'N' in FAANG is Netflix. They're tech-adjacent for sure, but they're mostly just in there so that the acronym isn't offensive.

Microsoft has consistently been in the top three companies by market cap — whereas Netflix is basically nowhere to be found — but I guess FAAMG just isn’t as cool!

Netflix pays engineers a lot and presents an interesting technology challenge. But you're right. They're actually a pretty amazing story. Burned 10 billion in the last 5 years and probably at least double that over their life. And they're on their third business model at this point with the first two having, more or less, failed.

GAFAM has been used when MS is swapped for Netflix. One could also drop Facebook and have MAGA.

I think MS was more or less at its nadir when the acronym first showed up.

At this point I expect the acronym to stay put (at least for a spell) even if the roll call doesn't.