Tech Giants Invest Billions to Disrupt the Healthcare and Insurance Industries
Major technology companies spend billions on healthcare acquisitions as they seek to modernize a slow-moving industry. Alphabet and Amazon lead the charge by targeting health insurance and using artificial intelligence to transform patient care.
The top ten tech companies in the U.S. spend a combined $4.7 billion on healthcare acquisitions since 2012, showing a consistent year-on-year increase in deals. Major players like Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Samsung, and Uber all explore health-related ventures ranging from data-collecting wearables to specialized patient transport services. This massive financial investment highlights a growing trend of technology firms targeting the traditionally slow-paced medical sector.
Alphabet currently stands out as the most active tech investor in U.S. healthcare through its subsidiaries Verily and DeepMind. These divisions focus on using artificial intelligence to tackle disease through advanced data generation, early detection, and promoting positive lifestyle modifications. Additionally, Alphabet makes substantial financial investments in Oscar, Clover, and Collective Health, which are all innovative companies aiming to disrupt the traditional health insurance market.
Amazon also makes aggressive moves into the medical space by acquiring the internet pharmacy startup PillPack and filing a patent for Alexa to detect colds and coughs. The e-commerce giant develops an internal project named Hera that uses electronic medical records to identify incorrect diagnoses. Furthermore, Amazon partners with Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan on an employer health initiative, serving as a strategic tactic to understand health insurance using workers as beta-testers before a potential public expansion.