Tech giants poised to weather coronavirus damage

Major tech companies are seeing demand skyrocket during the pandemic, positioning an already powerful industry to withstand the devastating effects of the coronavirus on the U.S. economy.

Sales are surging for many of the biggest names in tech as most Americans are under stay-at-home orders, making them more reliant on Silicon Valley’s services.

“Overall, the tech industry is extremely well positioned to be resilient and successful during this period,” said Eric Schiffer, CEO of the private investment firm Patriarch Equity. “One of the reasons is this global catastrophe that is translating into such economic pain is in many ways an inflection point for the further digitization of the world.”

“You’re seeing that reflected in the variance between the Nasdaq and the S&P — investors recognize it,” he added.

The Nasdaq composite, which includes many tech firms, has significantly outperformed broader indexes like the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average during the downturn. Next week, Wall Street will get its first glimpse at the growing strength of individual tech companies in the COVID-19 era, as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google report their quarterly earnings.

An opportunity to dull criticism: The resilience of big tech companies amid the coronavirus pandemic comes on the heels of growing backlash against Silicon Valley, dubbed the “techlash.”

While many lawmakers and regulatory officials at the state and local level have vowed to pursue antitrust and oversight just as strongly after the pandemic is over, this period has given companies a chance to improve their public image.

Apple and Google, for example, are developing a contact-tracing system that may prove essential to curbing the spread of the coronavirus, while Amazon is hiring at a time when unemployment across the country is surging.