(FORTUNE Magazine) – Microsoft may be the most notorious stockpiler of cash around, but it's not the only one. Some other giants of industry have been accumulating rather considerable piggy banks. Excluding banks and securities firms, we counted nine U.S. companies that recently had at least $10 billion in cash and what they consider short-term investments. And with the exception of Pfizer, all have more of the cold hard stuff (at least on paper) than they did a year ago. Of course, not all such caches are created equal. Much of GM's wealth, for instance, is tied up in the automaker's finance and insurance arms, and Ford and GE also have big finance operations. So why don't some of these cash-rich companies just pay big dividends? Good question--and one that plenty of shareholders are asking.

--Ann Harrington