A report from Americans for Tax Fairness found that the profits of America’s biggest corporations surged by $100 billion last year and were roughly twice the total profits these companies reported in 2017.
The report, which was based on data collected by Fortune, found that the 100 biggest companies in the U.S. recorded collective after-tax profits of $1.2 trillion during a time when American voters have consistently told pollsters they are having trouble paying for groceries.
Big tech companies led the way in terms of total profits last year, with Google parent company Alphabet raking in $100 billion in after-tax profits, followed by Apple with $94 billion in profits, Microsoft with $88 billion in profits, and Nvidia with $73 billion in profits. Holding company Berkshire Hathaway was the only non-tech firm to post such gaudy numbers, as its yearly profits in 2024 totaled $89 billion.
ATF noted that corporate America was raking in these big profits even before congressional Republicans passed their massive budget law that included even more tax cuts designed to benefit the country’s largest companies.
David Kass, ATF’s executive director, said the GOP’s budget package looks even more extreme given what we now know about the financial health of corporate balance sheets.
“Most Americans know in their bones that huge corporations don’t need any more tax cuts, but the newest data on the revenue and profits of the nation’s biggest firms confirms that hunch,” he said. “Among the giveaways to the rich and powerful in the recently enacted Trump-GOP tax scam are roughly $900 billion in loophole openers, ranging from accelerated depreciation to a more generous interest deduction. All these goodies were paid for in part by denying families healthcare, taking food from hungry kids, and boosting household utility prices. The tradeoff couldn’t be more clear or more cruel.”
ATF also contended that American workers have little to show for these corporate tax cuts, as “the nation’s largest firms have spent $3.2 trillion on stock repurchases and $2.1 trillion on dividends” since the first GOP-passed corporate tax package came into law in 2017.
Polls have shown the GOP budget package, which was signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump last month, to be extremely unpopular with voters. An analysis conducted recently by data journalist G. Elliott Morris found that the budget law “is likely the most unpopular budget ever, is the second most unpopular piece of key legislation since the 1990s, and the most unpopular key law, period, over the same period.”