Investors have added $128 billion to US money market funds since the beginning of the year, according to the Investment Company Institute. Corporations had a record $4.4 trillion in cash at the end of the third quarter. After an influx of over $1 trillion in Treasury bills since mid-2023, the market has room for more.

This is a stark contrast to just a few months ago when one of the hottest questions in financial markets was where investors would redeploy all their cash once the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates and making cash reserves less attractive. But much has changed since then.

Investors have significantly lowered their expectations for monetary easing. Moreover, a resurgence of risk aversion is not pushing corporate leaders to invest.

While it’s true that cash has been a long-ignored option for much of the decade following the financial crisis, with the Fed keeping borrowing costs near zero, that changed after a three-year rate-hiking cycle, rate hikes pushed short-term yields above longer maturities, inverting the yield curve.

Individual investors account for about 80% of the $1.198 trillion that has flowed into money market funds since March 2022. This leaves ample upside with corporate cash. If investment in the coming quarters is expected to be sluggish, according to economists’ projections, CFOs are likely to continue investing in money market funds. Some companies have already increased their holdings in money market funds. Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company, increased its allocation to money market funds to $32.9 billion as of December 31, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Amazon had $39.2 billion in cash at the end of last year but has yet to make any announcements. Corporate cash as a percentage of gross domestic product increased to 16% in the third quarter of last year, up from 12% in March 2020. This represents an additional $1 trillion in cash. Money market funds are, therefore, expected to retain some attraction.