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103-711: Big Tech , also known as the Tech Giants or Tech Titans , is a grouping of the largest IT companies in the world. The concept of Big Tech is similar to the grouping of dominant companies in other sectors . It typically refers to the Big Five United States tech companies: Alphabet , Amazon , Apple , Meta , and Microsoft ; or the Magnificent Seven, which includes Nvidia and Tesla . Big Tech can also include Chinese companies such as Baidu , Alibaba , Tencent , and Xiaomi ( BATX ). In

206-589: A Senate Intelligence Committee report criticized Facebook and Twitter for failing to stop the spread of misinformation . In response to criticism of their handling of misinformation and disinformation during the 2016 election , Big Tech companies cracked down on fake accounts and trolling . During the COVID-19 pandemic , Big Tech was criticized for allowing COVID-19 misinformation . According to Representatives Frank Pallone , Mike Doyle , and Jan Schakowsky , "Industry self-regulation has failed. We must begin

309-491: A 2 and 20 percent discrepancy for the latter. The North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL) also identified a discrepancy between male and female voices. According to their research, Google's speech recognition software is 13 percent more accurate for men than women. It performs better than the systems used by Bing , AT&T , and IBM. The built-in microphone in smart speakers

412-633: A February 2021 report by New York University researchers, conservative claims of social media censorship could be considered disinformation because the deleted statements were false . The report also recommended that social media platforms should increase their transparency to push back against claims of censorship. Conservatives argued that Facebook and Twitter limiting the spread of the Hunter Biden laptop controversy "proves Big Tech's bias". In some cases, Big Tech platforms reversed actions perceived as censorship. The YouTube channel Right Wing Watch

515-635: A Russian government order to ban the Smart Voting app. On February 24, 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. In March 2022, Russia blocked Facebook and Twitter because of "disinformation" and "fake news". On March 21, 2022, Russia recognized Meta as an "extremist organization", making Meta the first public company recognized as extremist in Russia. Microsoft 's LinkedIn has been blocked in Russia since 2016. The environmental impact of Big Tech

618-591: A barrier to entry." The 2020 American docudrama film The Social Dilemma argues that capitalism is the root cause of Big Tech's harmful practices. According to The Globe and Mail , both left-wing and right-wing politicians have criticized Big Tech. Progressives have alleged "runaway profit-taking and concentration of wealth", and conservatives have alleged "liberal bias". According to The New York Times , "The left generally argues that companies like Facebook and Twitter aren't doing enough to root out misinformation, extremism and hate on their platforms, while

721-582: A bite out of" the bear market , giving a double meaning to the acronym, according to Cramer's colleague at RealMoney.com, Bob Lang. Cramer expanded FANG to FAANG in 2017, adding Apple to the list because its revenue made it a potential Fortune 50 company. Following Facebook's name change to Meta Platforms in October 2021, as well as the 2015 creation of Google holding company Alphabet, Cramer suggested replacing FAANG with MAMAA, replacing Netflix with Microsoft because Netflix's valuation had fallen behind

824-618: A business context, the Information Technology Association of America has defined information technology as "the study, design, development, application, implementation, support, or management of computer-based information systems". The responsibilities of those working in the field include network administration, software development and installation, and the planning and management of an organization's technology life cycle, by which hardware and software are maintained, upgraded, and replaced. Information services

927-542: A complete computing machine. During the Second World War , Colossus developed the first electronic digital computer to decrypt German messages. Although it was programmable , it was not general-purpose, being designed to perform only a single task. It also lacked the ability to store its program in memory; programming was carried out using plugs and switches to alter the internal wiring. The first recognizably modern electronic digital stored-program computer

1030-475: A component of their 305 RAMAC computer system. Most digital data today is still stored magnetically on hard disks, or optically on media such as CD-ROMs . Until 2002 most information was stored on analog devices , but that year digital storage capacity exceeded analog for the first time. As of 2007 , almost 94% of the data stored worldwide was held digitally: 52% on hard disks, 28% on optical devices, and 11% on digital magnetic tape. It has been estimated that

1133-622: A factor of 10. In 2017, the Big Five had a combined value of over $ 3.3 trillion, and made up almost half of the Nasdaq-100 . A larger group called the Magnificent Seven adds Nvidia and Tesla to the Big Five based on their contributions to the S&;P 500 since 2022. In 2023, the Magnificent Seven were responsible for almost two-thirds of the S&P 500's 24% increase. The group had a 107% return on investment , which analysts credited to

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1236-450: A more efficient manner are usually seen as "just the cost of doing business." IT departments are allocated funds by senior leadership and must attempt to achieve the desired deliverables while staying within that budget. Government and the private sector might have different funding mechanisms, but the principles are more-or-less the same. This is an often overlooked reason for the rapid interest in automation and Artificial Intelligence , but

