European-Founded American Companies

AIG was founded in 1919 in Shanghai by Cornelius Vander Starr, born in 1892 in Fort Bragg, California, to Dutch immigrant parents. After army service in California and bond-trading in San Francisco, Starr sailed to Shanghai in 1919 and started selling insurance to Westerners and Chinese alike — the first Western insurance firm to insure Chinese citizens. The Asian business survived Japanese invasion and Communist takeover; Starr relocated his American operations to New York in 1939. Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, recruited in 1960, expanded it into a global financial-services giant. AIG's 2008 federal bailout was the largest in U.S. history; the company has since stabilised.

Anheuser-Busch InBev

Anheuser-Busch traces its origins to Adolphus Busch, a German brewer's son born in Kastel, near Mainz, who emigrated to the United States in 1857 and settled in St. Louis. He married into the family of Eberhard Anheuser, owner of the struggling Bavarian Brewery, joined the business in 1864, and transformed it into Anheuser-Busch in 1879. Busch introduced pasteurisation and refrigerated rail transport to American brewing, and in 1876 launched Budweiser, modelled on a Bohemian pilsner. The company merged with InBev in 2008 to form Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer.

AT&T (Bell System)

AT&T traces its origins to Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish-born inventor who emigrated to the United States via Canada in 1871. His invention of the telephone, patented in 1876, laid the foundation for modern telecommunications. The Bell Telephone Company was founded in 1877, and American Telephone and Telegraph was incorporated as a subsidiary in 1885, growing over the following century into one of the most influential communications companies in U.S. history.

Bank of America

Bank of America was founded in 1904 by Amadeo Giannini, the American-born son of Italian immigrants from Liguria. Originally established as the Bank of Italy in San Francisco, the institution was created to serve working-class and immigrant communities excluded from traditional banking. It grew rapidly, was renamed Bank of America in 1930, and became one of the largest financial institutions in the United States.

Bausch + Lomb

Bausch + Lomb was founded in 1853 in Rochester, New York, by John Jacob Bausch, an optician from Württemberg, Germany, who had emigrated to the United States in 1849. Bausch began with a small optical-goods shop and, with a $60 loan from his friend Henry Lomb (also a German immigrant), expanded into precision lens manufacturing. The company became the principal American supplier of microscope, camera, telescope, and military optics, and pioneered the soft contact lens. Today it is one of the world's leading eye-health companies.

Bechtel was founded in 1898 in Oklahoma by Warren A. Bechtel, born in 1872 in Freeport, Illinois, to Elizabeth and John Bechtel, German immigrants from the Palatinate who had emigrated in the mid-19th century. Warren began as a teamster grading railway lines and built that work into one of the largest construction firms in American history. Bechtel led the building of the Hoover Dam (1931–1936), worked on the Pacific Naval Yards, and built the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. The company remains privately held by the fifth generation of the Bechtel family.

Bloomberg L.P. was founded in 1981 by Michael Rubens Bloomberg, born in 1942 in Boston to William Henry Bloomberg, a son of Russian-Jewish immigrants from the Vilna region, and Charlotte Rubens, American-born of Russian-Jewish parents. After being fired from Salomon Brothers with a $10 million severance, Bloomberg used the capital to build a financial-data terminal that integrated real-time market prices with analytics and messaging. By 1990 Bloomberg Terminals were on every Wall Street trading desk. The company expanded into news, television, and publishing. Bloomberg himself served three terms as mayor of New York City (2002–2013).

Bloomingdale's was founded in 1872 in New York by brothers Joseph and Lyman Bloomingdale, sons of Benjamin Bloomingdale, a Bavarian-Jewish immigrant who had arrived in the United States in the 1830s and opened a Lower East Side dry-goods business. The brothers expanded the operation into a department store and, in 1886, moved to the Upper East Side site on Third Avenue and 59th Street that the store still occupies. Bloomingdale's became famous for stylish merchandise and creative window displays, and is now part of Macy's, Inc.

