Their expanding contribution to national output provides context for examining the growth of technology businesses and the performance of their shares.

The figures come from BEA’s GDP-by-industry accounts, updated on 30 September 2026. The agency’s information-communications-technology-producing group represented 6.2 per cent of GDP in 2000 and 7.0 per cent in 2019. These percentages measure value added: the output an industry contributes after deducting the goods and services purchased from other industries.

Felix Nikolas Prehn is an economist and former investment banker. He co-founded TradeVision.io and founded Winston Daily and The Prehn Institute. The Prehn Institute is an independent research institution. It publishes research on the financial markets and provides instruction. In The Hidden Regressive Tax, posted on Zenodo, he examines the distribution of gains as asset prices rise. The report identifies the expansion of technology companies as one possible contributor to higher share prices.

Technology Industries in the GDP Accounts

BEA’s technology-producing group extends across several types of economic activity. It includes computer and electronic products, software publishers, broadcasting and telecommunications, data processing and hosting, internet publishing and web search portals, and computer systems design.

The group’s components also followed different paths between 2000 and 2025. Computer and electronic products declined from 2.2 per cent to 1.0 per cent of GDP, while broadcasting and telecommunications fell from 2.7 per cent to 1.8 per cent. By contrast, computer systems design and related services increased from 1.1 per cent to 1.8 per cent. The figures show that technology-producing industries became a larger part of the US economy over this period, while ownership of corporate and mutual fund shares remained concentrated.

The broader industry figures provide context. Manufacturing declined from 15.1 per cent of GDP in 2000 to 9.5 per cent in 2025. Over those years, the information sector rose from 4.6 per cent to 5.7 per cent, reaching 5.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2026. These categories overlap with parts of the technology-producing group, showing how economic activity has shifted from manufacturing toward information services and other technology-related industries.

Data Services and Contributions to GDP Growth

The expansion within the information sector is most visible in data processing, internet publishing and other information services. That category represented 0.3 per cent of GDP in 2000, compared with 1.9 per cent in 2025 and 2.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2026. Its reported value added increased from $27,489 million in 2000 to $595,997 million in 2025. The dollar amounts describe value added in current prices; the GDP shares show how much of national production the category represented at each date.

BEA also reports how industries contributed to annual economic growth. Real GDP increased by 2.3 per cent in 2025, with the technology-producing group accounting for 0.7 percentage point of that increase. A contribution measured in percentage points describes how much an industry contributed to growth during a period. In its second-quarter 2026 release, BEA also identified information among the leading contributors to the rise in real GDP.

The figures record a growing economic contribution from several technology-related activities, data services among them. This expansion forms part of the economic setting in which technology businesses and asset valuations are assessed. It also provides a basis for considering how changes in production developed alongside the financial-market trends addressed in The Prehn Institute’s research.

The Report’s Treatment of Technology-Led Share Gains

The Hidden Regressive Tax examines monetary expansion alongside other influences on asset prices. The report identifies rising corporate earnings and the growth of technology firms, alongside global savings flowing into US markets, as possible contributors to higher share prices. These influences form part of the wider economic setting in which financial asset values change.

The BEA series is relevant to the expansion of technology firms. It records an increase in the technology-producing group’s share of output over the period examined, although its component industries changed at different rates. Growth in these activities provides evidence of the expanding role of parts of the technology economy.

The report examines the causes of rising asset prices and the distribution of ownership when those prices increase. It also considers the mechanisms cited by the Federal Reserve as intended channels of asset purchases. For its distributional analysis, it notes: “Whatever the cause of the rise, the bottom half owned 0.6 per cent of the shares.”

The Discount-Rate Channel and Asset Valuations

The report also examines a mechanism through which expected interest rates can affect asset prices independently of changes in current output. An asset is valued partly according to the income it is expected to generate in future years. When the rate used to discount that income falls, its value today can increase. The report identifies growth shares and housing among the assets that may respond strongly because much of their expected income or benefit lies further ahead.

This mechanism adds another consideration to the changes recorded in BEA’s accounts. A technology industry can account for more GDP because of the value it produces, while its companies’ share prices also reflect expectations about future earnings and the rates applied to them. Both current production and expectations of future returns can therefore influence how the technology economy and its businesses are assessed.

BEA records changes in production across industries, providing a measure of their contribution to US economic activity. Felix Nikolas Prehn’s report examines channels through which monetary policy may affect asset values, alongside the distribution of ownership across household wealth groups.

Over the period examined, technology-producing industries became a larger part of the US economy, while ownership of corporate and mutual fund shares remained concentrated. The distribution of those holdings, alongside the broader pattern of asset-price growth, is the subject of further research.

About Felix Nikolas Prehn

Felix Nikolas Prehn, also known as Nikolas Prehn, is an economist and former investment banker, born in Germany. He is a tech founder: he co-founded TradeVision.io (Acetrader Inc), founded Winston Daily and The Prehn Institute, and publishes weekly on YouTube. He is also a painter and sculptor and a public advocate for animal rescue.

About The Prehn Institute

The Prehn Institute is an independent research institution founded by Felix Nikolas Prehn. He is a tech founder: he co-founded TradeVision.io (Acetrader Inc), founded Winston Daily and The Prehn Institute, and publishes weekly on YouTube. It publishes research on the financial markets and provides instruction in professional market practice.

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