1339-510: A new economic order called surveillance capitalism . According to Simon and Galloway, this distinguishes them from other Big Tech companies such as Microsoft and IBM . In 2011, Google executive chair Eric Schmidt excluded Microsoft from the group, stating, "Microsoft is not driving the consumer revolution in the minds of the consumers." In the late 2010s, the term Big Four lost favor as Microsoft changed its business strategy and increased its market value, leading to its widespread inclusion among

1442-473: A particular letter; possible delays in message delivery (up to several days); limits on the size of one message and on the total size of messages in the mailbox (personal for users). A software and hardware complex with a web interface that provides the ability to search for information on the Internet. A search engine usually means a site that hosts the interface (front-end) of the system. The software part of

1545-502: A record for the largest one-day drop in U.S. stock market history), and was no longer within the top 20 most valuable U.S. companies after falling to $ 270 billion in October 2022. In January 2024, Meta crossed $ 1 trillion during trading hours. Microsoft controls the majority of market share in desktop operating systems ( Microsoft Windows ), productivity software ( Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 ), and business communication software ( Microsoft Teams ). Microsoft owns

1648-405: A search engine is a search engine (search engine) — a set of programs that provides the functionality of a search engine and is usually a trade secret of the search engine developer company. Most search engines look for information on World Wide Web sites, but there are also systems that can look for files on FTP servers, items in online stores, and information on Usenet newsgroups. Improving search

1751-535: A study by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America released In March 2020, the six biggest tech development companies, Amazon , Apple , Google , Yandex , IBM and Microsoft , have misidentified more words spoken by " black people " than " white people ". The systems tested errors and unreadability, with a 19 and 35 percent discrepancy for the former and

1854-464: A technology now obsolete. Electronic data storage, which is used in modern computers, dates from World War II, when a form of delay-line memory was developed to remove the clutter from radar signals, the first practical application of which was the mercury delay line. The first random-access digital storage device was the Williams tube , which was based on a standard cathode ray tube . However,

1957-463: A touchscreen is known as a smart display. It is a smart device that integrates conversational user interface with display screens to augment voice interaction with images and video. They are powered by one of the common voice assistants and offer controls for smart home devices, feature streaming apps, and web browsers with touch controls for selecting content. The first smart displays were introduced in 2017 by Amazon ( Amazon Echo ). According to

2060-420: Is a software and fabless company which designs and supplies graphics processing units (GPUs), application programming interfaces (APIs) for data science and high-performance computing , as well as system on a chip units (SoCs) for the mobile computing and automotive market. Nvidia is also a dominant supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and software. In the early 2020s, Nvidia became

2163-410: Is a phenomenon in which many aspects of Big Tech contribute to negative impacts on the environment and climate change . In the big data age, technologists and people in general find it valuable to view emerging technologies with a critical lens, one of which is geared toward the environment. As these emerging technologies become more popular, they consider the extent at which they contribute to changes in

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2266-542: Is a tech company, but not a good one due to differences in the IT and automotive markets. The Wall Street Journal raised concerns about the supply chain , the semiconductor shortage , and the price of electric vehicle batteries . In October 2021, Tesla crossed $ 1 trillion in market capitalization. During the 2022 stock market decline , Tesla stock fell 73% from $ 1.3 trillion in November 2021 to $ 495 billion at

2369-487: Is a term somewhat loosely applied to a variety of IT-related services offered by commercial companies, as well as data brokers . The field of information ethics was established by mathematician Norbert Wiener in the 1940s. Some of the ethical issues associated with the use of information technology include: Research suggests that IT projects in business and public administration can easily become significant in scale. Work conducted by McKinsey in collaboration with

2472-613: Is also similar to how, at the turn of the 21st century, the mainstream media became dominated by a small number of corporations called Big Media or the Media Giants. Alphabet is the parent company of Google . As of 2024, Google is the leader in online advertising ( Google Ads ), online search ( Google Search ), video sharing ( YouTube ), email ( Gmail ), web browsers ( Google Chrome ), web mapping ( Google Maps and Waze ) and mobile operating systems ( Android ), and cloud storage ( Google Drive ). Google Cloud Platform

2575-433: Is also worth noting that from a business perspective, Information technology departments are a " cost center " the majority of the time. A cost center is a department or staff which incurs expenses, or "costs", within a company rather than generating profits or revenue streams. Modern businesses rely heavily on technology for their day-to-day operations, so the expenses delegated to cover technology that facilitates business in

2678-566: Is commonly held in relational databases to take advantage of their "robust implementation verified by years of both theoretical and practical effort." As an evolution of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), XML's text-based structure offers the advantage of being both machine- and human-readable . Data transmission has three aspects: transmission, propagation, and reception. It can be broadly categorized as broadcasting , in which information

