The five hundred largest non-financial companies in the U.S. hold $994 billion in cash and short term investments, up about 8 percent from last year, according to an exclusive study conducted by The Wall Street Journal. Some of the largest tech companies like Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) have tens of billions on their balance sheets.
There is nothing new about corporations holding high cash balances during a recession, since companies want to maintain a buffer against falling sales and earnings losses. But it raises the question of what will happen to the cash as the economy recovers.
