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.
The Welch comparison could turn out to be particularly valid if Musk follows through on rumors that he’s trying to merge some combination of SpaceX, xAI and Tesla.
The similarities aren’t all encompassing, of course. GE was a company, and Musk is a person. But the distinction can get a bit blurry in an era when his net worth eclipses the market cap of 97% of the S&P 500. In fact, Musk’s net worth is approaching $800 billion, almost as much as GE at its peak when adjusted for inflation.
At its height, GE was often inseparable from its chairman, Jack Welch.
Musk, the individual, captivates many of his peers, just like Welch did. Executives today talk of being “hardcore” and espouse “first-principles thinking,” just like CEOs of the 1980s sought to emulate Welch through “accretive” mergers and mass layoffs.
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