Indeed, both Zoom and Tesla have multiplied their market caps this year, growth that outstrips every single company in the NASDAQ 100 (a popular index of large-cap stocks that includes tech’s biggest firms). [Read: Civil unrest pushes US gun stocks to outpace tech’s biggest companies] Zoom, the free video conferencing app that rose to prominence as COVID-19 spread across the world, started the year with a $18.99 billion market cap. That number has since tripled to breach $61 billion, sending Zoom’s market value beyond the likes of Activision Blizzard, Baidu, eBay, and Electronic Arts. As for vehicle maker Tesla, its market cap was just $77.9 billion when 2020 began — well below the $100 billion average Musk would need to unlock his first payday worth $780 million. Of course, Tesla would go on to pump, crash, and pump some more. During early trade Thursday, the company’s market value was a touch over $165 billion, doubling in 2020 (and then some). This places Tesla ahead of telecoms giant T-Mobile, chipset manufacturer QUALCOMM, and even world-popular coffee guru Starbucks. And as for which firms have lost the most: the NASDAQ 100’s bottom five (in terms of market cap growth) consists of travel stocks United Airlines and Marriott (-55% and -33%); cloud computing firm NetApp (-30%); storage device prince Western Digital (-30%); and retail lord Walgreen Boots (-27%). Booking portals Trip.com and Expedia were next, having respectively lost 24% and 21% from their market values in 2020. As for Zoom, the firm’s next trick will be to justify that newly-found market value, especially as world government’s begin to ease coronavirus restrictions. Remember: it’s only June. Considering how volatile the stock market has been this year, it’s certainly not too late for the company to suddenly undo all of its miraculous growth.