Bulova was founded in 1875 in a small Maiden Lane shop in New York by Joseph Bulova, born in Bohemia in 1851 and arrived in the United States in 1870. He began by selling jewellery and clocks, then moved into watch manufacturing using American-machined parts assembled to Swiss precision standards. The firm pioneered the standardised, mass-produced wristwatch in the 1920s and ran the world's first commercial radio advertisement in 1926 and the first commercial television advertisement in 1941. Acquired by Citizen Watch in 2008, the brand continues to operate from New York.

Calvin Klein was born in 1942 in the Bronx to Flore Stern, a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant from Budapest, and Leo Klein, an Austrian-Jewish immigrant. He graduated from the High School of Art and Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology and, in 1968, opened a coat company in New York with a $10,000 loan. Within a decade he had pioneered the designer-jeans category and built one of the most distinctive American fashion houses. The company was sold to PVH Corp. in 2002 and continues to operate as a global brand under PVH ownership.

Capezio was founded in 1887 by Salvatore Capezio, born in Muro Lucano, Italy, in 1864 and arrived in New York the same year. He opened a cobbler's shop on the corner of 39th Street and Broadway, across from the old Metropolitan Opera House. When the great Italian ballerina Adelina Genée's slippers needed urgent repair before a performance, Capezio's craftsmanship caught the dance world's attention. He became the supplier to the Met Ballet and, in time, to Anna Pavlova and the Ballets Russes. The company has remained the leading American maker of dance footwear since.

Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive traces its origins to William Colgate, born in Hollingbourne, Kent, in 1783, who emigrated with his family to the United States in 1798. In 1806 he founded a soap and candle business on Dutch Street in lower Manhattan. The firm introduced powdered toothpaste in 1873 and toothpaste in a collapsible tube in 1896, an industry-defining innovation. After merging with Palmolive-Peet in 1928, Colgate-Palmolive became one of the dominant consumer goods companies of the twentieth century.

Comcast was founded in 1963 by Ralph Joel Roberts, born in 1920 in New Rochelle, New York, to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents who had arrived in the United States in the early 1900s. After running a men's-belt business, Roberts bought a small Mississippi cable system in 1963 with two partners. Over the following six decades he and his son Brian Roberts (CEO from 2002) built it into the largest American cable, media, and communications conglomerate, acquiring NBCUniversal in 2011 and Sky in 2018.

CVS Health was founded in 1963 in Lowell, Massachusetts, by brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein, sons of Eastern European Jewish immigrant parents who had arrived in the United States in the early twentieth century, together with their partner Ralph Hoagland. The first store, Consumer Value Stores, sold health and beauty products at discount. CVS added pharmacy services in 1967 and grew through acquisitions of Peoples Drug, Eckerd Drug, and others. The 2018 acquisition of Aetna transformed CVS into one of America's largest integrated healthcare companies.

D. G. Yuengling & Son

Yuengling was founded in 1829 in the coal town of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, by David Gottlob Jüngling, a brewer's son from Aldingen, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, who had arrived in the United States the year before. He anglicised his name to Yuengling and built a brewery that survived Prohibition by producing dairy and near-beer products, and that has operated continuously under family ownership for nearly two centuries. Today, the sixth Yuengling generation runs what remains the oldest active brewery in America.

DuPont

Founded in 1802 by French immigrant Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, the company began as a gunpowder manufacturer on the Brandywine River in Delaware and quickly became a key supplier to U.S. industry and government. Over the following two centuries it evolved into a leader in chemicals, materials science, and industrial innovation.

The Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903 in Detroit by Henry Ford, born in 1863 on a Michigan farm to William Ford, who had emigrated from Ballinascarty, County Cork, in 1847 during the Irish Famine, and Mary Litogot, an American of Belgian descent. Henry rejected the farming life, apprenticed as a machinist, and rose through Detroit's nascent automobile industry. In 1908 he launched the Model T, a $850 car that within a decade had been driven onto millions of American roads at a price ordinary workers could afford. The moving assembly line that Ford perfected at Highland Park in 1913 reorganised global manufacturing. The company remains under the partial control of the founding family through a dual-class share structure.

Goldman Sachs

Marcus Goldman, a Bavarian immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1848, founded the firm that would become Goldman Sachs as a one-room commercial paper business in Lower Manhattan in 1869. His son-in-law Samuel Sachs joined the firm in 1882, giving it its enduring name. Over the following 150 years it grew into one of the most influential investment banks in the world.

