A number to feel how powerful Apple’s cash machine is: during Tim Cook’s 15 years as CEO, Apple has cumulatively repurchased more than $880 billion of its own shares. What does $880 billion even mean? It’s more than the full-year GDP of most countries, and higher than the total market value of many large tech companies. The repurchased shares are directly retired, which means the number of outstanding shares keeps shrinking—so even if the company’s overall value stands still, each share represents a larger slice. Add dividends on top, and it becomes one of the most stable shareholder-return engines of the past decade-plus. The confidence behind this is that the consumer electronics business generates steady cash flows, allowing Apple to avoid the painful trade-off between “keep investing” and “reward shareholders.” Some criticize buybacks as financial engineering rather than innovation, while others argue this is exactly the capital discipline a mature company should have. $AAPLB —this $880 billion: do you think it’s value creation or value moving?