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Tech investors pour money into Amazon, AT&T, Microsoft

John Shinal
Special for USA TODAY
Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

SAN FRANCISCO— Investors got behind Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' push into yet more markets and AT&T's consolidation of the North American telecom industry in the second quarter, based on the stock performance of the 20 most valuable tech companies.

As measured by its stock-price surge over the last three months, tech investors also showed more confidence in Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Amazon AMZN shares rose 15%, the most among the largest tech stocks, as Bezos has expanded Amazon's offerings beyond books, music and movies to original TV shows and groceries, while also raising the bar on delivery with its Amazon Prime service.

If the Seattle-based company can lobby its way past federal aviation rules, Amazon drone delivery won't be far behind.

Amazon shot past Verizon VZ, AT&T T, Oracle ORCL and Samsung in market capitalization, making it the sixth most-valuable tech company.

With a market worth of $202 billion, Amazon is now only slightly smaller than No. 5 Alibaba BABA, as the value of the Chinese Internet giant slipped 2.5% to $207 billion.

Shares of AT&T climbed 9% during the period after the No. 2 U.S. wireless provider completed the acquisition of Nextel Mexico and moved closer to gobbling up DirectTV.

The Dallas-based giant now has a market value of $185 billion, making it the ninth-most valuable tech firm and drawing AT&T almost even with its largest rival, Verizon.

New York-based Verizon's shares fell 4% in the quarter, leaving it with a market cap of $190 billion, or seventh-most valuable.

Chinese Internet upstart Tencent cracked the Top 10 for the first time, while U.S. firms Qualcomm, Oracle ORCL, Google GOOG and Korea's Samsung were among the biggest losers during the quarter.

Among the gainers, meanwhile, Microsoft's shares also rose 9% as investors bought into Nadella's push into mobile services and Internet-based, or cloud, computing.

Its market value rose to $358 billion, edging it past Google and placing Microsoft a distant second after Apple, whose stock market value ended the quarter essentially where it began, at $723 billion.

The Nasdaq Composite Index crept 1% higher during that time.

Tencent shares gained 5%, making it the eighth-most valuable tech firm at $189 billion, as the market for its ecommerce and messaging services in China grew.

Facebook FB also rose 5%, keeping it the fourth-most valuable tech firm at $240 billion in market cap, as its sales of video ads soar.

Google's shares, meanwhile, fell 5% in the period, sliding the Internet search giant into third on the list, at $356 billion.

It was the third time in four quarters that Google and Microsoft have switched places on the list, suggesting tech investors aren't sure whose business is more valuable.

Oracle shares lost 6% after its latest financial report lagged expectations, dropping it to No. 10 on the list at $175 billion.

Shares of Samsung, meanwhile, fell 9%, dropping it out of the Top 10, on worries that slower-than-expected sales of its new Samsung Galaxy S5 could hurt profits this year.

20 Largest Tech Firms by Market Cap.

1. Apple, $723B

2. Microsoft, $358B

3. Google, $356B

4. Facebook, $240B

5. Alibaba, $207B

6. Amazon, $202B

7. Verizon, $190B

8. Tencent, $189B

9. AT&T, $185B

10. Oracle, $175B

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11. Samsung, $169B

12. IBM, $160B

13. Intel, $144B

14. Cisco, $140B

15. Taiwan Semi. Mftrg, $118B

16. Qualcomm, $102B

17. Vodafone, $97B

18. SAP, $84B

19. EBAY, $73B

20. BIDU, $70B

John Shinal has covered tech and financial markets for more than 15 years at Bloomberg, BusinessWeek,The San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal Digital Network and others. Follow him on Twitter: @johnshinal .

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