It turns out that the digital infrastructure was far more ready for disaster than the health infrastructure. Led by Google, AT&T, and Amazon, the top ten American tech and broadband companies have spent over $300 billion in capital investment in the past two years (the rest of the top ten, in alphabetical order, includes Apple, Charter, Comcast, Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, and Verizon). These companies have been building data centers,expanding wired and wireless networks, constructing ecommerce fulfillment centers, and otherwise. And it’s a good thing they did, as the coronavirus crisis forces millions of Americans to move their entire lives online.
Note: These are the top ten tech and broadband providers in our latest Investment Heroes report. However, this number represents all capital expenditures by these companies, both U.S. and foreign. As such, it is not directly comparable to the domestic capital spending numbers presented in our Investment Heroes report.
