Ibiden earns most of its operating income from substrates, the small boards that connect a chip to the rest of a server, and buyers want those for AI chips faster than the industry can make them. Watch whether its electronics operating margin holds near 29% as rivals add capacity.
Apple earns most of its revenue from iPhones and other devices, and much of its gross profit from Services, such as App Store fees and subscriptions, sold to the owners of those devices. Watch the products gross margin as memory chip prices rise, and Services revenue growth.
Intel earns its profit by selling chips for data centers and PCs, and loses much of that profit in Intel Foundry, the business that runs Intel's factories. Watch Intel Foundry's revenue from outside customers against its operating loss.
Tesla earns most of its gross profit by selling cars and is spending a growing share of that profit on research into self-driving cars, Optimus robots and the AI chips that run both. Watch the automotive gross margin alongside deliveries, and compare R&D spending with gross profit.
Amazon earns most of its operating income from AWS, which rents computing to other companies, while its store keeps a thin share of each sale. Watch AWS sales growth against the contracts customers have signed, capital spending against cash from operations, and North America's operating margin.
Alphabet earns most on search ads, and its fastest-growing profit comes from renting out computing that it must build first. Watch paid clicks and cost per click in Search, and Google Cloud's operating margin as depreciation rises.
SK hynix earns on the gap between the price of memory and its cost per bit, a gap that widens when buyers want more memory than the makers can supply. Watch DRAM average selling price against DRAM bit shipments.
Visa earns a small fee on each payment its network carries between a shopper's bank and a shop's bank, and a growing share of its revenue from services it sells to banks and merchants. Watch whether cross-border volume grows faster than payments volume.
Spotify earns on the share of each subscription it keeps after paying record labels, music publishers and other rights holders. Watch the gross margin, and whether price increases raise what each subscriber pays.
On October 20, 2026, Netflix reported third-quarter revenue of $12.9 billion, up 11.8% from a year earlier and in line with its forecast. Content amortization was $4.2 billion, up 5.8%.
TSMC reported results on October 15, 2026. Revenue was US$46.72 billion, above the top of the US$44.6–45.8 billion guidance range. The gross margin was 66.4%, inside the guided range.
Disney earns on characters from its films and shows, through theme parks, hotels, cruise ships and consumer products. Watch whether US park attendance and spending per guest grow, and whether the streaming operating margin rises.
How Companies Make Money
Coca-Cola earns mostly on the concentrate it sells to bottlers, at a price that rises with what the bottlers charge. Watch whether the number of drinks sold grows along with what Coca-Cola collects per case.
How Companies Make Money
McDonald's earns mostly on the rent and royalties that franchisees pay as a share of their sales. Watch US comparable sales, and whether the number of guests grows.
How Companies Make Money
Eli Lilly earns on selling far more doses of one compound, tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound), at lower prices while its patent is in force. Watch whether volume grows faster than price falls.
How Companies Make Money
Netflix earns when revenue grows faster than the cost of the new shows it must keep making or licensing. Watch whether revenue grows faster than content amortization, the yearly charge for those shows.
How Companies Make Money
Costco earns on the fee members pay to shop there. Watch whether paid members keep growing and the renewal rate stays steady.
How Companies Make Money
TSMC earns on building the most advanced chips at a yield almost no rival can match. Watch the gross margin.
How Companies Make Money
Nvidia sells chips, but it earns on CUDA, the software that makes its chips hard to leave. Watch whether the gross margin holds once chip supply meets demand.
How Companies Make Money
What a company sells is almost never what it earns on. Once you can see that gap, the business world stops looking like a thousand separate puzzles and starts to look like a handful of shapes that keep repeating.