2781-503: Is continuously listening for "hot words" followed by a command. However, these continuously listening microphones also raise privacy concerns among users. These include what is being recorded, how the data will be used, how it will be protected, and whether it will be used for invasive advertising. Furthermore, an analysis of Amazon Echo Dots showed that 30–38% of "spurious audio recordings were human conversations", suggesting that these devices capture audio other than strictly detection of

2884-768: Is generally an information system , a communications system , or, more specifically speaking, a computer system — including all hardware , software , and peripheral equipment — operated by a limited group of IT users, and an IT project usually refers to the commissioning and implementation of an IT system. IT systems play a vital role in facilitating efficient data management, enhancing communication networks, and supporting organizational processes across various industries. Successful IT projects require meticulous planning, seamless integration, and ongoing maintenance to ensure optimal functionality and alignment with organizational objectives. Although humans have been storing, retrieving, manipulating, and communicating information since

2987-469: Is not unique to voice assistants; as more and more devices come online, there is an increasing trade-off between convenience and privacy. While there are many factors influencing smart speaker adoption, specifically with regards to privacy, Lau et al. define five distinct categories as pros and cons: convenience, identity as an early adopter, contributing factors, perceived lack of utility, privacy, and security concerns. Tennant et al. explored adoption using

3090-507: Is one of the priorities of the modern Internet (see the Deep Web article about the main problems in the work of search engines). Companies in the information technology field are often discussed as a group as the "tech sector" or the "tech industry." These titles can be misleading at times and should not be mistaken for "tech companies;" which are generally large scale, for-profit corporations that sell consumer technology and software. It

3193-424: Is still widely deployed more than 50 years later. IMS stores data hierarchically , but in the 1970s Ted Codd proposed an alternative relational storage model based on set theory and predicate logic and the familiar concepts of tables, rows, and columns. In 1981, the first commercially available relational database management system (RDBMS) was released by Oracle . All DMS consist of components, they allow

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3296-508: Is the third most popular cloud computing platform after Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure . Google and Meta have been called a digital advertising duopoly . Google earns 82% of its revenue and most of its profit from advertising. In addition to its Google products, Alphabet is a global leader in artificial intelligence , quantum computing , and self-driving cars . In 2019, Google claimed its Sycamore processor had achieved quantum supremacy . In 2021, Alphabet's subsidiary Waymo

3399-417: Is transmitted unidirectionally downstream, or telecommunications , with bidirectional upstream and downstream channels. XML has been increasingly employed as a means of data interchange since the early 2000s, particularly for machine-oriented interactions such as those involved in web-oriented protocols such as SOAP , describing "data-in-transit rather than... data-at-rest". Hilbert and Lopez identify

3502-472: The AI boom and Federal Reserve rate cut expectations. In January 2024, the group accounted for 29% of the S&P 500's market capitalization. In February 2024, as the Magnificent Seven approached an unprecedented combined valuation of $ 13 trillion, Deutsche Bank noted that the Magnificent Seven would constitute the second largest stock market in the world as their combined market capitalization exceeded

3605-609: The Chinese Communist Party . Meta and X have been banned in China since 2009. In India, Facebook and Twitter were accused of censorship during the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest . The Wall Street Journal stated that Facebook only restricted content criticizing the Indian government, even if government supporters posted false statements . In 2021, Alexei Navalny criticized Apple and Google for complying with

3708-565: The Communications Decency Act allowed Big Tech to evade responsibility for user-generated content . It states, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." Section 230 has been called "the twenty-six words that created the Internet". Without the legal requirement for content moderation , online services could innovate freely and achieved rapid growth in

3811-454: The Internet , which was equivalent to 51 million households. Along with the Internet, new types of technology were also being introduced across the globe, which has improved efficiency and made things easier across the globe. Along with technology revolutionizing society, millions of processes could be done in seconds. Innovations in communication were also crucial as people began to rely on

3914-1011: The Linux kernel . The "cloud wars" also caused Big Tech companies to invest in data centers and undersea cables . The operational efficiency of Big Tech technology stacks means startup companies typically must use Big Tech infrastructure instead of building their own. Nikos Smyrnaios argued in 2016 that Big Tech companies concentrate power by vertically integrating data centers , Internet connectivity, computer hardware (including smartphones), operating systems , applications (including Web browsers ), and online services . He also argued that they concentrate power by horizontally integrating different services such as email, instant messaging , online searching , downloading, and streaming across platforms . For example, Google and Microsoft pay for their search engines to be included with Apple's iPhone . According to The Economist , " Network and scale effects mean that size begets size, while data can act as

