system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is Apple just sitting on the largest capital in the world? Why not use it to invest, innovate, acquire etc.?
gpt
Taxes.

Apple makes a lot of money abroad, and through shifty tax minimization (mainly in Ireland, but a little bit in the Netherlands too) pay almost no tax on those earnings. If they wanted to repatriate that money to the US to put it to work they'd have to pay taxes on it.

They don't want to pay those taxes, so the money just sits.