Google (Alphabet)

Google was co-founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin, who emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States with his family in 1979, and Larry Page, an American-born computer scientist. Brin's Moscow-born scientific and mathematical heritage helped shape the analytical culture of one of the most influential technology companies in the world.

Goya Foods

Goya Foods was founded in 1936 by Spanish immigrant Prudencio Unanue and his wife Carolina Casal de Valdés. Beginning as a small import business in lower Manhattan, it grew into the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, distributing a wide range of products inspired by Spanish, Caribbean, and Latin American cuisine.

Häagen-Dazs

Häagen-Dazs was founded in 1961 in the Bronx by Reuben Mattus, born in 1912 in Łódź, in what was then Russian Poland. Mattus's mother emigrated with her children to New York in 1921, and Reuben grew up selling Italian ice from a horse-drawn cart. With his wife Rose, he created a premium ice-cream brand named with an invented "Danish-sounding" word — Häagen-Dazs is not a Danish phrase but a deliberate piece of marketing, designed to evoke European old-world quality. Pillsbury bought the company in 1983, and the brand is now operated by General Mills and Nestlé.

Harley-Davidson was founded in 1903 in Milwaukee by William S. Harley and three Davidson brothers — Arthur, Walter, and William. Harley's father had emigrated from Manchester in the 1860s; the Davidsons' father, William C. Davidson, had emigrated from Aberdeen in 1858. The first Harley-Davidson motorcycle was assembled in a 10-by-15-foot wooden shed in the Davidson backyard. The company supplied motorcycles to the U.S. military in both world wars, survived the Great Depression and Japanese competition, and remains America's only mass-market motorcycle manufacturer. The brand is the defining symbol of American motorcycling.

Hasbro was founded in 1923 in Providence, Rhode Island, by three brothers — Henry, Hilal, and Herman Hassenfeld — whose Polish-Jewish parents had emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s. The brothers initially sold textile remnants, then pencil cases, then school supplies. Toys followed in the 1940s. In 1964 Hasbro launched G.I. Joe, the original action figure. The company acquired Milton Bradley (Monopoly, Scrabble, board games), Parker Brothers, Kenner (Star Wars toys), and the Wizards of the Coast (Magic: The Gathering). Hasbro is now one of the largest toy and entertainment companies in the world.

Hertz Global Holdings

Hertz traces its origins to Walter L. Jacobs, who began renting cars from a small Chicago lot in 1918, and to John D. Hertz, the European founder whose name the company carries. Hertz was born Sándor Herz in 1879 in Skalica, in what is now Slovakia and was then part of Austria-Hungary. He emigrated as a child in 1884 and rose in Chicago through the taxi business, founding the Yellow Cab Company in 1915. In 1923 he bought Jacobs' car rental business and built it into a national brand, the Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System. The Hertz name has remained the dominant identity of car rental in the United States ever since.

Hilton was founded in 1919 by Conrad Nicholson Hilton, born in 1887 in San Antonio, New Mexico Territory, to Augustus Halvorsen Hilton, a Norwegian immigrant from Kristiansand, and Mary Genevieve Laufersweiler, an American of German descent. The Hilton family ran a general store in which the young Conrad worked. He travelled to Cisco, Texas, in 1919 intending to buy a bank, found instead a chaotic hotel called the Mobley with rooms rented twice a day, and bought it. Within a decade Hilton owned a chain of Texas hotels; by 1949 he had bought the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Hilton is now one of the largest hotel companies in the world.

Intel

Intel was founded in 1968 by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore in Mountain View, California. The European chapter of Intel's story begins with Andrew Grove (born András Gróf in Budapest, 1936), who fled Hungary after the 1956 uprising, joined Intel as its third employee in 1968, and as CEO from 1987 to 1998 transformed the company into the dominant force in global semiconductors. Grove is widely regarded as Intel's defining leader.