4017-610: The SPLC ". On November 5, 2020, President Donald Trump alleged "historic election interference from big money, big media, and big tech". Conservative newspaper The Washington Times criticized Trump's claims as lacking evidence. During Trump's speech that incited the January 6 United States Capitol attack , he accused Big Tech of rigging the 2020 election and promised to "get rid of" Section 230 . According to Trump, "They rigged it like they have never rigged an election before, and by

4120-473: The University of Oxford suggested that half of all large-scale IT projects (those with initial cost estimates of $ 15 million or more) often failed to maintain costs within their initial budgets or to complete on time. Smart speaker As of winter 2017, it is estimated by NPR and Edison Research that 39 million Americans (16% of the population over 18) own a smart speaker. A smart speaker with

4223-482: The Wall Street Crash of 1929 . Others believe the Magnificent Seven can continue to outperform other stocks as capital flows into index funds . On August 5, 2024, the Magnificent Seven companies lost a combined $ 1 trillion in market capitalization at the start of trading hours. Acronyms such as FANG, FAANG, GAFA, GAFAM, MAMAA, GAMMA, and others have been used to refer to Big Tech companies. Alphabet ,

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4326-468: The list of companies by research and development spending . However, large companies tend to focus on operational efficiency instead of new product development . Legal scholar Tim Wu speculated that Big Tech acquisitions could create "kill zones" that stifle competition by taking potential competitors out of the marketplace. For example, Facebook's acquisition of Instagram prevented Instagram from becoming an independent platform similar to Facebook. On

4429-426: The technology acceptance model and identified factors influencing expected usefulness, ease of use, and attitudes toward smart speaker devices in the context of home care support. The authors describe some of the critical challenges in designing for this context given the potential impact of the voice assistant's personality on someone's perspective of the care situation and a user's desire for intelligent support from

4532-432: The 16th century, and it was not until 1645 that the first mechanical calculator capable of performing the four basic arithmetical operations was developed. Electronic computers , using either relays or valves , began to appear in the early 1940s. The electromechanical Zuse Z3 , completed in 1941, was the world's first programmable computer, and by modern standards one of the first machines that could be considered

4635-555: The 20th century, IBM and Microsoft dominated the IT industry. After the dot-com bubble wiped out most of the Nasdaq Composite stock market index , surviving tech startups expanded their market share and became dominant in their markets. The term Big Tech began to appear around 2013, when some economists speculated that a lack of regulation could lead to concentrated market power . The term Big Tech became popular following

4738-585: The Big Five accounted for nearly a quarter of the S&;P 500 . In March 2023, Apple and Microsoft accounted for 13 percent of the S&P 500. The Big Five are among the most prestigious employers in the world. In the 21st century the Big Five tech companies surpassed the market capitalization of the historically dominant Big Oil companies BP , Chevron , ExxonMobil , and Shell . In 2019, Jason Whittaker stated that they also outpaced Big Media companies such as Comcast , Disney , and Warner Bros. Discovery by

4841-628: The Big Four. They were also referred to as The Four, the Gang of Four, and the Four Horsemen . They were known as GAFA before Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021. Eric Schmidt , Phil Simon , and Scott Galloway grouped the Big Four together based on their ability to create social change . They serve billions of users, and are able to influence user behavior and control large amounts of user data. As such, they have been criticized for creating

4944-410: The Internet alone while e-commerce a decade later resulted in $ 289 billion in sales. And as computers are rapidly becoming more sophisticated by the day, they are becoming more used as people are becoming more reliant on them during the twenty-first century. Early electronic computers such as Colossus made use of punched tape , a long strip of paper on which data was represented by a series of holes,

5047-417: The ability to transfer both plain text and formatted, as well as arbitrary files; independence of servers (in the general case, they address each other directly); sufficiently high reliability of message delivery; ease of use by humans and programs. Disadvantages of e-mail: the presence of such a phenomenon as spam (massive advertising and viral mailings); the theoretical impossibility of guaranteed delivery of

5150-527: The appearance of the term in 1990 contained within documents for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Innovations in technology have already revolutionized the world by the twenty-first century as people were able to access different online services. This has changed the workforce drastically as thirty percent of U.S. workers were already in careers in this profession. 136.9 million people were personally connected to

5253-567: The application of statistical and mathematical methods to decision-making , and the simulation of higher-order thinking through computer programs. The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks , but it also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones . Several products or services within an economy are associated with information technology, including computer hardware , software , electronics, semiconductors, internet , telecom equipment , and e-commerce . Based on

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5356-409: The big five tech giants." Under United States antitrust law , the consumer welfare standard assumes that large companies are not automatically harmful. Antitrust enforcement generally aims to prevent harm to consumers. According to some policy analysts, Big Tech innovation benefits consumers. Big Tech CEOs have consistently opposed antitrust regulation. Antitrust investigations of Big Tech began in

