UNITED STATES - June 11: Sen. Charles Grassley, R-IA., and Sen. Amy Klobucher, D-MN., before the start of the full committee hearing on the nominations of B. Todd Jones to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and Stuart Delery to be assistant attorney general for the Civil Division at the Justice Department on June 11, 2013. (Photo By Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)

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What would $10,000 invested in Apple twenty years ago be worth today? Tick tock, tick tock. The answer is roughly $1.3 million.

The 13,142% return in Apple shares since 2006 absolutely begs for the attention of U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and others eager to pass the misguided American Innovation and Online Choice Act (AICOA). A focus on the stock price of Apple, along with Google and Meta, would potentially save the Senators from substantial legislative error.

To see why, contemplate the intent of AICOA. It’s an antitrust bill crafted to keep the largest digital platforms from allegedly abusing their market power. In particular, it focuses on "gatekeeper" companies that operate “dominant platforms” to prevent them from supposedly damaging would-be competitors. The conceit of the legislation is staggering.

It can be found not just in Apple’s remarkable performance since 2006. Consider Google’s shares. They’re up 1,700% over the same timeframe. Meta has been public since 2012, and its shares are up 1,664% since then.

What the returns are loudly conveying to the Senators is that few saw their success coming. The previous assertion isn’t a speculation, rather it’s a fact.

The simple, essential truth about stock markets is that they’re a look ahead. The returns of Apple, Google, and Meta over twenty, twenty, and fourteen years indicate that investors didn’t at all see just how much all three were poised to achieve.

That’s because investors never, ever wait to price in the future of a corporation if they already know it. The previous truth rates serious thought from Senators Klobuchar and Grassley. Their legislation quite aggressively aims to penalize Apple, Google and Meta for succeeding against long odds. Government shouldn’t be in the business of penalizing achievement.

Except there’s more. As evidenced yet again by the stock-price returns of the corporations mentioned, the present is a lousy predictor of the future. In truth, the present provides few clues as Apple, Google, and Meta yet again remind us. In other words, if Klobuchar and Grassley had introduced their legislation twenty years ago, they would have had completely different targets. Same with fourteen years ago.

What that tells us in 2026, and as Klobuchar and Grassley try to quickly ram through legislation meant to prosecute the present, is that AICOA is almost certainly looking backwards. In business, tomorrow is another century.

Importantly, we’re seeing this right now. Klobuchar and Grassley first introduced AICOA not in 2026, but on October 18, 2021. Think about the number. It’s telling. Exactly one year, one month, and twelve days after the Senators floated their legislation, ChatGPT was released. Get it?

The Senators seemingly do not, and that’s the problem. Just as no one saw Apple, Google and Meta coming, neither did they see ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or Gemini. Technology moves fast. Way too fast for backwards looking legislation that shouldn’t be allowed to pass.