AI Sector Overviews Articles and Reports

Airbnb started with two roommates, three air mattresses, and expensive San Francisco rent. In late September 2007, Joe Gebbia hatched the idea to Brian Chesky: rent out air mattresses to young designers in town for a conference. They would include internet, a workspace, breakfast, and a roof over their heads.

Square is a financial services company that aims to “build common business tools in unconventional ways so more people can start, run and grow their businesses.” Founded in 2009 in San Francisco by Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey, Square reports total net revenue of $9.5 billion for 2020.

Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world by market cap. Founded in 1994 in Seattle, Washington, as a book-selling platform, Amazon has become a household name offering a wide variety of products and services. As of 2020, online retail product sales account for most of the company's net revenues, followed by third-party retail seller services, Amazon Web Services, and subscription services.

Founded in 2003 as Tesla Motors, the electric vehicle and clean energy company based in California currently has a market cap of over $700 billion - making it more valuable than the top seven automakers combined. Today, Tesla is well-known for its electric vehicles but the company also produces products for sustainable energy generation and storage such as solar panels, solar roof tiles, and more to enable “homeowners, businesses, and utilities to manage renewable energy generation, storage, and consumption”. 

Sam Walton opened his first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962, capitalizing on his twelve years of success running Walton's 5&10 in downtown Bentonville seven miles down the road. Walton founded his company on the idea that retail could succeed by offering great value and great service. His competitors thought his idea was doomed to fail. Today, almost sixty years later, Walmart has transformed itself into a multinational corporate supergiant ranked as the largest company in the United States by gross sales in 2020, according to the Fortune 500.

Founded by Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne, and Steve Wozniak in 1976, Apple is a global technology corporation specializing in consumer devices, software, and online services. 

General Electric (GE) was founded in 1889 by J.P. Morgan and Anthony J. Drexel who came together to finance Thomas Edison’s research and merge their companies together. Originally, GE was an industrial and consumer products company but today, more than 130 years later, GE has transformed itself into a multinational, digital industrial corporation ranked as the 33rd largest company in the United States by gross sales in 2020, according to Fortune 500.

Today, Coca-Cola is the world’s largest beverage company, selling over 500 soft drinks in more than 200 countries. In 2020, Coca-Cola had over 80 thousand employees worldwide.