But during this time company also invested money and paid salaries to their employees, so the figure is higher. That is certainly better than just parking the money somewhere, no?
What he did is "parking his money somewhere". If he bought an index fund, that means someone would have sold 12B so that he could buy 12B. That one with he 12B in cash would then do something with it.
My point is that there is no difference. This just how investment works in general.