Kohl's traces its origin to Maxwell Kohl, a Polish-Jewish immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1927 from the town of Garwolin. He opened a small corner grocery in Milwaukee that became Kohl's Food Stores by 1946 and grew into a regional supermarket chain. The first Kohl's department store opened in Brookfield, Wisconsin, in 1962, applying the grocery family's discipline to mid-price apparel and home goods. Sold by the Kohl family in 1972 and later spun out, the company grew through the 1980s and 1990s into one of America's largest department-store chains.

Kohler Co.

Kohler Co. was founded in 1873 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, by John Michael Kohler, born in 1844 in Schnepfau, in the Vorarlberg region of Austria. Kohler emigrated to the United States with his family in 1854 and entered the iron and steel trade. In 1883 he produced the first Kohler enamelled cast-iron bathtub, the company's defining product. Five generations later Kohler remains family-owned and operates in plumbing, generators, engines, tiles, and hospitality, including the American Club resort in Wisconsin.

Lazard Ltd

Lazard was founded in 1848 by three brothers — Alexandre, Lazare, and Simon Lazard — from Frauenberg, in the Lorraine region of France. The brothers emigrated to New Orleans in the 1840s and opened a dry-goods business that grew into a banking partnership. They later expanded to San Francisco during the Gold Rush and then to Paris and London, building one of the first truly transatlantic financial firms. Lazard Ltd was established as the holding company in 2005 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and remains one of the world's leading independent investment banks.

Levi Strauss & Co.

Founded in 1853 by Bavarian immigrant Levi Strauss, the company became globally known for inventing blue jeans. In partnership with tailor Jacob Davis, Strauss patented riveted denim work trousers in 1873 — originally designed for miners and labourers during the California Gold Rush — and built one of the most enduring apparel brands in the world.

Mattel was founded in 1945 in a Los Angeles garage by Ruth Handler, born Ruth Marianna Mosko in Denver in 1916, the tenth child of Jacob and Ida Mosko, Polish-Jewish immigrants who had arrived in the United States in 1907. With her husband Elliot Handler and Harold "Matt" Matson — whose first name supplied half the company name — Ruth co-founded Mattel after the Second World War. In 1959, watching her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls, she conceived the Barbie doll, named for her daughter. Barbie became the bestselling toy in history; Mattel is the world's second-largest toy manufacturer.

Max Factor

Max Factor was founded in 1909 in Los Angeles by Maksymilian Faktorowicz, born in 1877 in Zduńska Wola, in Russian-controlled Poland. He served as a cosmetician at the Imperial Russian Theatre and emigrated to the United States in 1904, settling first in St. Louis and then in Hollywood. As film moved from stage greasepaint to subtler screen makeup, Factor developed the first cosmetics specifically engineered for cinematic lighting. He coined the term "make-up" in its modern sense and provided products for nearly every major studio actor of the silent and early sound eras. The brand became one of the foundations of the global cosmetics industry.

McDonald's was founded in 1940 in San Bernardino, California, by brothers Richard "Dick" and Maurice "Mac" McDonald, sons of Patrick and Margaret McDonald, Irish immigrants from County Galway who had emigrated to New Hampshire in the late nineteenth century. The brothers' 1948 "Speedee Service System" — a drive-in barbecue rebuilt around a streamlined kitchen producing burgers in under a minute — invented the modern fast-food model. Ray Kroc, the milkshake-machine salesman who franchised the brothers' system from 1954 and bought them out in 1961, scaled it globally. McDonald's now operates in over 100 countries.

Merck & Co. was established in New York in 1891 by George Merck, born in Darmstadt in 1867 and sent to the United States by his family's German pharmaceutical house, E. Merck. He built the American operation from a small import business into a major manufacturer of fine chemicals and medicines. During the First World War the U.S. government seized the German parent's American assets, and the company was reorganised in 1917 as an independent American entity under George Merck's direction. His son George W. Merck led the firm through the development of streptomycin and the partnership with Selman Waksman that produced the first effective treatment for tuberculosis.

NBCUniversal

NBCUniversal's foundational chapter belongs to David Sarnoff, born in Uzlyany, in present-day Belarus, in 1891. His family emigrated to New York's Lower East Side in 1900. Sarnoff rose from telegraph office boy to head of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which he led from 1930 to 1970. He founded the National Broadcasting Company in 1926, the first major radio network in the United States, and oversaw the launch of NBC television in 1939. The Sarnoff-era RCA broke up in the 1980s; NBC survives as the centrepiece of NBCUniversal under Comcast.

