Just How Much Is Apple’s $117 Billion Cash Pile

“Cash is king.” – Unknown

Let’s compare the amount of Apple’s cash holdings to a few things:

If divided over all 40 million African Americans it would average out to $2,925 per person. The median net worth of African America is $2,170 (the lowest among all diaspora groups in the US).

It is 3.7 times the size of Harvard’s endowment (largest HWCU endowment and largest U.S. college endowment) and 216.7 times the size of Howard’s endowment (largest HBCU endowment).

It is 265.9 times the size of all HBCU research budgets combined.

It is 7.8 times the size of Jamaica’s GDP and 15.9 times the size Haiti’s GDP.

It is 6.2% of Africa’s entire GDP.

This is not to take any particular shot at Apple. It just happens to be the company with the largest corporate cash holdings at the time. US companies as a whole have $1.24 trillion in cash currently combined according to Moody’s which is 66% of the GDP of entire Africa. We’re talking “straight cash, homey” as Randy Moss said once.

Disclaimer: There is no ownership of any of the companies mentioned in this article by myself, my business, or my family as of this article’s publishing.