‘There are no comparisons’: How Google led ‘historic’ week for tech companies in US

The US tech industry's eight trillion-dollar companies have collectively gained a staggering $420 billion in market value, and a key driver of this week's rally was the resolution of Google’s long-running antitrust case, analysts have said. Despite a slip in Nvidia's shares, this surge lifted their total value to an immense $21 trillion, now making up roughly 36% of the S&P 500—a proportion so dominant that analysts say it has “no comparisons” in history.According to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, told CNBC by email that the combined megacap of tech companies is a proportion so great by historical standards that “there are no comparisons.”A federal judge ruled against forcing Google to sell its Chrome browser or break up its business. This decision sent shares of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) soaring by over 10% for the week. It also boosted Apple, as the ruling allows their existing multi-billion-dollar deal—where Google pays Apple to be the default search engine on iPhones—to continue.Analysts at Wedbush Securities said the ruling “removed a huge overhang” and a “black cloud” from both companies, clearing the way for a deeper partnership involving Google's Gemini AI models.

AI boosts tech landscape

A significant factor in the judge's decision was the emergence of generative AI, with new players like OpenAI and Anthropic altering the market landscape and making it more competitive than traditional search.Another tech titan that benefited from the AI boom was Broadcom. Following a strong earnings report, CEO Hock Tan announced that his company had secured a new $10 billion contract with a major AI client. Several analysts and news reports suggest this new customer is OpenAI.This partnership, combined with Broadcom’s custom chips already used by Google and Meta, helped the company jump 13% this week, cementing its place in the trillion-dollar club with a market value of around $1.6 trillion.