2021年7月29日 星期四

On Tech: Big Tech has outgrown this planet

The gap keeps widening between the super rich tech superstars and the merely super.

Big Tech has outgrown this planet

The gap keeps widening between the super rich tech superstars and the merely super. There's one possible explanation.

Nicole Ginelli

The already bonkers dollars of Big Tech have become even bonkers-er.

My colleagues and I have written a lot about the unreal sales, profits and oomph of America's five technology titans — Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook. This might feel like old news. Tech's Titanic 5 have been big and rich for a long time, and they've gotten even more so as people and organizations have needed their products during the coronavirus pandemic. Yadda, yadda, yadda. We get it.

But no, we really don't get it. American's technology superstars have launched into a completely different stratosphere than even other wildly successful companies in tech and beyond.

Let me give you a flavor of the bonkers-ness:

  • The current stock market value of the Big Five ($9.3 trillion) is more than the value of the next 27 most valuable U.S. companies put together, including corporate giants like Tesla, Walmart and JPMorgan Chase, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
  • Apple's profit just from the past three months ($21.7 billion) was nearly double the combined annual profits of the five largest U.S. airlines in prepandemic 2019.
  • Amazon's stock price increases have made Jeff Bezos so rich that he could buy a new model iPhone for 200 million people — and he would still be a billionaire.
  • Google's $50 billion in revenue from selling advertisements from April to June was about what Americans — all of the Americans spent on gasoline and gas station purchases last month.
  • The annual revenue of one of Microsoft's side businesses, LinkedIn, is nearly four times that of Zoom Video Communications, a star of the pandemic, in the past year.
  • Facebook expects to dole out more cash outfitting its computer hubs and offices in 2021 than Exxon spends around the world to dig oil and gas out of the ground in a year.

I know that lots of odd things are happening in the U.S. economy right now. But I cannot adequately explain how not normal these numbers are from the tech superpowers. Maybe that's why Bezos wanted to touch outer space; the Big 5 tech giants have outgrown Earth.

What's clear more than ever is that America's tech titans have formed a separate universe in which they are the sun, and everyone else — billions of humans, other companies, entire countries and governments — are mere planets that revolve around them.

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Perhaps even more surprising than the size and scale of these companies is how they have mostly grown more profitable in what could or should have been economic conditions that hurt their profits.

I have been befuddled that Amazon and Apple have shown higher profit margins than those companies have had for years — possibly ever. That has happened even though the pandemic has forced those companies to reorganize factories or warehouses, deal with disrupted global shipping, scramble for parts in short supply and spend a fortune to keep their workers safe.

That chaos and unplanned spending should have made the companies less profitable, not more so. (Apple did spook investors a little by saying this week that it was having trouble getting all the parts it needs for the next few months. Amazon will disclose its financial results later on Thursday.)

What does all this mean? Well, for one thing, members of Congress or state attorneys general might look at the numbers and ask: If, as the Big Tech companies say, they face stiff competition and could die at any moment, how could profit margins keep going up like this?

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Logic would suggest that if the companies are fighting off lots of rivals, they might have to cut prices and profit margins would shrink. So how does Facebook turn each dollar of revenue, nearly all from ads it sells, into 43 cents of profit — a level that most companies can only dream of, and higher than Facebook posted before the pandemic?

I've asked over and over in this newsletter whether America's Big 5 tech titans are invincible. As the gap keeps widening between the super rich tech superstars and the merely super, I'm starting to believe that the answer is yes.

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Before we go …

Hugs to this

A red monster mascot appeared on the field at a baseball game in Japan, "swallowed" a security guard and spit him back out without his uniform. It's way less menacing than it sounds.

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2021年7月28日 星期三

The T List: Five things we recommend this week

Wu Tsang's latest installation, a restored Art Deco hotel — and more.

Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we're eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday. And you can always reach us at tlist@nytimes.com.