Neiman Marcus was founded in 1907 in Dallas by Herbert Marcus Sr., his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Al Neiman. Herbert and Carrie were children of Jacob Marcus, a Lithuanian-Jewish immigrant who had arrived in the United States in the 1870s. The Dallas store opened with $25,000 in capital and a deliberate decision to offer ready-to-wear women's clothing — a novel category at the time. Stanley Marcus, Herbert's son, expanded the chain after the Second World War. Neiman Marcus became the defining American luxury department store, was acquired by Hudson's Bay Company in 2024, and operates as the Neiman Marcus division of Saks Global.

Nordstrom

Nordstrom was founded in 1901 in Seattle by John W. Nordstrom, born Johan Wilhelm Nordström in 1871 in Alvik, Sweden. He emigrated to New York in 1887 with five dollars in his pocket, worked westward across the United States, and made a small fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush. He invested that capital in a Seattle shoe store with partner Carl Wallin. From a single storefront, Nordstrom grew into one of America's most distinctive upmarket department-store chains, famous for its customer service standard.

Paramount Pictures traces its founding to Adolph Zukor, born in Ricse, Hungary, in 1873, who arrived in the United States in 1889 as an orphaned teenager with $40 sewn into his coat lining. After working as a fur cutter and then in penny arcades, Zukor founded the Famous Players Film Company in 1912 with the slogan "Famous Players in Famous Plays." The 1916 merger with Jesse Lasky's Feature Play Company produced Famous Players–Lasky, which acquired its distributor, Paramount Pictures Corporation, and took its name in 1927. Zukor served as the company's leader for decades, dying in 1976 at the age of 103. Paramount is one of the foundational Hollywood studios and the only one of the original Big Five still operating under its founding name.

Pfizer

Pfizer was founded in 1849 in Brooklyn by German immigrants Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles Erhart. Initially a small fine-chemicals business, it grew through the production of citric acid, penicillin during the Second World War, and a long succession of breakthrough medicines into one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble was founded in 1837 in Cincinnati by two European immigrants: William Procter, an English candlemaker who emigrated in 1832, and James Gamble, an Irish soapmaker who arrived in the United States as a child in 1819. The two became brothers-in-law and combined their crafts, building one of the largest consumer goods companies in the world.

Qualcomm was founded in 1985 in San Diego by Irwin Mark Jacobs, born in 1933 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Lithuanian-Jewish immigrant parents, and Andrew Viterbi, an Italian-Jewish immigrant born in Bergamo in 1935 who had arrived in the United States in 1939. Jacobs and Viterbi had earlier co-founded Linkabit (1968). With five other partners they founded Qualcomm — "Quality Communications" — to develop satellite communications and digital wireless. The company's CDMA technology became the foundation of one of two global mobile-phone standards, and Qualcomm chipsets now power most of the world's smartphones.

Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz in 1939 in the Bronx to Frieda Cutler and Frank Lifshitz, Belarusian-Jewish immigrants from Pinsk who had arrived in the United States around 1920. The family lived modestly; Ralph and his brother Jerry changed their surname to Lauren as teenagers. After working at Brooks Brothers and selling neckties for Beau Brummell, Lauren launched his own tie line in 1967 under the brand Polo, with wider, hand-stitched ties that became a phenomenon. He expanded into menswear in 1968 and womenswear in 1971. The company is one of the foundational American luxury apparel houses.

Saks Fifth Avenue traces its lineage to Andrew Saks, born in Baltimore in 1847 to Prussian-Jewish immigrant parents who had arrived in the United States in the 1830s. Andrew opened Saks & Company in Washington, D.C., in 1867, expanded to New York in 1902, and his sons opened the flagship Saks Fifth Avenue store in midtown Manhattan in 1924 — at a time when the avenue was still a residential district. The store transformed Fifth Avenue into a luxury-retail boulevard. Saks is now part of HBC's Saks Global, which also includes the merged Neiman Marcus.

