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In today’s fast-paced world, businesses must adapt if they want to remain relevant. Even the Big Tech giants can’t get too comfortable – to stay competitive, big companies like Google and Amazon are constantly innovating and developing.
This series of graphics by Truman You illustrates the income statements of five of the world’s largest companies—Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and Alphabet—and shows how their finances have developed since the date of their very first public disclosures.
Editor’s note: Click on any graphic to view a full-width, higher-resolution version. Because these companies are in some cases 10,000 times their IPO date size, the two visual accounts are not intended to be directly comparable in terms of size.
Visual income statements: From IPO to today
Let’s start with Apple, the first company to go public, and the biggest in the mix:
1. Apple
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Back in 1998, Apple went by the name “Apple Computer”, because at the time the company only sold computers and hardware kits. However, over the next decade, the company expanded its product offering and began selling various consumer technology products such as phones, portable music players, and even tablets.
Apple’s consumer technology was so successful that in 2007 the company decided to drop “Computer” from its name. Fast forward to today, and the company also generates revenue through services like Apple TV and Apple Pay.
While computers remain a core part of the business, the iPhone has become the biggest revenue driver for the company.
In 2021, Apple generated $94.7 billion in profit with a margin of 26%. Today, the company is one of the only Big Tech companies that has been able to withstand the fall in valuations across the industry. The company sits strong with a market capitalization of over $2 trillion, worth about the same as Amazon, Alphabet and Meta combined.
2. Microsoft
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Microsoft, one of the oldest companies on this list, went public in 1985. Back then, the company only sold microprocessors and software—hence the name Micro-Soft.
And while Microsoft’s flagship operating system (Windows) remains one of the main revenue drivers, the company’s product offering has become much more diverse.
Now the revenue streams are split fairly evenly between the cloud service (Azure), productivity tools (Office) and personal computing (Xbox and Windows OS).
3. Amazon
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When Amazon went public in 1997, the online store only sold books.
But in 1998, Amazon began rapidly expanding its product offering. Soon everything from CDs and toys to electronics and even tools were sold.
Fast forward to now, and Amazon’s e-commerce segment has become just one part of the company’s overall business.
Amazon is also a cloud services provider (AWS), supermarket chain (with its grocery brands Amazon Fresh and the acquisition of Whole Foods) and even a video streaming service (Prime Video). In particular, AWS stands out as an important part of Amazon’s overall business, driving as much as 74% of its operating profit.
4. Alphabet
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When Google went public in 2003, it was a simple search engine that generated approx 1.4 billion dollars in advertising revenue from the website and the cloud network.
Today, the company (now renamed Alphabet) has become synonymous with the internet, and accounts for an overwhelming majority of the internet’s search traffic. Because of this, it generates hundreds of billions in advertising revenue every year.
The company also owns YouTube, and has branched out into various verticals, as well as consumer technology (Fitbit), and premium streaming (YouTube Premium & TV).
5. Tesla
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Tesla’s IPO was in 2008, making it the youngest company on the list. And as the newest kid on the block, Tesla’s revenue streams haven’t changed as drastically as the others have.
But while electric vehicles remain the company’s main revenue driver, Tesla has managed to dip its toes into other verticals over the past 10 years. For example, in 2021, approx 2.8 billion dollars of its 53.8 billion dollars in revenues came from energy production and storage.
