Apple has spent $853 billion buying back its own stock since 2013 — enough to have purchased nearly any of the other 487 companies in the S&P 500. Tim Cook chose repurchases over acquisitions, retiring more than 44% of Apple’s shares in the process.
Apple has funneled $853 billion into share buybacks since 2013 rather than spending its cash reserves on acquisitions. That sum could have bought nearly any of the other 487 companies in the S&P 500. Instead, the company retired more than 44% of its own shares, lifting earnings per share and returning value to long-term holders.
A decade of relentless repurchases
The buying started small and scaled up fast. Apple spent $22.95 billion on buybacks in 2013, then climbed to $45 billion the next year. Annual repurchases reached $72.738 billion in 2018 and have stayed high since, climbing to $94.949 billion in 2024 and $90.711 billion in 2025. Through the fiscal second quarter of 2026, Apple has already bought back $36.989 billion more.
Why Cook leaned on buybacks
Tax policy helped drive the strategy. According to Sean Williams for The Motley Fool, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed in December 2017 lowered the peak marginal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, the lowest level since 1939. Retaining more earnings gave Apple room to repurchase stock without pulling money from research and development, which is why buybacks jumped in 2018. Williams also notes that share repurchases often incentivize long-term investing, which can minimize volatility.
The road not taken
The strategy did leave one door closed. Apple never pursued Tesla, whose year-end market value sat at just $18.51 billion in 2013 and $52.32 billion to $57.44 billion across 2017 and 2018, when Elon Musk reached out to Cook about a possible deal that Cook declined to discuss. Tesla’s value has since reached $1.496 trillion at the end of 2025 — a 7,982.12% climb from that 2013 figure. Apple’s own market value rose 702.88% from 2013 to 2025.
Source: Yahoo Finance
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