Apple has more cash than US government

As talks over the debt crisis continue, it has been revealed that Apple has more money than the US government.

The world's second most valuable company has $76.4 billion (£46.3 billion) in cash reserves, compared with the US Treasury's $74 billion (£44.8 billion). The US currently has $14.4 trillion (£8.8 trillion) debts, while the computer giant has none.

Additionally, the US is spending $200 billion (£122 billion) more than it collects in tax revenue each month, the BBC reports. In contrast, Apple last week reported record profits of $7.31bn (£4.6bn) for the three months to June 25, after selling in excess of 20 million iPhones and 9.25m iPads.

Industry experts believe that Apple is saving the cash for acquisitions of other businesses, such as video on-demand website Hulu - as well as for securing technology patents.

"Apple keeps its cards close to its chest," said Daniel Ashdown, an analyst at Juniper Research.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has £25billion in cash in the bank and Cisco Systems has £24.3billion. Economists estimate that American companies collectively have around £750 billion in cash.