Apple has more money than the US government

July 29, 2011 By Andrew Couts

The US Treasury officially has less liquidity than Apple Inc.

Here’s a frightening statistic: Apple Inc. now has more cash on hand than the entire United States federal government. As of Wednesday, July 27, the balance sheet for the US Treasury dipped down to $73.768 billion. That compares to the $76.156 billion Apple has in its deep coffers — a difference of $2.388 billion.

So, how in the name of all that’s good and fiscally responsible in this world did such a thing happen? A wide variety of individual factors are at play, here, of course. But it comes down to one basic fact: Apple makes more money than it spends, while the US government spends more than it generates in tax revenue. In other words, Apple is doing a really good job at running itself, while the federal government is not.

As you all surely know by now, Washington is stuck in a relentless gridlock over how to raise the national debt ceiling. If you haven’t yet grasped what the debt ceiling is, it works something like this: Imagine the entire US government pays its bills with a single credit card. Right now, that credit card is nearly maxed out. If the debt ceiling — the limit on our national credit card — isn’t raised by August 2, then the US won’t have enough incoming revenue to pay all of its bills.

The politicians disagree on how to go about fixing this problem, so they’ve let our cash coffers dwindle perilously low, which is basically how we got to the $73.768 billion number.

On the flip side, Apple is doing extraordinarily well. The iPhone maker brought in record profits in the third quarter of this year, about $5.5 billion, which has potentially set the Cupertino, California-based electronics giant on a path towards overtaking Exxon Mobile to become the largest corporation on the planet.

Unfortunately, we can’t ask Steve Jobs for a bailout — according to Fortune, the federal government blows through about $10 billion every day, so even Apple’s fat bank account would only last us about a week before we’d be back to square one.

Still, we can’t help but wish Jobs would consider a run for public office. He’s practically made for it — his entire political platform is right there in his last name.

Apple’s Q3 balance sheet snapshot:

US Treasury balance sheet:

Showing 25 comments

Nancy Wilkens at 5:08pm 31st July 2011 Maybe he can pay off the national debt ...
Nancy Wilkens at 5:08pm 31st July 2011 Can he now afford to give me a new Mac?
Lindsworth Horatio Deer at 12:11am 30th July 2011 CEO Steve Jobs Apple cart is loaded.....pun VERY much intended!!!
Roy Anthony Vann III at 7:59pm 29th July 2011 What wallmart no big boy no more? Awwwwwwww
Cameron Young at 7:12pm 29th July 2011 Ron Swanson approves of this.
Chris Johnson at 6:52pm 29th July 2011 Google's cash on hand and STI: 40 Billion, less then Microsoft, more than Apple.Wal Mart's cash on hand and STI: 10 Billion, not even in the running.
Mark Hermanson at 6:35pm 29th July 2011 ...I think you really meant Google has more money than the US government :-)
Roy Anthony Vann III at 6:22pm 29th July 2011 What you mean to say is even a company that's gonna be taken out by Google and Linux operating systems and is NOT the riches company in the world Wall mart is. So your basically saying small change corps have more money than the government. Wait till this country becomes the one place your shit don't sell then what!! Your gonna sell where?? China? Hahahahashahs
Srinivas Kumar Nunna at 6:14pm 29th July 2011 US Govt should start bulding economy then sending troops !!
Chris Johnson at 5:58pm 29th July 2011 I don't believe this is accurate: if you look at Apple's cash on hand in addition to their short term securities then Apple has about thirty billion on hand. When you start to look at their property, long term investments, deferred tax and all the other items on their asset sheet then that's correct.Microsoft is a bit closer to the Treasury's liquid with 55 Billion in cash and short term securities. When you factor in everything, Microsoft has about ten billion more than the U.S government on their Asset sheet.Factoids are fun! Granted, I'm not blaming DT because everyone is reporting this but I wish people would stop blowing smoke up Apple's ass and reporting on things that aren't true.Besides, I'm not sure what the point of the article is: Apple doesn't donate money, pay a dividend on their stock or anything else; the U.S Government does. That's like saying my friend who lives at home, doesn't pay his bills and his supported by his parents is in a better financial situation because his bank account is bigger than mine.
Plamen Dobrev at 5:46pm 29th July 2011 Don't worry... It will becime worrying when Microsoft starts having more money than them!!! Lol
Rachna Sharma at 5:45pm 29th July 2011 When is Obama sending troops at Apple then ;)
Patrick Thomas Perkins at 5:43pm 29th July 2011 Didn't they create an app for balancing the budget yet?
Mohit Gupta at 5:33pm 29th July 2011 That's a freakin amazing news to hear...!! Lol
Zach Wischler at 5:32pm 29th July 2011 jobs for president then?
Alice Harper at 5:29pm 29th July 2011 Perhaps the US Government could take lessons from Apple.....sign 'em up quick....we need relief from politicians!
Wendrich J. Montero at 5:28pm 29th July 2011 So logical!!!
Mariah Kiddo Bolton at 5:25pm 29th July 2011 so this means that apple should give money to our government lol
Geoffrey Shauger at 5:20pm 29th July 2011 Thanks for the lesson in accounting...a better lesson would be in how to vote out EVERY elected politician and replace the current parties.
Cathy Silva at 5:20pm 29th July 2011 Ilk
Ian Bell at 9:17am 29th July 2011 Keep in mind Andrew that Apple has not paid dividends to investors for quite some time either. A lot of companies do. They are simply hording the money they are making. Plain and simple.
1. Andrew Couts at 9:22am 29th July 2011 Good point, Ian. The government, on the other hand, has little choice but to pay out for what it owes, or face potentially disastrous economic consequences — which is exactly what all the debt ceiling hullabaloo is all about. Still, it doesn't change the fact that the Treasury has almost no money left, which is scary no matter how you shake it.
  1. Ian Bell at 9:24am 29th July 2011 Agreed. It's all about cash flow and the U.S. is simply spending more than it is receiving. The Bush tax cuts are running out soon, so that could help. And withdrawing from the war will help as well. Plus the stimulus package and bailout money were one time things too.
Trevor Whitlock at 8:54am 29th July 2011 Can we vote for Apple in 2012??
1. Ian Bell at 9:16am 29th July 2011 I hope not :P