Alphabet Has More Cash Than You

For a decade, Apple has done cannonballs into the biggest cash pile around. But as the FT reported yesterday, Alphabet has overtaken its Silicon Valley frenemy in the liquidity department.

• Apple’s cash pile peaked at $163 billion in 2017. Now it’s $102 billion.
• At the same time, Alphabet's holdings have climbed to about $117 billion.

But that’s not necessarily something to be proud of. Investors have lost patience with Alphabet for not putting the cash toward stock buybacks or dividends. Apple has spent $122 billion doing just that in the last 18 months, while Alphabet averages $1.7 billion/quarter.

It’s not like Alphabet isn’t trying to spend.

• It’s buying so much real estate in NYC, you’ll soon be flying out of LaGoogle Intl.
• Alphabet siphons profits from search advertising into moonshots like internet balloons and salt-based energy storage. Alphabet has lost $15 billion on those “Other Bets” in the six years since it started breaking out the unit’s financials.
• And last week, Alphabet pledged another $25 billion for its stock buyback program. It’s now greenlighted $37.5 billion in repurchases year-to-date.