Silicon Valley Has Lost Its Biggest Advantage
TechnologySilicon Valley Has Lost Its Biggest AdvantageIn the data-center age, the business of tech companies is more like oil-refining than coding.By Matteo WongIllustration by The Atlantic. Source: Andrew Merry / Getty.July 18, 2026, 7:30 AM ET ShareSave The AI boom has showered some of the nation’s most prominent companies in market value. OpenAI and Anthropic are now the two most valuable private companies in the world.
- ▪TechnologySilicon Valley Has Lost Its Biggest AdvantageIn the data-center age, the business of tech companies is more like oil-refining than coding.By Matteo WongIllustration by The Atlantic.
- ▪Source: Andrew Merry / Getty.July 18, 2026, 7:30 AM ET ShareSave The AI boom has showered some of the nation’s most prominent companies in market value.
- ▪OpenAI and Anthropic are now the two most valuable private companies in the world.
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TechnologySilicon Valley Has Lost Its Biggest AdvantageIn the data-center age, the business of tech companies is more like oil-refining than coding.By Matteo WongIllustration by The Atlantic. Source: Andrew Merry / Getty.July 18, 2026, 7:30 AM ET ShareSave The AI boom has showered some of the nation’s most prominent companies in market value. OpenAI and Anthropic are now the two most valuable private companies in the world. Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia have become larger than ever. But among the biggest winners has been Caterpillar, a purveyor of yellow trucks and cranes. Caterpillar’s stock has more than doubled in value over the past year, making the company worth six times as much as Nike.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Atlantic.
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