search, and network stocks. The past decade has witnessed the emergence of trillion-dollar companies that are now the most valuable businesses in the United States.

Things are busy at technology companies

Even more strikingly, the feat comes this year as the U.S. economy is still at risk of falling into recession and faces a banking crisis rocked by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the financial core of much of the startup and startup world, in March.

Meta and Tesla , which took a big hit last year , have more than doubled in value so far in 2023 . Alphabet rose 36 percent after falling 39 percent in 2022 . None of these companies have been around since the Nasdaq had a better start to the year. As we enter 2023, artificial intelligence has become the lifeblood of the technology world. The shares of Nvidia, which produces the right chips at the right time to strengthen artificial intelligence workloads, have increased by 190 percent since the beginning of the year, bringing the market value of the 30-year company to over $ 1 trillion.

$10,000 Apple Lisa

Apple hasn't made such dramatic gains, but the stock is up 50 percent this year , trading at a record high, putting the iPhone maker at a market cap of $3 trillion . Apple still gets the bulk of its revenue from the iPhone, but its latest breakthrough into virtual reality with the announcement of the Vision Pro glasses has helped rekindle investor excitement. The Vision Pro, Apple's first major product to launch since 2014 , will be available starting next year with prices starting at $3,499 .

Compared to the price tag of the first Lisa computer , which Apple released 40 years ago, this price does not sound like much. Named after Steve Jobs' daughter, this computer started at $ 10,000 , keeping it far from mainstream consumers. Apple's revenue in 1983 was about $1 billion, or the equivalent of what the company earned in an average day in the first quarter of 2023.

The year 2023 continues to progress strongly, at least for tech companies. With the effect of artificial intelligence, investors continue to spend more, but the risks are not eliminated. All these companies are in the same economy as us. Therefore, the risk of recession in the USA and the reduction of consumers' spending on a global scale will continue to affect the technology world.

 

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