With conservative estimates -- assuming 0.00% growth -- Apple will have somewhere in the region of 300 billion dollars by the year 2015. The white-hot supernova of Cupertino is expected to end 2011 with no less than $81 billion in cash, and $120 billion by the end of 2012. Experts tell me that this extrapolates out to $170 billion by 2013, $230 billion by 2014, and $300 billion by 2015 -- a sum that King Midas would be proud of.

But what does one do with 300,000,000,000 dollars? You could leave it in a high-interest savings account and earn $2 billion a year, but where's the fun in that? No, with new-found, iOS-powered cojones and a hoard of cash that even Smaug would covet, Apple should think big with its money.

Here are some ambitious suggestions for Apple and its billions...

1. Buy and close down Microsoft
For the paltry sum of $200 billion, Apple could buy up every Microsoft share, install Steve Jobs as the CEO, and proceed to dismantle, destroy, and shut down its biggest competitor and the largest software company in the world.

Of course, this assumes that Microsoft's market capitalization stays the same and that its own sizable, $50 billion mountain of cash doesn't grow.

2. Feed everyone in the United States for a year
In 2009, the average US household spent around $3,000 on groceries. There are about 110 million households in the United States -- and multiplied by 3,000, that comes to a grand total of $300 billion. Yes, Apple could feed every person in the United States for a year.

3. Buy AT&T and give away free 3G connectivity
With $300 billion, Apple could buy the entirety of AT&T -- and then offer free 3G access to everyiPad and iPhone owner in the United States. We could only guess at what kind of monthly data allowance Apple would provide, but it would probably be a lot better than what AT&T offers today.

Sadly, AT&T's presence outside the United States is minimal, and Apple doesn't have the money to offer the same kind of service around the world -- but charity starts at home, right?

4. Pay every American college student's tuition for three years
At any one time, there are roughly 14 million students at college or university in America, and the average tuition fees for a year is $7,000. That's a total of "just" $98 billion per year -- pocket change for Apple.

In fact, Apple could probably afford to buy a few fraternity and sorority buildings, and provide free beer and cookies to impoverished students for a number of years.

5. Buy a tropical island and move the Cupertino HQ there
For just $75 million, Apple could buy the 265-acre Caribbean island of Caye Chapel. The island -- which was turned into a resort in 2002 -- features an 18-hole golf course, a deep water marina, and, of course, its own airplane landing strip.

The only problem is that it only has accommodations for 36 people, and Apple's Cupertino HQ is home to thousands of employees. Fortunately, $75 million goes into $300 billion 4,000 times.

Yes, Apple could buy 4,000 Caribbean island resorts.

6. Buy a fleet of aircraft carriers and create an independent sovereign state
In a similar vein, Apple could buy a fleet of aircraft carriers, which are surprisingly cheap -- about$10 billion new, or about $10 million on the second-hand market (but that's without engines -- sail out into international waters and declare its sovereignty. If you thought Steve Jobs deserved a better title than "CEO", how about... king?

Of course, what good king has a fleet of aircraft carriers without aircraft? A Boeing 737 for shipping employees around can be had for a few million dollars, and the F-14 Tomcat from Top Gun costs just $38 million -- and really, how can Jobs put a price on being able to say "... and he'll fly right by"! from his very own attack fighter? Oh, you could throw in a nuclear submarine, too -- you know, for MAD, just in case Bill Gates gets one.

By now, you are probably starting to realize just how much money 300 billion dollars is.

7. Pay off all Third World Africa debts
The size of "Third World debt" -- the unpayable debt built up by developing African countries over the last 50 years -- is grossly misunderstood. We are often led to believe that the money owed by the governments of developing nations is hundreds of billions, or trillions, of dollars -- but in fact, the entire African continent -- 1 billion people belonging to 54 sovereign countries -- owes just $220 billion. In 2015, Apple could pay it off and still have money left over for eradicating AIDS worldwide.

8. Colonize space, or buy the Moon.
While it's hard to put an exact cost on colonizing space, Apple definitely has the money to either help NASA and the European Space Agency out, or to commercialize space travel. Imagine it now: iSpace, iNtergalactic, and my favorite: iMoon. A single acre of Moon land costs around $20, and the moon's total surface area is only 9.4 billion acres -- so, yes, for $188 billion, Apple could buy the Moon.

But what does one do with a celestial body? You can't exactly steer it, and terraforming it would take years and require technology that not even Apple has. You could mine it -- a next-generation iPad made from moon rocks would be cool -- but really, the only sensible option is carving the Moon into a huge apple. Imagine: a 2,000-mile-wide, bright, white, shiny Apple, hanging in the sky for all to see. It brings a tear to your ear.

9. Buy all the music labels and give away free music
For just a few billion dollars, Apple could settle the concept of music piracy and shut down the RIAA for ever by simply buying every major record label. With their cash Apple could buy out the Big Four -- Sony, EMI, Warner, and Universal -- and offer free or almost-free music to everyone. With messy publishing deals out of the way -- Apple would centralize the music industry around iTunes, of course -- there would be a lot more money for the artists, too.

10. Buy the world's fastest super computer and create iWorld
When we wrote about Cray's plan to build a 300-cabinet, 7,200-server, 57,600-processor supercomputer that's capable of 35 petaflops, a reader pointed out that you could use such a computer to create the most realistic virtual world ever created. Apple could create iWorld, a perfect parallel universe of the world we live in -- think of The Matrix, but with iPhones and iPadsinstead of "guns, lots of guns." Surprisingly, supercomputers are quite cheap to operate: the world's most powerful computer, Tianhe-1A, cost only $88 million to make, and $20 million per year to operate. There's no doubt that a fully decked-out Cray XK6 would cost a lot of money, and the development of a game that's capable of knocking World of the Warcraft from its throne would be tricky, but $300 billion really ought to cover it.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2386376,00.asp