Apple's $159 billion cash stockpile could cover around 630 square miles if it were laid out in dollar bills, and investors want a piece.

Along with fellow tech heavyweights Google and Microsoft, Apple was named on a recent list of American companies outside the financial industry that collectively hold $1.64 trillion in cash, The New York Times reported.

Apple's cool $159 billion made it No. 1 on the list and means the Cupertino, Calif.-based company possess nearly 10 percent of all corporate cash not including the financial industry, according to Bloomberg.

So what will Apple do with all that cash?

Investors want the company to buy back stock or shell out dividends with some of the stock, while analysts have wondered why Apple doesn't invest it in company purchases.

The company seems content to keep it for the moment, staying in one place even as its competitor, Google, attempts to forge ahead with a self-driving car and numerous robot acquisitions.

Both Google and Facebook have spent billions to acquire new technologies and software and have been scooping up patents. Mountain View, Calif.-headquarted Google has been investing in robots, autonomous cars and artificial intelligence software, while Mark Zuckerberg's social network recently purchased messaging service WhatsApp and virtual reality headset-maker Oculus.

Apple could be keeping a vast amount of cash on hand to use in daily transactions, to act as insurance in case sales drop and to be invested at the right opportunity, three reasons listed by economist John Maynard Keynes.

The company has shopped around but hasn't felt the urge to spend big money acquiring any companies yet, Apple CEO Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal in February.

"The money is also not burning a hole in our pocket where we say let's make a list of 10 and pick the best one," Mr. Cook said. He said Apple was "not going to go out and buy something for the purposes of just being big."

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