General Electric Company

General Electric Company operates as GE Aerospace, the world's largest commercial and military aircraft engine manufacturer, with an installed base of approximately 80,000 engines powering roughly one million people in flight at any given moment. The company generated $45.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025, roughly 70% of which came from aftermarket services — maintenance, repair, overhaul, and spare parts sold over decades-long engine lifecycles.

GE Aerospace is the product of one of the most consequential corporate transformations of the last decade. The sprawling conglomerate that once ran from light bulbs to NBC to GE Capital has been systematically dismantled: GE HealthCare was spun off in January 2023, GE Vernova (power and renewables) followed in April 2024, and what remains is a pure-play aerospace franchise whose economics are anchored in an installed base that generates high-margin recurring revenue for as long as aircraft keep flying. The stock has more than quintupled from its pandemic-era lows, and the company now carries investment-grade ratings from both major agencies after years in the penalty box.

This file turns on a single question: whether the extraordinary visible demand for commercial aerospace services — a $190 billion backlog, growing at double digits, with supply still unable to keep up — can compound into the next several years before the industry's cyclical risks, geopolitical disruptions, and the margin headwinds from ramping new engine production catch up. GE Aerospace's installed base is a genuine moat, but the transition from the mature CFM56 to the still-loss-making LEAP and GE9X programs makes this a story of managing a fleet evolution, not just riding a demand wave.