The third quarter of 2025 has once again highlighted the gravitational pull of mega-cap technology companies in U.S. equity markets. Investor flows show a striking concentration of net buying activity among the sector’s largest names, underscoring both confidence in their growth prospects and their role as anchors of the global economy.
The Top Net Buys by Value
- Microsoft Corporation led the quarter with USD 2.65 trillion in net buys, reflecting strong conviction in its cloud, AI, and enterprise platforms.
- Nvidia Corporation followed at USD 2.47 trillion, riding the wave of demand for GPUs and AI infrastructure.
- Apple Inc. secured third place with USD 1.96 trillion, showing resilience in its ecosystem despite hardware market saturation.
- Amazon.com Inc. ranked fourth with USD 1.37 trillion, supported by investor confidence in its e-commerce scale and AWS cloud dominance.
Together, these four firms accounted for the lion’s share of net buying activity in Q3, reinforcing their dominance in shaping both investor sentiment and market direction
Recent earnings and macroeconomic data provide important context for these flows:
- Tech sector earnings beat expectations: The five largest U.S. technology companies—Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, and Meta—collectively reported $178.4 billion in quarterly revenue, up 18.6% year-over-year, with average EPS surprises of +11.2%.
- AI monetization accelerated: Microsoft’s Azure cloud grew 30% YoY, with AI services contributing nearly half of that growth. Nvidia’s revenue surged 93.6% YoY, driven by explosive demand for GPUs powering AI data centers.
- Apple’s ecosystem resilience: Despite hardware saturation, Apple’s services revenue grew 16.2% YoY, reaching $22.3 billion, underscoring the strength of its recurring revenue model.
- Amazon’s AWS expansion: AWS reached an annualized revenue run rate of $132 billion in Q3, backed by a $200 billion backlog of multiyear AI infrastructure deals, including partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic.
- Macro backdrop: The U.S. stock market smashed records in Q3, with the S&P 500 closing above 6,600 points and the Dow surpassing 46,000, fueled by AI optimism and anticipated Fed rate cuts.