America’s Intangible Economy and the Value of Scarcity: A CGPH Banque d’Affaires Perspective

“Ninety percent.”It’s not just a number—it’s the estimated share of intangible assets that make up the total value of companies in the S&P 500 today, according to analysis by Tej Parikh in the Financial Times. Fifty years ago, that figure was dominated by physical assets—factories, machinery, inventory.

Over the past few decades, the U.S. economy has undergone a structural transformation: from a world built on tangible capital to one where value increasingly resides in scalable, synergistic, network-driven intangible assets.

From Physical Capital to the Age of Intangibles

Data from the World Intellectual Property Organization shows that U.S. investment in intangible assets overtook tangible investment in the late 1990s, and the gap has continued to widen.

By 2024, intangible investment reached $4.7 trillion—nearly double the combined total of France, Germany, the U.K., and Japan.

These assets share distinctive traits:

• Near-zero marginal costs: Once code is written, replication costs are negligible.

• Network effects: Each new user increases value, reinforcing competitive moats (think Amazon’s marketplace or Apple’s iOS).

• Winner-takes-all dynamics: First movers can grow exponentially, locking in market dominance.

Market Concentration and America’s New “Exceptionalism”

The Financial Times notes that the top 10 stocks now account for 40% of the S&P 500’s market cap and 33% of its total profits.

This concentration is fueled by the so-called Magnificent 7—Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, and Tesla—firms built on digital platforms, algorithms, and vast datasets, now leveraging artificial intelligence as a growth engine.

Compared to other developed markets, the MSCI US index allocates 20 percentage points more to “new economy” sectors like technology and healthcare, and an equivalent amount less to traditional capital-intensive industries. The result: widening performance gaps in growth, earnings, and valuations—gaps that, as Parikh points out, could grow even larger.

Volatility, Valuation, and the Blind Spots of Accounting

Intangible-heavy companies tend to finance growth with internal capital or equity rather than debt, as intangible assets are harder to pledge as collateral. They are also more sensitive to interest rates, given that much of their value rests on future cash flows.

From a valuation standpoint, the market appears expensive using conventional metrics like P/E and P/B ratios—but that’s partly a distortion of accounting standards. Many sources of intangible value—branding, organizational capital, in-house training—are expensed rather than capitalized, meaning book values understate true worth.

The WIPO estimates that “unmeasured intangibles” in the U.S. total $2.7 trillion. If included in GDP, they would have added 0.2 percentage points to average labor productivity growth between 2010 and 2024.

The CGPH Banque d’Affaires Strategic Lens

As a leading investment bank specializing in M&A and fundraising for technology and innovation-driven companies, CGPH Banque d’Affaires sees this intangible shift not as an abstract economic trend, but as a structural redefinition of how businesses scale, compete, and generate value.

Our work focuses on:

• Cross-border transactions that consolidate know-how, platforms, and patents.

• Thematic investment vehicles designed to capture growth in AI, cloud computing, and the data economy.

• Global capital access for companies developing high-value, innovation-led assets.

Merging the Intangible with the Tangible: The Value of Scarcity

Yet our long-term investment thesis is not built solely on the “new economy.” In a world where digital goods can be replicated infinitely, physical assets with intrinsic scarcity—prestigious vineyards, trophy real estate, high-value agricultural production—retain unique and enduring appeal.

These assets offer:

• Inflation protection.

• Stability amid financial volatility.

• Cultural and identity value increasingly sought by global capital.

Two Worlds, One Strategy

The U.S. economy demonstrates how scalable innovation and strategic positioning can produce both market concentration and outsized growth.

CGPH Banque d’Affaires applies the same logic—integrating the exponential upside of intangibles with the defensive strength of scarce, high-quality tangible assets.

This dual-track approach—combining what can scale infinitely with what can never be replicated—is our strategic answer to the evolving global economy.

CGPH Banque d’AffairesEurope’s first investment bank specializing in real estate investments, with a global vision on both the intangible economy and rare, tangible assets.