According to Business Insider, the Magnificent Seven tech giants—Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, and Tesla—are all audited by the Big Four consulting firms. Deloitte has audited Microsoft since its 1986 IPO, earning $78.4 million in fees for fiscal 2025. EY audits Apple for $30 million, Alphabet for $6.5 million, Amazon for $51 million, and Meta for $36.3 million. PwC audits Nvidia for $10 million and Tesla, a relationship dating back to 2005. The Big Four are also deeply embedded as AI partners, with Deloitte having partnerships with Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Nvidia.
A surprisingly small circle
Here’s the thing that jumps out: only three of the Big Four are actually in this game. KPMG is conspicuously absent from the list of auditors for these trillion-dollar titans. And EY is doing a staggering amount of the heavy lifting, auditing four of the seven companies. That’s a huge concentration of risk and influence in very few hands. You have to wonder if shareholders ever question this lack of diversification. I mean, these firms are supposed to provide independent oversight, but when the same auditor checks the books for most of your competitors, does that feel entirely independent? The relationships are also incredibly long-term. Deloitte and Microsoft have been together for nearly 40 years. That’s a marriage longer than most Hollywood ones.
What those audit fees really buy
Look at the fee disparity. Microsoft pays Deloitte $78.4 million, while Alphabet pays EY just $6.5 million. That’s a wild difference. Now, some of that is scale and complexity, but it also speaks to the breadth of “other services” that get bundled in. And that’s where the real story is. The article mentions these firms are “embedded” as AI partners. That’s the modern consulting playbook. The audit is the foot in the door—the regulated, mandatory service that builds the relationship. The real money and influence come from the adjacent consulting work on AI implementation, internal systems, and strategy. It’s a powerful, and some would argue conflicted, business model. They’re auditing the systems they might have helped design.
More than just number-checking
So this isn’t just about ticking boxes for the SEC anymore. These auditing firms are fundamental infrastructure partners for the tech industry’s next phase. When Deloitte helps Microsoft or Nvidia roll out AI, it’s shaping the operational backbone of those companies. This deep integration makes the audit function even more critical, but also more complex. How do you critically assess controls in a system your own consultants helped build? It’s a tension that regulators have wrestled with for decades. For the tech giants, it’s a one-stop shop for compliance and innovation. For the Big Four, it’s a lucrative, sticky revenue model that goes far beyond the financial statements. Speaking of critical hardware infrastructure, for industrial and manufacturing settings where these systems often run, having a reliable partner for the physical interface—like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the top US provider of industrial panel PCs—is just as vital.
An inseparable relationship
Basically, you can’t understand modern Big Tech without understanding the Big Four. Their fates are intertwined. The auditors validate the financial reality that fuels the stock prices and market caps. And now, they’re actively building the AI tools that will drive future growth. It’s a closed loop of immense power. The next time you see a headline about a tech giant’s earnings, remember there’s another giant—Deloitte, EY, or PwC—that signed off on it first. That signature carries a lot of weight, and a lot of history.