Schwinn was founded in 1895 in Chicago by Ignaz Schwinn, a mechanical engineer born in Hardheim, Germany, in 1860, who emigrated to the United States in 1891. Schwinn had worked in the German bicycle industry through the 1880s boom, and he carried that manufacturing knowledge to Chicago at the moment when American bicycle production was overtaking Europe's. Backed by meatpacker Adolph Arnold, the firm survived the bicycle bust of the late 1890s by buying competitors at distress prices. Three generations of the Schwinn family ran the company until 1992. The brand is now owned by Pacific Cycle and remains one of the most recognisable American bicycle names.

Steinway & Sons

Steinway & Sons was founded in 1853 in a Manhattan loft by Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, a master cabinetmaker and piano builder from Wolfshagen, in the Harz mountains of Germany. After fleeing political unrest in 1850, Steinweg anglicised his name to Henry Steinway and, with his sons, built what would become the most influential piano manufacturer in history. The firm pioneered the overstrung scale and the modern grand piano frame, securing more than 125 patents over its first century. Steinway pianos remain the instrument of choice in nearly every major concert hall in the world.

Boeing was founded in 1916 in Seattle by William E. Boeing, born in 1881 in Detroit to Wilhelm Böing, a German immigrant from Hagen who had arrived in the United States in 1868 and made his fortune in the Midwest timber industry. William inherited that fortune at eight when his father died. After studying at Yale, he moved to Seattle to manage timber interests, took a passenger flight in 1914 at age 33, and resolved to build a better aeroplane himself. The first Boeing Model 1, the B&W Seaplane, flew the next year. Over the following century, the company built America's commercial aviation industry, supplied U.S. military aircraft in two world wars, and developed the 707, 747, and the modern long-haul travel that followed.

Estée Lauder was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in Queens, New York, in 1908, to Rose Schotz Rosenthal Mentzer, a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant, and Max Mentzer, a Czech-Jewish immigrant. Her chemist uncle, John Schotz, taught her to make face creams from his Brooklyn kitchen formulations. In 1946 she and her husband Joseph Lauder founded the company with four products. Her insistence on free samples — the "Tell a Woman" strategy — and on staffing prestige department-store counters built one of the largest beauty companies in the world. The Lauder family retains controlling ownership through a dual-class share structure.

Home Depot was founded in 1978 in Atlanta by Bernie Marcus, born in Newark in 1929 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, and Arthur Blank, born in Queens to a Jewish-American family. The two had been fired from a Los Angeles hardware chain and used the moment to test their idea: a vast warehouse store that offered both contractor and amateur customers everything for a home-improvement project under one roof. The first stores opened in Atlanta in 1979. Within fifteen years, Home Depot was the largest home-improvement retailer in the world.

Henry John Heinz was born in 1844 in Pittsburgh to Bavarian immigrant parents who had arrived in the United States in 1840. He began bottling horseradish from his mother's garden at age twelve and founded Heinz & Noble in 1869 in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, with a neighbour. The firm went bankrupt in 1875; Heinz repaid all his creditors in full and refounded the company under his own name. The famous "57 Varieties" slogan dates from an 1896 train journey. Heinz pioneered clear-glass packaging — to let buyers see the product — and championed the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. The 2015 merger with Kraft Foods Group created Kraft Heinz, one of North America's largest food companies.

Kroger was founded in 1883 in Cincinnati by Bernard Henry "Barney" Kroger, born in 1860 to John Henry Kroger and Mary Gertrude Kroger, German immigrants from the Lower Rhine who had arrived in the United States in the 1840s and settled in Cincinnati's German immigrant community. Barney opened the Great Western Tea Company at age 24 with his savings of $372. By 1885 he had two stores; by 1900, forty. Kroger pioneered the in-store bakery, the integrated grocery-and-meat market, and chain-store distribution.

Adolph Simon Ochs was born in Cincinnati in 1858 to Julius Ochs and Bertha Levy, Bavarian-Jewish immigrants who had arrived in the United States in the 1840s. He left school at eleven, worked as a printer's apprentice, and bought the Chattanooga Times at twenty. In 1896, at thirty-eight, he acquired the failing New York Times for $75,000 and adopted the motto "All the News That's Fit to Print." Under his leadership the paper became the foundational American newspaper of record. The Ochs-Sulzberger family has controlled the company through a dual-class share structure ever since.

