From FAANG to MANGOS The Reconfiguration of Technology Value in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

This article will explore a major shift in the valuation of technology companies by investors, engineers, and enterprises. For over a decade, the excitement in the market has been focused on the companies that could attract human attention: the ones that could get people to use social media, streaming, search and online retail, which have been popularly known as the FAANGs Facebook (now Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet). A newer grouping, dubbed informally MANGOES, is comprised of companies that make the machinery of artificial intelligence and frontier technology, such as Meta, Anthropic, Nvidia, Google, OpenAI and SpaceX. The article examines the selling shovels in a gold rush paradigm and how value is shifting from consumer-facing platforms to the companies that provide the computing infrastructure, foundation models and advanced engineering. It examines the technical means for this change, the economic forces that support it, the societal advantages and disadvantages, and the strategic blunders of the current leadership. The discussion is designed to be easily understood by the public, but also to be analytically sound. The present moment is not the end of an era, but the beginning of another, and the article provides cautious advice on the mistakes to be avoided in the coming years by savvy decision makers.