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This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. Here is a collection past columns.

I keep writing about crazy dollar That Big Tech companies get revenue and profit. But what’s even more surprising is the money tech giants spend to keep their businesses afloat and grow long into the future.

As I watched five of America’s biggest tech stars (Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook) make big-ticket investments in their businesses, my jaw dropped. This includes specialized equipment for mounting iPhones, gigantic computer hubs and undersea internet cables that squeeze YouTube videos into your phone, and warehouses for Amazon employees to assemble and ship orders.

The money companies spend on physical assets over the years – capital expenditures, gains for you – is one of the best looks at how Big Tech is turning success into even more success.

According to the financial statements, the combined profits of these five companies have increased more than 25 percent in the most recent year. Tech giants have the cash and permission from their investors to spend almost whatever it takes to stay on top. An advantage few companies can match.

One example: Last year, UPS spent about 5 cents of every dollar of its sales on more planes, trucks, delivery warehouses, package handling equipment, and software to manage it all, according to the company’s data. financial statements. My calculations from Amazon’s statements show that the company’s similar spending category has risen to 13 cents for every dollar in sales.

UPS and Amazon don’t do exactly the same things. Amazon’s major investments include technology centers for its cloud computing business. While UPS delivers for many businesses, Amazon mostly processes packages for itself.

Both companies have snobbered in the pandemic surge of online shopping. However, as Amazon spends much more each year, UPS scales back what it spends on long-lived assets.

The good news is that this is exactly what we want wealthy and successful companies to do: Invest a large portion of their assets to develop their businesses – for their benefit and ours. When Microsoft spends big bucks upgrading their computer centers, it helps any business that uses online versions of Excel and Outlook. When Amazon equips its warehouses with new assembly lines, orders can be moved to our homes more efficiently.

We might be impressed and still wonder if anyone can keep up with Big Tech’s investment levels.

How can a driverless car startup compete with what Google and Apple can spend on sensors, computer chips, prototype labs, and the best minds to figure it all out? (Answer: Not so. Many self-driving car start-ups have abandoned or sold to larger companies.)

General Motors recently said it will dedicate approximately $10 billion a year to big-ticket assets. to become an electric vehicle and technology company. This includes overhauling factories and investing in new projects such as electric battery development.

That’s only half what Facebook spends on computer centers and other long-term investments, both in raw cash and as a percentage of each company’s total annual sales. In short, Facebook invests more in driving Instagram posts around the world than GM invests in reinventing a 113-year-old American industrial icon.

The question I’ve come across over and over in this newsletter – and I don’t know the answer to – is whether Big Tech is invincible. History shows that dominant companies don’t stay that way for long. What seems potentially different now, however, is the existence of an overwhelmingly dominant handful of companies in a dynamic sector of the economy who have the power to spend anything to stay at the top.

Before you go …

• Neighborhood watchman for delivery couriers: In New York, people delivering restaurant meals every night patrols on bridges and roads to deter robberies. Some couriers told my colleague Coral Murphy Marcos that they believed the police were not doing enough to protect themselves from the rise in theft of electric bikes by couriers. New York Magazine Wrote about courier patrols and organization last month.

• Did you hate food or something else? Axios writes about samples in Washington “review the bombing” or people who leave negative comments on a restaurant’s Yelp page to protest their policies regarding masks or vaccines. Yelp has elaborate systems for trying to sort out abusive people into a restaurant they’ve never been to.

• Behind China’s crackdown on video games: An anthropologist writes in Sixth Tone about the Chinese government’s recent time limits on children playing video games. “Deeper social problems underlying China’s internet addiction panic “It’s about the social transformations of the last 40 years,” says Rao Yichen. (my colleagues Wrote About China’s game restrictions last month.)

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Here gorgeous cow portraitsincluding a group on a white sand beach (?!?!). The Atlantic recently recirculated this 2019 collection of moo images.