Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft. And, no.

No mention of Intel, IOActive, Matasano, Rapid7, FireEye, CheckPoint, Trend Micro, Kaspersky Labs, UCF, JHU, APL, MITRE, and of course, NSA?

Sure, the ones you mentioned have the biggest paychecks. But they won't give you indemnity and extended resources to find weaknesses in critical infrastructure. Some people like breaking bigger toys.

Just the tech giants have the best security people? How about large banks, hedgefunds and other financial services, security contractors/private military and governments?

We have large banks blocking pasting in password fields [1], and suggesting users not use password managers.

I'd actually say security research firms have pretty high quality security people, however, and not just the tech giants.

1. http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/1password-open-letter-bank...

This doesn't mean all financial institutions are bad at security. Some are cutting edge and hire some of the best.

Goldman Sachs - they're way far ahead of any other large bank or financial services company.

Citadel is one I know for sure is pretty cutting edge, and I'd wager their security can rival any large tech company.