The final week of July provided a striking snapshot of some of the biggest tech companies in the United States and the influence they hold in it.

A day after the heads of Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook came under aggressive questioning from members of Congress as part of an investigation looking into their market size and power, all four posted strong earnings in the second quarter of 2020, even as the U.S. economy recorded one of its worst periods on record.

Each company beat Wall Street’s expectations, posting earnings growth that separated it from many industries harmed by the coronavirus pandemic and illustrating just how dominant the companies' positions are in the greater economy.

Here are five takeaways from the earnings:

$250 billion added to market value

The four companies reported a combined $205 billion in revenue and $28 billion in profits in the second quarter. The earnings helped their combined market value jump by $250 billion, according to Bloomberg News.

Apple reported $59.7 billion in net sales, marking a 17 percent bump in year over year growth in what was its third fiscal quarter of the year. Facebook reported $18.7 billion in revenue, an 11 percent increase from the same time period in 2019. Amazon experienced the most seismic growth, reporting $88.9 billion in net sales, which amounted to a 40 percent year over year increase.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, reported $38.3 billion in revenue, representing the first time since it went public that it experienced a dip in earnings. Alphabet revenue declined by 2 percent compared to the same period in 2019. Still, the figure surpassed analysts’ expectations, which predicted significant drops in advertising spending due to the health crisis.

The strong three-month performances appeared to signal how integral the services and products the four companies provide are to the public — including during a pandemic that has kept many people at home more.

Read the full article on The Hill.