GE

Company

General Electric (GE) is an American corporation historically active in multiple sectors including aviation, healthcare, and power/energy. Following spin-offs of its other divisions, it now operates as GE Aerospace. It is publicly traded and headquartered in Cincinnati, United States, and was founded in 1892.

We dig behind GE's stated narrative to unravel the real strategy — the calls that actually shaped it, and why they played out the way they did.

Decision ForksBusiness ModelPeople & ControlCrisis & Reinvention

Company profile

Industry: Electronic & Other Electrical Equipment (No Computer Equip)
Listed: NYSE: GE
Incorporated: NY
Headquarters: Evendale, OH
Fiscal year end: Dec 31

Financials

FY2025

Revenue: $45.9B
Net income: $8.70B
Total assets: $130.2B

Latest full fiscal year from SEC filings (10-K) — SEC EDGAR ↗. Stratrix is a strategy publication, not a real-time financial data service.

The analyses

The Fall · Decision Forks

GE's Breakup Began in 2013, When a Regulator Labeled GE Capital Systemically Important

The legend says Larry Culp dismantled the conglomerate. The forcing function arrived five years before he did: in July 2013 a regulator labeled GE Capital systemically important, and the finance arm that had powered the empire became the thing that had to go.

The Cross-Subsidy · Business Model

In December 2008, GE Borrowed on America's Full Faith and Credit to Save Its Invisible Bank

In December 2008, the company that made jet engines and MRI machines borrowed money backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. Not because the engines failed — because a bank nobody could see on the balance sheet had run out of cash.

The Succession Question · Decision Forks

Welch Handed Immelt a GE Where Finance Carried Over Half a Trillion in Debt

The Welch-to-Immelt handoff is taught as a people failure - the wrong heir picked from a famous horse race. But Welch handed over a company where finance had grown to over half a trillion dollars in debt. The trap was structural before it was personal.

The Fall · Crisis & Reinvention

GE Bought Fossil Turbines One Month Before the Paris Agreement — the Machine's Last Move

GE bought Alstom's fossil-fuel turbines for ~$10.6 billion and closed the deal on November 2, 2015 — one month before the Paris Agreement. That wasn't bad luck. It was the last move in a thirty-year machine designed to look unbreakable.

The Culture Doctrine · People & Control

GE's Welch-Era Engine Was GE Capital: 40% of Revenue, and Eventually a Federal Intervention

GE's 'vitality curve' fired the bottom 10% every year, and Welch's defenders credit it with $14B-to-$600B in market value. But the real engine wasn't talent culling - it was GE Capital, which grew to 40% of revenue and later required federal regulatory intervention and government-backed debt guarantees.