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50 companies
IBM
Enterprise Technology & Cloud Computing
IBM has survived 113 years by mastering what most companies can't stomach: killing its own businesses before they become corpses. But survival through...
Intel
Semiconductor Manufacturing
Intel created the x86 architecture in 1978 and spent four decades running the Red Queen's race - investing $15-20 billion annually in R&D just to main...
IKEA
Retail / Furniture
IKEA demonstrates 80 years of phototropic discipline - systematically bending toward resource gradients while maintaining core identity. Founded in ru...
IDEO
Design Consulting
IDEO doesn't just design products - it operates as a brokerage topology that generates innovation through structural holes. The design consultancy pos...
Infosys
IT Services
With 320,000 employees and $19.3 billion in FY25 revenue, Infosys demonstrates how pioneer species create conditions that enable—and eventually challe...
Instacart
Grocery Delivery / Gig Economy
Apoorva Mehta's 21st startup idea succeeded where his previous 20 failed because of germination timing, not a better idea. In 2012, environmental fact...
Social Media / Photo Sharing
Instagram launched in October 2010, six months after Color Labs raised $41 million in pre-launch funding for photo sharing. By the time Color launched...
Interface Inc.
Manufacturing - Flooring
Interface Inc. is a US-based modular carpet manufacturer with $1.32 billion revenue (2024) that has pursued radical circular economy principles for th...
Intuit
Financial Software
Financial software company known for its innovative approach to failure through 'failure parties.' When a project is killed, the team throws a party t...
i3 Verticals
Financial Services
i3 Verticals provides integrated payment and software solutions to small and medium-sized businesses and organizations in strategic vertical markets....
Iberdrola
Energy
Iberdrola operates 44,675 MW of renewable capacity across four continents, yet its true power lies not in generating electrons but in constructing the...
ICICI Bank Limited
Banking & Finance
ICICI Bank's transformation into India's second-largest private bank mirrors the evolution of a highly specialized predator optimizing every aspect of...
IDEXX Laboratories
Healthcare
IDEXX Laboratories is a global leader in veterinary diagnostics, software, and water testing solutions. The company provides diagnostic products and s...
IDG Capital
Venture Capital
IDG Capital is the pioneer species of Chinese venture capital—the first organism to colonize barren territory, creating conditions for the ecosystem t...
iHeartMedia
Media & Entertainment
iHeartMedia's March 2018 bankruptcy collapsed America's largest radio broadcaster under $20 billion in debt from a 2008 LBO by Bain Capital and Thomas...
ImClone Systems
Biotechnology
ImClone's 2002 crisis—triggered by FDA rejection of cancer drug Erbitux—illustrates how single-product biotechs face binary survival odds. Martha Stew...
IMEC
Research Institute
Belgian nanoelectronics research institute that collaborates with ASML on pre-competitive technology development. Part of ASML's research ecosystem pa...
Independence Air
Aviation
Independence Air's 2006 closure ended a low-cost carrier launched by Atlantic Coast Airlines after it terminated its United Express contract. The airl...
Index Ventures
Venture Capital
Most venture capitalists evolved in a single ecosystem—Silicon Valley—and struggle to operate elsewhere. Index Ventures migrates between continents li...
indie Semiconductor
Technology
indie Semiconductor designs and manufactures semiconductors and software solutions for advanced driver assistance systems and connected car applicatio...
Inditex (Zara)
Retail / Fashion
Zara can design, manufacture, and distribute a new garment to 5,563 stores in 214 markets within 15 days—a metabolism so fast it defies traditional re...
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
Banking
ICBC is the world's largest bank by total assets, offering a full range of financial products and services to corporate and retail customers across Ch...
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)
Banking & Finance
$6.7 trillion in assets (2024)—the world's largest bank for thirteen consecutive years—establishes ICBC as the blue whale of finance: massive, dominan...
IndyMac Bancorp
Banking
IndyMac's July 2008 FDIC seizure was one of the largest bank failures in U.S. history, triggered by a bank run after Senator Chuck Schumer released a...
