The technology stock market has been anything but a safe bet ever since mid-November when the stretch run for 2021 started. Fears about inflation and rising interest rates drove investors away from software and internet businesses, pushing scores of former outperformers into retirement. correction territory.

Despite the selling-off and The volatilityInvestors have invested a lot of money in specific stories and companies across a wide range of tech industries. The demand for high-speed processors, which can speed cryptocurrency mining and help game development, exploded this year in certain parts of the semiconductor market.

There were many standouts in Fintech, cybersecurity and cloud software, even though they all had their own share. buying basketsHolding those stocks for one year wouldn’t have made it a very profitable investment.

These are five U.S.-based tech companies that have a value of $5 billion or greater. This list does not include companies that have gone public in the past year. These prices were correct at the close of business on Thursday.

If UpstartIt held onto its stock market debutIn mid-December last year the company was worth approximately $1.5 million. One year later, the company is valued at $12 billion.

Upstart shares have increased 264% over the past year, with a 171% increase since 2021. wild three-day stretchIn March

Machine learning is used to provide consumer loans. The technology can be shared with banking partners to better serve customers.

In the Revenue third quarterUpstart’s revenues soared by 250% to $228 Million. Upstart’s rapid growth is accompanied by a unique offering to investors: profit. Upstart’s earnings have increased by 54% in five quarters. The latest quarter saw net income at $29.1 Million, an increase of 97% from the previous year.

Upstart announced in November its earnings conference that it provides technology services for 31 banks and credit cooperatives. This is an increase of 10 from a year earlier. The company made 362,780 loans in the third quarter, an increase of 244% over the previous year.

David Girouard CEO stated that his company has moved beyond personal and automobile loans into small-dollar loans designed for customers with urgent cash needs.

“Our bank partners rightly feel pressured to better serve low-to-moderate income Americans, and we want to help them do that right,” Girouard said. We hope to make the product available to the public before 2022 because of the high interest from credit union and bank partners in it.

SynapticsIt was established in 1986, and it went public sixteen years later. Investors started to get excited about the stock in 2020, but it was not until then. The stock soared 189% in 2018!

Synaptics began in Silicon Valley and developed scrollpads and touchpads that could be used to access biometrics. Synaptics’ touch technology gained popularity among smartphones. Synaptics now has more devices that act like computers and is at the heart of the Internet of Things boom.

Its technology is used in connected cars and virtual reality headsets. This company focuses on wireless devices that consume low power.

“We’ve done really really well with that business — it’s outperformed our best expectations,” CEO Michael Hurlston told CNBC’s Jim CramerIn July. I believe it is because we did not pursue what everyone was after. The company was repositioned in order to pursue an intriguing market which turned out to prove to be a tremendous grower.

Synaptics had completed earlier this month its $549 million acquisitionDSP Group is a provider of voice processing and wireless chipsets.

It peaks in November mid-November AsanaThe stock soared almost fivefold in the last year. This was far more than any other U.S. tech stocks. Since then it has lost nearly half of its value, along with a number other cloud-software stocks.

This software provider that assists sales and marketing teams to manage projects remotely has a 164% increase in revenue for 2021. Its growth is primarily due to a 70% annualized revenue growth in the second and three quarters.

Asana, like Upstart went public in 2020It took some time for investors to organize the coming-out party. Dustin Moskovitz (the company’s co-founder, billionaire CEO) has been buying along the way.

Moskovitz purchased $293 Million worth of Asana Shares in December. He took advantage of the dip for a boost to his stock. About 44% now control the combined class A and B shares of Asana, compared to 36% prior. New York Stock Exchange debut in September 2020.

Asana’s future success and growth is dependent on the conversion of free customers to paying customers. Asana’s third quarter earnings report was released earlier this month. It reported that the number of paying customers increased by more than 7,000 to 114,000, and that revenue from customers spending over $5,000 annually rose 96% in comparison to a year prior.

Two consecutive quarters with revenue growth exceeding 30% FortinetIt is expanding at its fastest pace since 2016 There has been a flurry ransomware attacksFortinet’s technology was also in high demand due to the complex security environment created this year by remote workers.

The shares are now up 133% and closed Thursday night at $349.02. The company has now surpassed rivals in market capitalization, rising to $57 billion. Palo Alto NetworksThe company is now valued at $55billion after its stock rose 58% by 2021.

Follow Fortinet’s excellent performance. earnings reportWedbush raised its price target to $400, from $350 due to an optimistic forecast. According to the firm, one reason was that company’s free cash flow jumped from $185.7 million to $329.8m a year prior.

According to the Wedbush analysts who maintained their stock buy recommendation, “In a Nutshell, Billings growth upside and strong FCF should be the three-pronged combination that will drive this stock higher.”

Chipmaker NvidiaThe stock was the most profitable mega-cap tech stock. Its shares rose 127% to $741 million in 2021. That’s seventh most market capital among U.S. technology companies. Tesla.

Nvidia’s highly-performance graphics processor units continue to be in high demand, with revenue increasing by more than 50% each quarter. Nvidia’s technology is used in data centers to support artificial intelligence and other data-intensive tasks, but gaming systems still require more processing power.

Nvidia introduced new processors earlier this year specifically designed for cryptocurrency mining. Nvidia has generated $526million in revenues so far. However, crypto continues to prove volatile. According to the company, sales of its products reached $526 million last month. plunged 60%They will be sequentially occurring from the second to third quarters and “very negligible” in the fourth quarter.

Investors don’t seem to be worried. Nvidia gaming processors, Nvidia’s core business, had a revenue of $2.76B, an increase 106% over last year. This led to the stock rising more than 8.8% following the earnings report.

Piper Sandler’s analysts said that “we continue to believe [the company]’s long-term prospect are some of the most promising in the semiconductor sector,” after reporting third-quarter results. They kept their Buy rating, and increased their price target to $350 (from $260).

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