Winning big in 2023, tech giants still lag far behind world billionaires

Tech giants win big

2023 is a year of great fluctuations in the Vietnamese stock market. However, for the whole year, the VN-Index still increased by 122.84 points, equivalent to 12.2% to 1,129.93 points.

While the banking giant and the real estate giant both had less active trading stocks, the technology giant was much luckier, recording a stock increase that was twice as strong as the general market's upward momentum.

Closing the trading session on December 29, 2023,FPT shares of FPT Corporation stopped at VND 96,100/share, an increase of VND 19,200/share, equivalent to 25% compared to the last session of 2022. Thus, after 1 year of trading, FPT has a growth momentum that is more than double the general growth momentum of VN-Index.

The strong increase in FPT shares helped the market capitalization of FPT Corporation of Chairman Truong Gia Binh increase by VND24,902 billion (equivalent to USD1.1 billion) to VND122,044 billion (about USD5 billion).

In 2023, the tech tycoon is still far behind the world's billionaires, picture 1 — FPT Chairman Truong Gia Binh and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, reunited. Illustrative photo

FRT shares of FPT Digital Retail Joint Stock Company - FPT Retail is a "hybrid" between technology and retail. Thanks to the breakthrough of Long Chau pharmacy chain, FRT has a breakthrough momentum even stronger than its parent company FPT.

After 1 year of trading, FRT shares increased by 38,000 VND/share, equivalent to 55.1% to 107,000 VND/share. FPT Retail's market capitalization increased by 5,177 billion VND.

CMT shares of Network and Communications Technology Joint Stock Company had an even stronger growth rate when they increased by VND 11,100/share, equivalent to 89.5% and closed 2023 at VND 23,500/share. Thanks to that, the company's market capitalization increased by VND 88.8 billion.

Closing 2023, ELC shares of ELCOM Technology - Telecommunications Joint Stock Company stopped at VND20,850/share after increasing by VND11,150/share, equivalent to 115%. ELCOM's market capitalization increased by VND918 billion.

Despite modest growth, CMG shares of CMC Technology Corporation still maintained green. At the end of 2023, CMG stopped at VND43,500/share after increasing by VND3,500/share, equivalent to 8.75%. CMC Corporation's market capitalization increased by VND665 billion.

Still far behind the world's billionaires

It can be seen that in 2023, the technology industry will win big when many stocks increase significantly compared to the general increase of VN-Index. However, compared to the world's billionaires, Vietnamese technology giants are still far behind in terms of growth rate.

Tech stocks rebounded from a disastrous 2022 and lifted the Nasdaq to one of its strongest years in two decades.

After a 33% drop in 2022, the tech-heavy Nasdaq finished 2023 up 43%, its best year since 2020. That gain was also worse only than the index’s performance in 2009. Those were the only two years with bigger gains since 2003, when stocks emerged from the dot-com crisis.

The Nasdaq is now just 6.5% below its record high reached in November 2021.

Across the industry, the big story this year has been the return of risk, as the US Federal Reserve pauses its rate hikes and the outlook for inflation stabilizes. Companies have also benefited from cost-cutting measures they began late last year to focus on efficiency and shore up margins.

While the tech sector has received a big boost from the macro environment and the prospect of lower borrowing costs, the emergence of artificial intelligence has fueled excitement in the sector and prompted companies to invest in what is seen as the next big thing.

Nvidia has been a big winner in the AI boom. The chipmaker’s stock price has soared 239% in 2023 as major cloud providers and well-funded startups snap up the company’s graphics processing units (GPUs), which are needed to train and run advanced AI models. In the first three quarters of 2023, Nvidia generated $17.5 billion in net income, up more than sixfold from a year earlier. Revenue in the most recent quarter tripled.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in March that AI's “iPhone moment” had begun.

“Startups are racing to build disruptive products and business models, while incumbents are looking to respond,” Huang said at Nvidia’s developer conference. “Generative AI has sparked a sense of urgency among businesses around the world to develop AI strategies.”

Amazon stock is up 81% in 2023, its best year since 2015.

Microsoft investors have enjoyed a rally this year unlike anything they've seen since 2009, with shares of the software company up 58%.

After Nvidia, the biggest gainer among large-cap tech stocks was Meta, which jumped nearly 200%. Nvidia and Meta are by far the two best-performing stocks in the S&P 500.

Meta's rally began in February, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who founded the company in 2004, said 2023 would be a "power year" for the company after the stock plummeted 64% in 2022 due largely to three consecutive quarters of declining revenue.

Source