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Needless to say, the tech sector had a tough time in 2022, as numerous issues made it difficult to build a sense of confidence over the last 12 months.
Customers who put off large-scale purchases. Ongoing supply chain issues. Uncertainty over China’s “Zero Covid” policies. Large scale job cuts. Almost every week another issue would crop up, putting Wall Street into sell mode and leaving the market scratching its head in bewilderment.
And never mind everything that happened during the months-long saga in which Elon Musk acquired Twitter (TWTR) in a deal valued at $44 billion.
The numbers don’t lie. And the numbers behind the 10 largest tech companies by market valuation trading in the United States are all one really needs to look at to get an idea of what investors thought about tech stocks in 2022.
And how much did those 10 companies lose in market capitalization last year?
Try a total of $4.6T.
Read that again: $4.6T.
The numbers are almost too big to believe. But that’s the combined amount (maybe give or take a billion dollars) that the 10 biggest tech companies lost in market capitalization in the last 12 months.
The losses start with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). The iPhone maker started the year as the world’s most valuable company and ended 2022 with that title as well. But, after becoming the first company in history to reach a market capitalization of $3 billion, which it did in January, Apple (AAPL) saw the sellers come in and, by the end of the year, had lost about $ 755 billion in the market. cap, to end 2022 with a market valuation of $2.07T.
Just behind Apple (AAPL) in overall market capitalization among tech stocks was Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which ended the year with a valuation of $1.79 trillion, and a reduction of $726 billion over 2002. Google’s parent company, Alphabet (GOOG), managed to remain in the Trillion Dollar Market Cap Club, but barely, with a valuation of $1.15 trillion, down about $787 billion from the start of the year.
The rest of the top 10 biggest tech companies, based on year-end market capitalization and how much they lost in 2022 are:
amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN): The e-commerce/streaming/cloud storage titan finished the year with a market capitalization of $857 billion, down nearly 50%, with a loss of $856 billion.
Tencent Holdings (OTCPK:TCEHY): The Chinese technology and investment giant ended 2022 with a market capitalization of $405 billion, or $150 billion less than at the beginning of the year.
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM): The world’s largest chip foundry saw its market value fall by $193 billion this year, to end at $386.3 billion.
Nvidia (NVDA) – The Santa Clara, California-based graphics chipmaker’s market capitalization lost $373 billion in 2022, to settle by 2023 at a valuation of $364 billion.
Main Facebook metaplatforms (NASDAQ: GOAL), which had one of the largest market capitalization losses in percentage terms, as its valuation fell nearly 60%, or about $450 billion, to end 2022 with a market value of $320 billion.
Broadcom (AVGO), down about $45 billion, to end the year with a market capitalization of $233.7 billion, and Alibaba (BABA), which
Alibaba (BABA), down nearly $82 billion, to end the year with a market valuation of $233.2 billion.
And with 2022 over, the next milestone for the tech sector will be the next earnings reports that start coming out at the end of January. One of the factors likely to set the tone for Apple Investors (AAPL) will be what the company says about issues that have reportedly affected production of the various iPhone 14 models.