BOOK THIS

A Restored Art Deco Hotel First Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

The adults-only pool at the Arizona Biltmore.Courtesy of Arizona Biltmore, a Waldorf Astoria Resort

By Michaela Trimble

T Contributor

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Set at the base of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, the Arizona Biltmore was once a retreat for the 1920s Hollywood jet set. Surrounded by palm trees, this landmark Waldorf Astoria Resort is revered for its Art Deco design — architect Frank Lloyd Wright was the lead consultant for the hotel's commissioned architect, Albert Chase McArthur. Welcoming a new stage in its history, the property recently reopened after a 15-month renovation, with the Hilton hospitality group tapping design consultants Virserius Studio, the architecture firm PHX Architecture and Jim Smith of Serving the Nation, Inc., to oversee the property's restoration, which included a refresh of its 701 contemporary guest rooms (luxury cottages and villas among them). Also new to the property is an adults-only pool and the transformed Wright Bar, where the famous tequila sunrise cocktail was originally invented by the bartender Gene Sulit. During a stay at the property, guests can also enjoy six additional pools, tennis courts and two 18-hole championship golf courses at the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club. arizonabiltmore.com.

COVET THIS

Catbird's Collaboration With Painter Cassi Namoda

The artist Cassi Namoda wearing the pieces from her Catbird collaboration in her East Hampton studio.Courtesy of Catbird

By Angela Koh

Leigh Batnick Plessner, the co-creative director of Catbird, Brooklyn's destination for fine jewelry, slid into the artist Cassi Namoda's DMs back in September. A fan of Namoda's paintings, Plessner wanted to gift her with a piece from Catbird's collaboration with the Met. Namoda herself has long been fascinated with the history of jewelry; her own collection ranges from an Ethiopian bronze bracelet to a Hellenistic necklace with Carnelian. The two soon decided to create a capsule collection of their own. The line, which took eight months to design, is inspired by Namoda's home country, Mozambique, and the real-life hidden treasures on sunken merchant ships unearthed by locals on deep dive expeditions. "My cousin, who lives there, has the most beautiful collection from these excursions," says the artist. The collaboration consists of seven pieces, including an aquamarine choker and a matching garnet-and-pearl necklace and earring set inspired by Princess Elizabeth of Toro, an accomplished lawyer, politician and diplomat, who is one of Namoda's muses. In honor of the launch, Catbird will be making donations to two Mozambique charities, Save the Children and Kurandza. The collection will be available exclusively on catbirdnyc.com and in their flagship store beginning July 28. From $64.

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SEE THIS

Wu Tsang's Work About Beverly Glenn-Copeland

Installation views of Wu Tsang's "Anthem" (2021).© Wu Tsang. Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2021.

By Chantal McStay

T Contributor

When the Guggenheim's assistant curator X Zhu-Nowell invited the artist Wu Tsang to exhibit one of her films last summer, Tsang proposed an ambitious new site-specific work. The resulting video and sound installation, "Wu Tsang: Anthem," marks the first of its scope in the museum's rotunda. It presents a film-portrait of the composer, singer and transgender activist Beverly Glenn-Copeland, who produced striking and soulful experimental albums in relative obscurity beginning in the '70s, until a recent surge in interest from cult record collectors led to the 2016 reissue of his 1986 studio album "Keyboard Fantasies" and an international tour in 2017, as well as a 2019 feature documentary by Posy Dixon. Like many of Tsang's works — which combine narrative, documentary and fantasy to explore states of "in-betweenness" — "Anthem" is a collaboration with its subject: "I'm always trying to find ways to distill the essence of what that performer's energy is," says Tsang. To capture Glenn-Copeland, the artist navigated strict Covid protocols, including a 17-day quarantine in Canada, where the singer is based, before recording him performing a series of compositions. Projected onto a billowing 84-foot-long curtain that hangs from the oculus, the film seeks to create the atmosphere of a public address, says Tsang, centering Glenn-Copeland as a leader and trans elder in a way that is both monumental and playful. "Wu Tsang: Anthem" is on view through Sep. 6 at the Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, guggenheim.org.