5459-761: The combination of the Big Five, IBM , Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent "G-MAFIA BAT". Nikos Smyrnaios argued in 2016 that four phenomena allowed Big Tech to emerge: technological convergence , deregulation , globalization , and financialization . He argued that people like Nicholas Negroponte promoted technological convergence and made an Internet oligopoly appear desirable. The complexity of IT made competition law ineffective, resulting in industry self-regulation . Globalization allowed Big Tech companies to minimize their tax burden and pay foreign workers lower wages . Without regulation, Big Tech earned big profits: in 2014, Google, Apple, and Facebook earned over 20 percent profit margins. Critics have alleged that Section 230 of

5562-417: The combined value of every public company in every G20 country except China, Japan, and the United States as a whole. At the end of the second quarter of 2024, Morgan Stanley estimated that the Magnificent Seven accounted for 31% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500. Some analysts expressed concern that extreme concentration could cause a stock market crash similar to the dot-com bubble or even

5665-550: The company of having the "ability to shut down a debate" and called for "a social media marketplace that isn't dominated by a single censor". Following Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections , Facebook was criticized for failing to curb disinformation . In the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal , Facebook users were targeted for political propaganda based on their online activity, which Facebook monitored and shared without consent . In 2019,

5768-635: The company's profit every year since 2014. After Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) was released in 2006, Google developed Google App Engine (now Google Cloud Platform ) and Microsoft developed Windows Azure (now Microsoft Azure ). After crossing $ 1 trillion during trading hours once in September 2018 and again in January 2020, Amazon closed above $ 1 trillion for the first time in April 2020. In November 2022, Amazon fell below $ 1 trillion for

5871-464: The computer to communicate through telephone lines and cable. The introduction of the email was considered revolutionary as "companies in one part of the world could communicate by e-mail with suppliers and buyers in another part of the world..." Not only personally, computers and technology have also revolutionized the marketing industry, resulting in more buyers of their products. During the year of 2002, Americans exceeded $ 28 billion in goods just over

5974-419: The constant pressure to do more with less is opening the door for automation to take control of at least some minor operations in large companies. Many companies now have IT departments for managing the computers , networks, and other technical areas of their businesses. Companies have also sought to integrate IT with business outcomes and decision-making through a BizOps or business operations department. In

6077-431: The data they store to be accessed simultaneously by many users while maintaining its integrity. All databases are common in one point that the structure of the data they contain is defined and stored separately from the data itself, in a database schema . In recent years, the extensible markup language (XML) has become a popular format for data representation. Although XML data can be stored in normal file systems , it

6180-504: The earliest writing systems were developed, the term information technology in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Business Review ; authors Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler commented that "the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology (IT)." Their definition consists of three categories: techniques for processing,

6283-511: The early days of the Internet. According to Alexis Madrigal , the innovation that initially characterized Silicon Valley has been replaced by a strategy of growth through acquisitions. For example, Apple started in 1976 as an engineering-focused startup company , and quickly claimed market share from less innovative competitors like Xerox . The tech giants made timely investments in personal computers, websites, e-commerce , mobile devices , social media, and cloud computing , and rank highly on

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6386-566: The emergence of information and communications technology (ICT). By the year of 1984, according to the National Westminster Bank Quarterly Review , the term information technology had been redefined as "The development of cable television was made possible by the convergence of telecommunications and computing technology (…generally known in Britain as information technology)." We then begin to see

6489-608: The end of 2022, including a 40% drop in December 2022 alone. In response to the stock price declining over twice as much as the Nasdaq Composite index, Tesla CEO Elon Musk advised employees not to be bothered by the "stock market craziness". In November 2024, Tesla recrossed $ 1 trillion in market capitalization. Smaller companies like Adobe , IBM , Netflix , Oracle , Salesforce , Snap , Uber , and X are sometimes referred to as Big Tech due to their popular influence. Two Chinese tech companies, Alibaba and Tencent , were among

6592-1150: The environment and whether they are inherently positive or negative. On May 9, 2019, the Parliament of France passed a law intended to force Big Tech to pay publishers for the reuse of substantial amounts of copyrighted content ( related rights ). The law is aimed at implementing Article 15 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market of the European Union. Concerns over monopolistic practices have led to antitrust investigations in Big Tech from both United States and European Union regulatory agencies. These investigations have raised concerns around Big Tech on privacy , market power , freedom of speech , national security , and law enforcement . In 2019, John Naughton wrote in The Guardian , "It's almost impossible to function without

