General Electric

General Electric was an American multinational conglomerate founded on April 15, 1892, and formally dissolved in 2024 after restructuring itself into three independent publicly traded companies over the span of about two years. Across its existence, it moved through electrical infrastructure, aviation, finance, healthcare, and energy, at times employing roughly 125,000 people worldwide. The figure that captures its scale most sharply comes from GE Aerospace, which by 2025 reported a commercial services backlog of approximately $190 billion. Few industrial corporations have shaped as many sectors of the modern economy, or exited them as deliberately.

Key facts

  • Dissolved: 2024
  • Type: multinational corporation
  • Website: https://www.ge.com/

Founding and Early Innovation

General Electric was formed on April 15, 1892, through the merger of Edison General Electric Company and the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. Financier J.P. Morgan arranged the deal, bringing together two of the dominant electrical enterprises of the era into a single corporation.

Eight years later, on December 15, 1900, GE opened a research laboratory in Schenectady, New York. Founded by Charles Steinmetz, Willis R. Whitney, and Thomas Edison, it was the first industrial research facility in the United States. The laboratory established a model that other large manufacturers would eventually follow: in-house science as a competitive instrument rather than a purely academic enterprise.

Aviation: From the I-A to the GE90

In 1941, GE built America’s first jet engine, the I-A, working from a design by British engineer Sir Frank Whittle. On October 18, 1942, two I-A engines powered the first flight of a Bell XP-59A Airacomet aircraft, marking the country’s entry into the jet age.

GE introduced the GE90 turbofan in 1995, the first jet engine to incorporate components made of lightweight carbon fiber composites. The engine entered service with British Airways in November 1995.

Through CFM International, a joint venture with Safran, GE co-produces the LEAP jet engine, the first widely deployed engine to use ceramic matrix composites. Those materials match metal in toughness and exceed it in heat resistance while weighing only one-third as much.

The Hudson River Contamination

Beginning in 1947 and continuing until 1977, GE intentionally discharged approximately 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, into the Hudson River from its plants at Fort Edward and Hudson Falls, New York. The contamination created what became the nation’s largest Superfund site, a designation that carried decades of regulatory, legal, and remediation consequences.

Financial Crisis and Accounting Charges

During the 2008 financial crisis, GE Capital’s exposure raised serious questions about the parent company’s stability. In November 2008, the FDIC approved GE Capital for the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, permitting it to issue up to $139 billion of government-guaranteed debt.

In 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged GE with overly aggressive accounting and false statements. GE paid $50 million to settle the charges without admitting or denying wrongdoing.

The Dow Jones Departure

On June 26, 2018, General Electric was dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average after 111 consecutive years as a member, replaced by Walgreens Boots Alliance. GE had been part of the index since 1907. No other original 1896 member had lasted as long.

Leadership Change and the Turn Toward Break-Up

In October 2018, H. Lawrence Culp Jr. was appointed CEO of General Electric, becoming the first outsider ever to lead the company. He had previously served as President and CEO of Danaher Corporation from 2001 to 2014. His appointment came as the corporation faced mounting pressure from investors and analysts to simplify its sprawling structure.

The restructuring unfolded in stages. GE Healthcare was spun off as an independent publicly traded company in January 2023, with GE distributing 80.1 percent of GE HealthCare shares to its shareholders. Then, on April 2, 2024, GE completed the separation of its GE Vernova energy business, distributing all outstanding GE Vernova shares to holders of GE common stock at a ratio of one share of GE Vernova for every four shares of GE. GE Vernova’s common stock began trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol GEV.

GE Aerospace: What Remained

After the April 2, 2024, separation of GE Vernova, the remaining General Electric Company rebranded as GE Aerospace. The company operates through two reportable segments: Commercial Engines and Services, and Defense and Propulsion Technologies.

As of 2025, GE Aerospace had an installed base of approximately 80,000 commercial and military aircraft engines and employed nearly 57,000 people globally. In January 2026, GE Aerospace announced full-year 2025 total revenue of $45.9 billion, profit growth of 31 percent, and a commercial services backlog of roughly $190 billion.

Did you know

  • GE was the only surviving original member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1896 until its removal on June 26, 2018, outlasting all other 11 founding companies by decades. (wsws.org)
  • GE’s first jet engine, the I-A, was rated at 1,250 pounds of thrust. The GE90-115B engine it later developed produces 115,000 pounds of thrust, more than 90 times as much. (geaerospace.com)

Data sources

Data updated: 2026-10-28