NewsSOS
Paper gains on equity stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX have added $160 billion to Big Tech's reported profits, analysts say, complicating how investors read the sector's earnings.
When a public company holds a minority position in a private firm and that firm's implied valuation rises, accounting rules typically require the appreciation to flow through the investor's income statement as profit.
The reported earnings number rises regardless. Analysts say that mechanism, applied across Big Tech's growing portfolios in artificial intelligence and adjacent sectors, produced the $160 billion aggregate figure.
They described the results as large paper windfalls on investments in OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX. The practical consequence falls on anyone relying on headline earnings figures to judge the underlying businesses.
Keep reading