6695-404: The exponential pace of technological change (a kind of Moore's law ): machines' application-specific capacity to compute information per capita roughly doubled every 14 months between 1986 and 2007; the per capita capacity of the world's general-purpose computers doubled every 18 months during the same two decades; the global telecommunication capacity per capita doubled every 34 months;

6798-455: The field of data mining  — "the process of discovering interesting patterns and knowledge from large amounts of data"  — emerged in the late 1980s. The technology and services it provides for sending and receiving electronic messages (called "letters" or "electronic letters") over a distributed (including global) computer network. In terms of the composition of elements and the principle of operation, electronic mail practically repeats

6901-455: The first planar silicon dioxide transistors by Frosch and Derick in 1957, the MOSFET demonstration by a Bell Labs team. the planar process by Jean Hoerni in 1959, and the microprocessor invented by Ted Hoff , Federico Faggin , Masatoshi Shima , and Stanley Mazor at Intel in 1971. These important inventions led to the development of the personal computer (PC) in the 1970s, and

7004-462: The first publicly traded U.S. company in history to reach a market capitalization of $ 1 trillion. In August 2020, Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company in history to reach a market capitalization of $ 2 trillion. In January 2022, Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company in history to reach a market capitalization of $ 3 trillion. In January 2023, Apple fell below $ 2 trillion. Apple closed above $ 3 trillion for

7107-773: The first time in June 2023 and closed above $ 3 trillion again in December 2023. Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) owns the Facebook social networking service , the Instagram image sharing service, and the WhatsApp instant messaging service. Facebook also acquired Oculus in 2014, entering the virtual reality market. After closing above $ 1 trillion for the first time in June 2021 as Facebook, Meta Platforms finished 2021 below $ 1 trillion. In February 2022, Meta Platforms fell to less than $ 600 billion (setting

7210-567: The first time since 2020, part of a 51% decline from $ 1.7 trillion at the beginning of 2022 to $ 834 billion at the end of the year. By May 2023, Amazon stock was again worth more than $ 1 trillion. In June 2024, Amazon crossed $ 2 trillion in market capitalization. Apple sells consumer electronics , including laptops , smartphones , and smartwatches . Apple shares a duopoly with Google in mobile operating systems , with Apple's iOS controlling 27% market share and Google's Android controlling 72%. In August 2018, Apple became

7313-443: The first transistorized computer developed at the University of Manchester and operational by November 1953, consumed only 150 watts in its final version. Several other breakthroughs in semiconductor technology include the integrated circuit (IC) invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959, silicon dioxide surface passivation by Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick in 1955,

7416-612: The hot word. There are strong concerns that the ever-listening microphone of smart speakers presents a perfect candidate for wiretapping . In 2017, British security researcher Mark Barnes showed that pre-2017 Echos have exposed pins which allow for a compromised OS to be booted. While voice assistants provide a valuable service, there can be some hesitation towards using them in various social contexts, such as in public or around other users. However, only more recently have users begun interacting with voice assistants through an interaction with smart speakers rather than an interaction with

7519-488: The information stored in it and delay-line memory was volatile in the fact that it had to be continuously refreshed, and thus was lost once power was removed. The earliest form of non-volatile computer storage was the magnetic drum , invented in 1932 and used in the Ferranti Mark 1 , the world's first commercially available general-purpose electronic computer. IBM introduced the first hard disk drive in 1956, as

7622-420: The information technology market through anti-competitive practices , ever-increasing economic power, and intellectual property. Smyrnaios argued that the current situation is the result of deregulation , globalization , and the failure of politicians to understand and respond to developments in technology. Smyrnaios recommended developing academic analysis of the political economy of the Internet to understand

7725-538: The introduction of computer science-related courses in K-12 education . Ideas of computer science were first mentioned before the 1950s under the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University , where they had discussed and began thinking of computer circuits and numerical calculations. As time went on, the field of information technology and computer science became more complex and

7828-418: The investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections , because access to a large amount of data allowed tech companies to influence their users. The concept of Big Tech is similar to how the largest oil companies were called Big Oil following the 1970s energy crisis , and the largest cigarette producers were called Big Tobacco , as Congress sought to regulate those industries. It

7931-568: The late 1990s, leading to the first major case against Big Tech in 2001, when the U.S. government accused Microsoft of illegally maintaining its monopoly position in the PC market. Information technology Information technology ( IT ) is a set of related fields that encompass computer systems, software , programming languages , and data and information processing, and storage. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system ( IT system )

8034-514: The leading producer of AI chips. In May 2023, Nvidia crossed $ 1 trillion in market capitalization during trading hours, and was worth $ 1.2 trillion by November 2023. In February 2024, Nvidia rose above $ 1.83 trillion in market capitalization, surpassing Amazon and Alphabet to become the third most valuable U.S. company after Apple and Microsoft, and later crossed $ 2 trillion during trading hours. In June 2024, Nvidia crossed $ 3 trillion in market capitalization and surpassed Apple as