BUY THIS

A New Line of Sunglasses, Handmade in Italy

Left: a model wearing a pair of Sabah Suns in Isola Sun. Right: Sabah Sun colors, including (from top) Santa Fe Sun, Marfa Sun, Isola Sun and Beirut Sun.Jacob Pritchard

By Caroline Newton

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After the success of their unique venture into backgammon boards, Sabah — the boutique shoemakers best known for their modern twist on traditional Turkish leather slip-ons — are at it again. With Sabah Sun, which debuted this month, they've released their first line of sunglasses. Handmade in Italy, these round-framed glasses are distinct in color choice (from transparent blue to amber and more) as well as look and feel (the frames are substantial yet lightweight). Featuring Carl Zeiss lenses that offer 100 percent UV protection, Sabah's first-edition specs have a limited run of 400. $265 a pair, sabah.am.

WEAR THIS

One-of-a-Kind Shirts Made From Vintage Clothing

Left: the Ettienne, a color-block style that requires combining two shirts. Right: the Lyria, a cropped warm-weather silhouette.Jenna Saraco & Nicole Steriovski

By Jane Gayduk

T Contributor

While the pandemic kept her locked down at her Brooklyn home, designer Emily Bryngelson brought an idea to life, one that was five years in the making. In December, she hosted the first Sibling Vintage pop-up — named in honor of her sister, who died last year — at the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, vintage shop Horizons. There, she sold dress shirts, which had been reworked from vintage men's clothing, with modern silhouettes (often with cinched waists or cropped cuts) and directional details including cutouts across the back and floral eyelet embroidery. Bryngelson spent the better part of 10 years designing for large-scale brands like J.Crew as well as smaller lines such as Sea. She witnessed the industry's rapid cycle of production up close and had long dreamed of giving discarded garments a new life. Last year, she began searching for high-quality cotton button-downs on eBay, in thrift stores and rag houses, and has now amassed an inventory of about 200, all waiting to be reimagined. Because every shirt is different in size and fit, Bryngelson can't use a pattern and must sew each piece individually at her Boerum Hill studio. This deliberate slowness "is different than what people are used to, and how the process of design is," she says. By contrast, these one-of-a-kind pieces, which she now posts on the brand's Instagram and website, tend to sell out within minutes. From $110, siblingvintage.com.

FROM T'S INSTAGRAM

Rosita Missoni's Villa at the Foot of the Italian Alps

Rosita Missoni shows off a newspaper clipping of her former husband Ottavio competing in the 1948 Olympic Games in London.Caterina Viganò

Art, flowers and fabrics are layered throughout Rosita Missoni's house, a modern and airy two-story villa in Sumirago, some 30 miles northwest of Milan. Rosita and her husband, Ottavio, who co-founded Missoni — best known for its rainbow-hued, chevron-patterned knits — in 1953, built the home in 1971, a few years after breaking ground on their factory, which is still in operation and located barely a minute's walk away. "We wanted to live all the time where we would have liked to spend our weekends," Rosita says of this verdant hollow at the foot of the Italian Alps. She especially liked that the property affords a view of Monte Rosa, which she could also see from her childhood home in the nearby city of Golasecca and which, at 90, she still finds delightful. "Most days, I wake up and take a photo of the mountain," she says, scrolling through her camera roll past dozens of pictures of the pink-tinged peak. Then, before making her way to her studio at the factory, she might take a stroll through the property's grounds and garden — a softly sloping lawn penned in by towering trees and blooming bushes — clipping coral peonies and blush pink dogwood blossoms as she goes. "I like all flowers except for white ones," she pronounces while standing next to a neon magenta azalea. "I need to be surrounded by color." For more, visit tmagazine.com — and follow us on Instagram.

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