Big Tech Now Makes a U.S. Worker's Annual Salary in Just 12–27 Seconds, Up to 2x Faster Than in 2023

More than 118,000 tech workers have lost their jobs in 2026, putting the industry on track for its worst year of layoffs since 2023. Yet while headcounts are shrinking, profits at the largest tech companies are moving in the opposite direction.

According to data presented by Insuranceopedia.com, Big Tech giants now generate the equivalent of the average U.S. worker’s annual salary in just 12- 27 seconds, twice as fast as they did just three years ago.

The Biggest Job Cutters Saw the Sharpest Drop in the Time Needed to Generate a Year’s Salary

Each year, Big Tech giants generate hundreds of billions of dollars in profit, but their scale becomes even more striking when compared with the average worker’s paycheck.

The Insuranceopedia team analyzed the net income of Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and NVIDIA between FY2023 and FY2025, comparing it with the average U.S. annual salary of $53,000. The research measured how long it took each company to generate the equivalent of a year’s worth of average pay in net profit and how that time changed over the past three years.

Back in 2023, Apple was the most profitable company in the group, with a net income of $97 billion. That translated into more than $3,000 in profit per second, meaning the iPhone maker needed just 17.3 seconds to generate the equivalent of the average U.S. annual salary.

Alphabet and Microsoft came closest, taking around 23 seconds to generate a year’s worth of average pay. The gap between them and the rest of Big Tech was much wider, with Meta requiring 42.8 seconds and Amazon 55 seconds to generate the same amount. Two years later, the picture looks very different.

According to their latest full-year financial reports, Big Tech giants are making a year’s salary faster than ever and becoming more evenly matched in the process. Alphabet, now the most profitable company in the group, needed just 12.6 seconds to generate the equivalent of the average U.S. annual salary in FY2025, 1.8 times faster than in 2023. Apple and Microsoft weren’t far behind, becoming 1.2 and 1.4 times faster, respectively, and now needing just 14.9 and 16.4 seconds to generate a year’s worth of average pay.

However, Amazon and Meta, which collectively cut roughly 24,000 jobs in 2026, saw the sharpest drop in the time needed to generate a year’s salary. Meta became 1.9 times faster than in 2023 and now needs just 22.3 seconds to generate a year’s worth of average pay. Amazon improved even more, becoming 2.1 times faster and reducing the time needed to 26.5 seconds.

Big Tech Doubled Its Pace, but NVIDIA Improved More Than 20-Fold

NVIDIA was left out of the main comparison because its profit growth was on a completely different scale. While the other Big Tech giants became between 1.2 and 2.1 times faster at generating a year’s salary between 2023 and 2025, NVIDIA improved by more than 20 times.

Back in FY2023, NVIDIA needed more than six minutes to generate the equivalent of the average U.S. annual salary. Two years later, that figure had dropped to just 18.8 seconds, driven by soaring demand for the AI chips.

While more than 118,000 tech workers lost their jobs in 2026, Big Tech’s profit engines have never moved faster, revealing a sharp contrast between rising profits and shrinking workforces.