8137-732: The methods of domination and to criticize these methods to encourage opposition to that domination. The practice of banning hate speech has received criticism from conservatives . In July 2020, the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law interviewed the CEOs of Alphabet , Amazon , Apple , and Facebook . During the hearings, some members of Congress alleged bias against conservatives on social media. Matt Gaetz protested Amazon's ban on donations to hate groups , stating that Jeff Bezos should "divorce from

8240-417: The most valuable company in the world before finishing the year second to Apple at $ 2.5 trillion. After its stock fell during most of 2022, Microsoft finished the year below $ 2 trillion. By May 2023, Microsoft stock was again worth more than $ 2 trillion. In January 2024, Microsoft briefly surpassed Apple as the most valuable U.S. company, and crossed $ 3 trillion during trading hours. Nvidia

8343-520: The other companies. With Microsoft, these companies were each valued at over $ 900 billion compared to Netflix's $ 310 billion . In November 2021, The Motley Fool suggested MANAMANA (a reference to the 1968 song " Mah Nà Mah Nà ") as an acronym that stands for Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Nvidia , and Adobe . At the international level Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi , referred to as BATX , are often seen as Chinese competitors to Big Tech. Futurist Amy Webb has called

8446-418: The other four and leading to the Big Five designation. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft are known as the Big Five tech companies. They were known as GAFAM before Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021. They are among the most valuable public companies . In 2020, the Big Five ranked as the second through sixth most valuable public companies in the world, behind Saudi Aramco . In August 2020,

8549-564: The other hand, Wu stated that Microsoft's concentration of market power created a platform for new kinds of innovation. According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation , "Virtually all so-called killer acquisitions represent the technologies and capabilities the companies view as critical to their competitiveness. If they purchase a company innovating within this zone, they are far more likely to develop its innovation than to bury it. In doing so, they often make

8652-421: The parent company of Google, may be represented by G in these acronyms, and Meta , the rebranding of Facebook, may be represented by F. The acronym FANG was coined in 2013 by Jim Cramer , the television host of CNBC 's Mad Money , to refer to Facebook, Amazon , Netflix , and Google. Cramer called these companies "totally dominant in their markets". Cramer stated that the four companies were poised to "take

8755-408: The phone. On the phone, most voice assistants have the option to be engaged by a physical button (e.g., Siri with a long press of the home button) rather than solely by hot word-based engagement in a smart speaker. While this distinction increases the privacy by limiting when the microphone is on, users felt that having to press a button first removed the convenience of voice interaction. This trade-off

8858-438: The right insists that tech companies are going so overboard in their content decisions that they're suppressing conservative political views." According to The Hill , libertarians oppose government regulation of Big Tech due to their support for laissez-faire economics. Scott Galloway said Big Tech companies "avoid taxes, invade privacy, and destroy jobs". Nikos Smyrnaios described Big Tech as an oligopoly that dominates

8961-403: The second biggest cloud computing platform ( Microsoft Azure ) after Amazon Web Services . Microsoft is also one of the biggest companies in the video game industry ( Microsoft Gaming ). In April 2019, Microsoft reached $ 1 trillion in market capitalization for the first time. In June 2021, Microsoft crossed $ 2 trillion for the first time, and in October 2021 briefly surpassed Apple as

9064-410: The second most valuable U.S. company, and subsequently surpassed Microsoft in the same month to become the most valuable U.S. company. In the week after surpassing Microsoft, Nvidia lost $ 540 billion in market capitalization. On September 3, 2024, Nvidia's stock price fell 10%, wiping out $ 300 billion in market capitalization. In October 2024, Nvidia's market capitalization surpassed $ 3.4 trillion and

9167-503: The storage and processing technologies employed, it is possible to distinguish four distinct phases of IT development: pre-mechanical (3000 BC — 1450 AD), mechanical (1450 — 1840), electromechanical (1840 — 1940), and electronic (1940 to present). Information technology is a branch of computer science , defined as the study of procedures, structures, and the processing of various types of data. As this field continues to evolve globally, its priority and importance have grown, leading to

9270-417: The system of regular (paper) mail, borrowing both terms (mail, letter, envelope, attachment, box, delivery, and others) and characteristic features — ease of use, message transmission delays, sufficient reliability and at the same time no guarantee of delivery. The advantages of e-mail are: easily perceived and remembered by a person addresses of the form user_name@domain_name (for example, somebody@example.com);

