Two decades ago I learned an important lesson: if you can’t beat them, join. And if you can’t find a job at the Monopolies, you might as well invest in it!
Take what happened on September 1, 2025. I received an e -mail from Apple and said that my Apple TV+ monthly subscription went from $ 9.99 to $ 12.99. My first reaction was annoyance. Who wants to pay $ 3 a month extra for the same shows? Everything should be free, such as my weekly newsletter that helps readers to achieve financial freedom earlier!
But as a shareholder I was pumped. A price increase of 30% is enormous for profitability given the millions of Apple’s millions. I’m not going to unsubscribe because of an extra $ 3 a month. Then there are the price increases of the latest laptops and telephones. This is the type of price force that you only get if you have built a monopoly -like ecosystem.
The only logical thing I could think of after that e -mail? Buy more Apple stock.
For reference, a monopoly is a market structure where a single company or entity dominates the range of a certain product or service, giving it a considerable power to set up prices, to control distribution and limit competition. Because the entry thresholds are high – such as patents, exclusive resources, government regulation or pure scale benefits – the monopolist can retain a lot of large profit and price bending over time.
Cash treasures and large ecosystems
Traditionally, the shares of Apple sell off after its annual event where the new products reveal. The hype never completely corresponds to the elevated expectations of Wall Street, and the showcase of 2025 was no different. But Apple does not have to innovate the way we think, by launching world -change gadgets every year. Just repositioning the camera lens 1 millimeter is good enough!
The real ‘innovation’ is the ability of Apple to Customers and take a toll. The 30% committee of the App Store is the perfect example. If you are a developer and you want your app to succeed, you have no choice but to be in the Apple ecosystem. And Apple knows this. The iPhone, Mac, iPad, AirPods, Watch – all these hardware products feed in one sticky universe with recurring income. Once you get inside, you don’t leave.
That is why Apple will only continue to dominate. As an investor, Apple gambles against supernormal profit.
Google’s monopoly also looks good
Then there is Google, another monopoly -like Juggernaut. Google pays Apple $ 20+ billion a year To be the standard search engine in Safari. Imagine that. How can another search engine compete when Google buys the pole position on the most valuable and popular devices in the world?
Google still recommends around 90% of the global search market, and that dominance remains unmissed despite the rise of AI LLMS. To my dismay, Google now lifts the content of the publisher and shows it again in its AI overviews, making it even more difficult for publishers to capture valuable search traffic.
In September 2025, Google was spared the worst possible judgment in its historical antitrust case. Judge Amit Mehta ruled that, although Google cannot conclude exclusive agreements with companies, it can still pay to pay partners such as Apple to distribute its services. Translation: Google can continue to send dozens of billions to Apple and Apple can continue to cash in the checks.
That is a win-win for both companies and their shareholders. It can even be a victory for Judge Mehta and his extensive family, wink wink. If so, Judge Mehta must practice Stealth -Rijkdom instead of suddenly driving around in a Lambo and throwing parties in a new country house.
How many companies can compete at this level?
Only a small handful of companies in the world has the financial firepower to play at this level.
The only company that could theoretically compete is Microsoft, with Bing, which nobody cares about. If Microsoft ever decides to go and offer bananas and offer against Google, we may see the annual payment of Apple in the range of $ 30 – $ 40 billion. That is more than the annual GDP of some small countries.
From the point of view of an investor you root for these bidding wars. As long as Apple remains the gatekeeper of the world’s most coveted user base, it is paid.
And as history has shown, supervisors and courts rarely break apart such a deep -rooted dominance. If you have enough scale, money and influence, you can Bend politics and policy to your advantage.
Strategically, Google has to spend more on politicians, rather than $ 20 – $ 30 million a year in lobbying, to protect his monopoly and to win even further.
The winners continue to win
This dynamic is not limited to companies. It is the same in personal finances.
