News commentary

Bye-bye corporate conglomerates. Hello personal conglomerates.

TechCrunch · Tim De Chant · last updated

Aerospace, energy, healthcare, mobility, and media. Thirty years ago, we’d be talking about General Electric. Today, we’re talking about Elon Musk. He’s the CEO of Tesla, xAI, and SpaceX, which also owns the telecoms company Starlink. He owns the social media platform X. He’s developing neural implants and underground tunnels. He’s put at least $10 million behind fertility research.

Musk also appears to be merging several of these ventures into one conglomerate.

Musk has frequently been likened to Henry Ford. A more apt comparison might be to John D. Rockefeller or Jack Welch, who took GE from an ailing industrial company into a sprawling conglomerate.

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