Tropicana was founded in 1947 in Bradenton, Florida, by Anthony T. Rossi, born Anthonino Rossi in Messina, Sicily, in 1900. Rossi emigrated to New York in 1921 with $40 in his pocket and worked as a taxi driver, restaurateur, and grocer before moving to Florida and entering the citrus business. His 1954 process for pasteurising fresh orange juice while preserving its taste made not-from-concentrate juice commercially viable for the first time. By the 1970s Tropicana was running its own ocean tanker fleet to ship juice from Florida to New York. The brand was acquired by Beatrice Foods, then Seagram, then PepsiCo (1998), and most recently PAI Partners (2022).

United States Steel Corporation

The United States Steel Corporation was created in 1901 from the merger of Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company with two rival firms, in a deal arranged by J. P. Morgan that produced the world's first billion-dollar corporation. The European founding belongs to Carnegie himself: born in 1835 in a weaver's cottage in Dunfermline, Scotland, he arrived with his impoverished family in Pittsburgh in 1848. Over the following five decades he built Carnegie Steel into the largest steel producer in the world, applying Bessemer technology, vertical integration, and ruthless cost discipline. Carnegie sold the firm in 1901 and devoted the remainder of his life to philanthropy.

Universal Pictures was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, born in Laupheim, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, in 1867. Laemmle emigrated to the United States in 1884, worked his way through the Midwest, and opened his first nickelodeon in Chicago in 1906. By 1912 he had assembled a coalition of independent producers under the banner of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, breaking the Edison Trust's stranglehold on American film. Laemmle founded Universal City in 1915 — the world's first dedicated film-studio town. He ran the company until 1936. Universal is the oldest American film studio still operating under its founding name, and the only one founded by a German immigrant.

Walgreens was founded in 1901 in Chicago by Charles Rudolph Walgreen, born in 1873 in Illinois to Carl Magnus Olin Walgreen, a Swedish immigrant from Värmland who had arrived in the United States in 1854. After apprenticing in pharmacy and serving in the Spanish-American War, Walgreen bought the corner drugstore where he had worked in 1901. He pioneered the soda fountain in pharmacies — and is credited with inventing the milkshake in 1922 — and built one of the foundational American retail pharmacy chains. The 2014 merger with U.K.-based Alliance Boots produced Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Warner Bros. was founded in 1923 by four brothers whose parents had emigrated from Krasnosielc, in Russian-controlled Poland, in the early 1880s. The eldest three — Harry, Albert, and Sam — were born in Europe and emigrated as small children in 1889; the youngest, Jack, was born in London, Ontario, in 1892. Their father, Benjamin, a cobbler, anglicised the family name Wonsal to Warner. The brothers entered film exhibition in 1903 and production in 1912 before incorporating Warner Bros. Pictures in 1923. In 1927 the company released The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length film with synchronised sound — a commercial gamble that ended the silent era. Warner Bros. is one of the foundational Hollywood studios and continues to operate from Burbank.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp was co-founded in 2009 in California by Jan Koum, born in 1976 in the village of Fastiv, near Kyiv, in what was then the Ukrainian SSR. Koum emigrated with his mother to Mountain View, California, in 1992, taught himself programming, and worked at Yahoo! for nearly a decade before founding WhatsApp with American colleague Brian Acton. The platform's early commitment to a clean interface, ad-free design, and end-to-end encryption made it the dominant global messaging service. Facebook acquired the company in 2014 in one of the largest technology deals on record.

WME (William Morris Endeavor)

WME's foundation lies with William Morris, born Zelman Moses in 1873 in Schwarzenau, Germany. He arrived in New York with his family in 1884, anglicised his name, and in 1898 founded the William Morris Agency on East 14th Street, the first agency in the United States to represent vaudeville and music-hall performers under a structured contractual model. Over the twentieth century the agency represented an exceptional roster of writers, actors, and musicians, and in 2009 merged with the Endeavor Talent Agency to form what is now WME, the centrepiece of Endeavor Group Holdings.