Don’t be surprised if the next rumor out of Cupertino is that the new gold iPhones are forged from the company’s own melted-down ingots: Apple is richer than ever. It is holding onto $147 billion, which amounts to 10% of all corporate cash.
Non-financial companies are collectively holding onto $1.48 trillion, up 81% from $820 billion in 2006, reports the Wall Street Journal, drawing on analysis from Moody’s.
Apple’s pile has grown 9.5% since December 2012, even as the company initiates stock buybacks.
Collectively, the tech companies in Moody’s list of the top 1,000 companies by cash hoard hold $515 billion, or more than a third of all the cash held by non-financial corporations.
Moody’s notes that the amount of cash corporations are sitting on is expected to grow unless countries all over the world start taxing corporations at higher rates. Many technology companies set up their European headquarters in Ireland in order to avoid taxes.