IndyMac Bank
Banking
IndyMac's 2008 failure—the second-largest bank failure in US history at the time—demonstrates how mortgage concentration creates systemic fragility. T...
Infineon
Semiconductors
For five consecutive years, this €15 billion semiconductor organism has maintained the apex position in automotive chips, claiming 13.5% global market...
ING Group
Banking & Financial Services
ING is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation. The company focuses on retail and commercial banking with a strong digital-fi...
Instacart (Decline)
Technology
Instacart's valuation collapsed from $39 billion in 2021 to $10 billion at its 2023 IPO, reflecting the gap between COVID-era grocery delivery demand...
Instil Bio
Biotechnology
Instil Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapies for cancer treatment. The...
Insys Therapeutics
Pharmaceuticals
Insys' 2019 bankruptcy after executives were convicted of bribery demonstrates how pharmaceutical companies can become criminal enterprises. The fenta...
Intellia Therapeutics
Biotechnology
Intellia Therapeutics is a leading genome editing company focused on developing CRISPR/Cas9-based therapeutics. The company's platform enables precise...
Intercontinental Exchange
Financial Services
Intercontinental Exchange operates regulated exchanges, clearing houses, and data services for global financial and commodity markets. The company own...
Intermet Corporation
Auto Parts
Intermet's 2004 bankruptcy collapsed an iron castings manufacturer serving the auto industry. The company made engine blocks, transmission cases, and...
International Bancshares Corporation
Financial Services
International Bancshares Corporation is a multibank financial holding company with operations in Texas and Oklahoma. The company provides commercial a...
Interpublic Group
Advertising
Interpublic Group is one of the world's leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services companies. The company operates through a...
Intesa Sanpaolo
Financial Services
Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy's largest banking group serving 14 million customers. The company provides retail, corporate, and wealth management services....
Intuitive Surgical
Medical Devices
Intuitive Surgical achieved what first-movers dream of: converting technological lead into durable market dominance. The company's da Vinci system cap...
Invesco
Financial Services
Invesco is an independent investment management firm delivering investment strategies and solutions to retail and institutional clients globally. The...
Invesco Mortgage Capital
Financial Services
Invesco Mortgage Capital nearly collapsed in 2020 when COVID-triggered margin calls forced fire sales of mortgage securities. The mortgage REIT's leve...
Investor AB
Investment & Holding Company
Investor AB's $94 billion market value represents six generations of kin selection—the Wallenberg family's century-old strategy of maximizing genetic...
INWIT
Telecommunications Infrastructure
Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane operates as Italy's dominant neutral host tower company with over 25,000 sites, embodying the biological principle th...
Ionis Pharmaceuticals
Biotechnology
Ionis Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing RNA-targeted therapeutics. The company's antisense technolo...
Iridium LLC (Original)
Telecommunications - Satellite
Iridium's 1999 bankruptcy wrote off $5 billion in investment in satellite phones that cost too much for too few users. The Motorola-led consortium lau...
Iron Mountain
Business Services
Iron Mountain provides storage and information management services for physical and digital records, data backup, and secure shredding. The company op...
Isuzu (US Car Division)
Automotive
Isuzu ended U.S. car sales in 2008 after years of declining volumes, though it continues selling commercial trucks. The company that once sold 127,000...
Itaú Unibanco
Banking
Itaú Unibanco runs the most efficient financial network in Latin America: 22.1% ROE in 2024, BRL 41.4 billion profit, and 99% reduction in high-impact...
ITC Limited
FMCG
ITC Limited functions as a colonial organism where semi-autonomous polyps—FMCG, hotels, paperboards, agribusiness, and IT—share a common resource circ...
Itron
Technology
Itron is a technology and services company offering solutions that measure, manage, and analyze energy and water resources. The company provides smart...
ITT Corporation
Conglomerate
Harold Geneen built ITT into the archetypal conglomerate cautionary tale. Between 1960 and 1977, he acquired more than 350 companies, growing annual r...
ITT Technical Institute
For-Profit Education
ITT Technical Institute's 2016 closure after 50 years demonstrated how for-profit education could be destroyed by regulatory action when business prac...