Big Tech totals: revenue, profits, and headcount
This chart adds together revenue, net income, and reported headcount across Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta, then independently indexes the three totals to the first year in the rolling window. It shows whether their aggregate growth paths move together or diverge without implying that one measure causes another.
What does it show?
Across the five companies, profit growth has outpaced both revenue growth and workforce growth since 2016.
Methodology
Sums annual whole-company revenue, net income, and fiscal year-end workforce for Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta, then divides each aggregate series by its own 2016 total and multiplies by 100. Revenue and net income use the latest-filed annual 10-K facts from the SEC companyfacts API. Headcount is extracted from each company's 10-K workforce disclosure located through the SEC submissions API. The chart compares the growth paths of the three totals; it does not calculate a correlation coefficient or establish that changes in one series caused changes in another. Fiscal calendars and workforce definitions differ, including Amazon's full- and part-time employees and Apple's full-time-equivalent employees, while net income can move sharply with one-time accounting items.