[belltaco]

FANG was created by the stocks analyst guys, i.e Jim Cramer, to reflect high growth tech stocks. Apple wasn't even in it originally and got added later and became FAANG. So it has almost nothing to with your reasons. Check Microsoft's growth since 2017 and its on par with or exceeds others.

[usui]

Are the only people who perpetuated the acronym stocks people? I'd like to know what other acronyms competed then, if they existed

[rsj_hn]

I think I remember a few of them:

    PIGOU
    Paypal Intel Google Oracle Uber
    
    SUP
    Square Uber Paypal
    
    PAIN
    Palantir AirBnB IBM Nvidia
    
    SAURON
    Square Apple Uber Roku Oracle Netflix
    
    FAM
    Facebook Apple Microsoft