9373-565: The technology available faster and to more people than would otherwise be possible. If companies are prevented from making acquisitions, they are more likely to copy the products or develop alternative innovations than they are to ignore them. Assuming incumbents don't violate intellectual property laws, this type of competition is both legal and socially beneficial." Competition between cloud platforms including Amazon Web Services , Microsoft Azure , and Google Cloud Platform contributed to open-source software infrastructure including LLVM and

9476-424: The technology. When configured without authentication , smart speakers can be activated by people other than the intended user or owner. For example, visitors to a home or office, or people in a publicly accessible area outside an open window, partial wall, or security fence, may be able to be heard by a speaker. One team demonstrated the ability to stimulate the microphones of smart speakers and smartphones through

9579-461: The top ten most valuable public companies worldwide at the end of the 2010s. Smyrnaios argued in 2016 that the Asian tech giants Samsung , Alibaba, Baidu , and Tencent could be included in the definition of Big Tech. TikTok developer ByteDance and drone manufacturer DJI have also been called Big Tech. In the early 2010s, Alphabet , Amazon , Apple , and Meta were commonly referred to as

9682-402: The way, last night, they didn't do a bad job either." After Trump's Twitter account was suspended, German Chancellor Angela Merkel 's chief spokesman Steffen Seibert noted that Merkel found Twitter's halt of Trump's account "problematic", adding that legislators, not private companies, should decide on any necessary curbs to free expression if hate speech incites violence. According to

9785-792: The work of changing incentives driving social media companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation." President Joe Biden criticized Facebook for allowing anti-vaccine activism . Imran Ahmed , CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate , said, "While they fail to take action, lives are being lost." In response to the criticism, Big Tech companies deleted numerous social media accounts and banned health-related false advertising . Human Rights Watch has criticized Big Tech, primarily Facebook, for allowing misinformation to spread in developing countries . Big Tech companies have faced political censorship. China banned Google in 2010 because Google refused to censor search results critical of

9888-405: The world's storage capacity per capita required roughly 40 months to double (every 3 years); and per capita broadcast information has doubled every 12.3 years. Massive amounts of data are stored worldwide every day, but unless it can be analyzed and presented effectively it essentially resides in what have been called data tombs: "data archives that are seldom visited". To address that issue,

9991-403: The worldwide capacity to store information on electronic devices grew from less than 3  exabytes in 1986 to 295 exabytes in 2007, doubling roughly every 3 years. Database Management Systems (DMS) emerged in the 1960s to address the problem of storing and retrieving large amounts of data accurately and quickly. An early such system was IBM 's Information Management System (IMS), which

10094-503: Was able to handle the processing of more data. Scholarly articles began to be published from different organizations. Looking at early computing, Alan Turing , J. Presper Eckert , and John Mauchly were considered some of the major pioneers of computer technology in the mid-1900s. Giving them such credit for their developments, most of their efforts were focused on designing the first digital computer. Along with that, topics such as artificial intelligence began to be brought up as Turing

10197-433: Was banned for showing far-right content to expose extreme views, but the channel was restored after viewer backlash. Human Rights Watch stated that excessive content removal, especially on Facebook, meant losing evidence of human rights abuses . Facebook has also been accused of censoring left-wing opinions. Facebook removed ads by Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren , who advocated breaking up Facebook. Warren accused

10300-496: Was beginning to question such technology of the time period. Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, probably initially in the form of a tally stick . The Antikythera mechanism , dating from about the beginning of the first century BC, is generally considered the earliest known mechanical analog computer , and the earliest known geared mechanism. Comparable geared devices did not emerge in Europe until

10403-468: Was the Manchester Baby , which ran its first program on 21 June 1948. The development of transistors in the late 1940s at Bell Laboratories allowed a new generation of computers to be designed with greatly reduced power consumption. The first commercially available stored-program computer, the Ferranti Mark I , contained 4050 valves and had a power consumption of 25 kilowatts. By comparison,

10506-492: Was the first company to offer public robotaxi service. Alphabet reached $ 1 trillion in market capitalization for the first time in January 2020. With Amazon Alexa and Amazon Echo , Amazon is the leader in the area of artificial intelligence -based personal digital assistants and smart speakers ( Amazon Echo ) with 69% market share followed by Google ( Google Nest ) at 25% market share. Amazon Web Services made up 59% of Amazon's profit in 2020, and more than half of

10609-494: Was the second most valuable publicly-traded U.S. company after Apple. In November 2024, Nvidia surpassed Apple in market capitalization to become the most valuable publicly-traded U.S. company. Tesla 's classification as a tech company has been debated. In 2022, Fortune included Tesla in Big Tech, and The Washington Post argued that Tesla vehicles are comparable to iPhones . Business Insider argued that Tesla should be classified as an automaker . Barron's argued that Tesla

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