Think about the rich person in 2010 who had had $ 10 million in barking assets. If that person would just plow it all in the S&P 500 and re -invested dividends, they would be nearby $ 57 million todayAssuming that the S&P 500 will close 10% in 2025. They have become a semi-human monopoly-in is to buy influence, offer multi-generational wealth and to protect benefits that most people can only dream of.
Now compare that with someone who bought too much at home in 2006, was protected in 2010 and was declared bankrupt. Instead of combining millions, they ended up with a negative net value and a creditworthiness in roofs for seven years. Just like the small competitor trying, they are the market share of Apple or Google. The gap only broadens with time. The most important strategy is to ever sell to Apple or Google, not to compete with it.
Just like companies, people who already have the resources continue to go forward. The snowball effect is real.
Human Monopolies and Duopolies
That is why I think that investors should focus more attention on monopoly-like and oligopoly-like companies. If the government does not stop them – and history suggests that it rarely does that – you might as well benefit.
Openi And AnthropicFor example, the two emerging giants are in large language models. Although both are private for the time being, their oligopoly structure is already, together with Lama and Gemini.
In consumer products, Coca-Cola and Pepsi Dominate global soft drinks in a classic duop oil. If you believe that despite the health risks, the world will continue to slurice sugar -rich drinks, these shares are logical.
In payments, Visa and Mastercard Form another deep -rooted oligopoly. If you think that consumers will continue to spend their resources and paying double digits of interest rates for running credit, possessing these companies is a rational choice.
The pattern is clear: these deep -rooted players can become bigger and more profitable, while supervisors look the other way. Politicians often have shares in the monopolies they should regulate.
So why wouldn’t you do that?
Adjust or perish
Of course, disruption is always possible. OpenAi and Anthropic have already removed Betes from Google’s search activities, because more people rely on answers generated by AI. This is another reason why I decided Invest in both OpenAI and Anthropic Like a hedge.
But disruption does not eliminate the monopolistic dynamics – it just shifts it. Today’s Upstart is the deep -rooted winner of tomorrow. For the time being, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Visa and Mastercard still have a strong control.
Companies adapt. Investors have to do that too. The alternative is irrelevance.
My investment philosophy in the future
For the average person, investing in a cheap S&P 500 ETF continues to be the simplest and most effective strategy for building wealth. But if you read financial samurai, you probably care more about money than most. As a result, you are willing to strategically think about how you can tilt the opportunities to your advantage.
That’s why I like to build concentrated To select Monopolies and Oligopolies within your portfolio. These are the companies that will probably generate the most consistent profit, exercise the most price force and yield the strongest return over time. When these companies inevitably correct, I will buy the dip.
Yes, complain about injustice if you want. Yes, worry about inequality. But at the end of the day, when it is legal and profitable, the rational investor joins the winning side. Because if you can’t beat them, you might as well invest in it.
That is not cynicism. That is survival.
Readers, do you invest in Monopolies and Oligopolies as part of your strategy? Or perhaps startups that can be taken over by them one day? I would like to hear your perspective – why do you think the government and courts are not more proactive to break out these giants because of the consumer?
Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. I just share what I do with my own money. Please do your own examination, only invest what you understand and never risk more than you can afford to lose. All investments bear risk and your decisions are yours alone.
Subscribe to Financial Samurai
Grab a copy of my USA Today National Bestseller, Millaire milestones of millionaire: simple steps to seven digits. I have distilled financial experience for more than 30 years to help you build more wealth than 94% of the population – and to break faster.
Listen and subscribe to the Podcast Financial Samurai Apple or Spotify. I interview experts in their respective areas and discuss some of the most interesting topics on this site. Your shares, ratings and reviews are appreciated.
To accelerate your journey to financial freedom, join more than 60,000 others and subscribe to the Free Financial Samurai -newsletter. You can also get my messages in your e-mail inbox as soon as they pass register here. Financial Samurai is one of the greatest independent ownership of personal financial websites, founded in 2009. Everything is written on the basis of experience and expertise.
#Invest #Monopolies #advantage #win #resistance #meaningless