The last century of human development has seen corporations gain unusual freedom, thanks to their pivotal role in the opening of a new frontier. Like the trading posts operated by the British North American and East India companies of old, the new breed of space-based corporations often operate beyond the reach of governments, where they are a law unto themselves.
Many corporations are extremely efficient due to the replacement of large workforces with AIs or bioroids. Instead of the workers owning the means of production, companies now own their workers. This gradual process has taken most of the century. The worst social disruptions occurred with the widespread availability of low-sapient AIs in the 2060s and 2080s; some see these as the true causes of infosocialism and the Pacific War. Many corporations employ 5%-10% of the people they would have a century before.
While companies are more efficient, they are usually subject to higher government taxes, much of which goes to provide guaranteed minimum incomes and various social programs (chiefly health care) to the masses. Pensions, however, have been completely phased out: companies may reward long-term workers with stock plans or other benefits, but 'retirement' applies only to obsolete cybershells. There are some regions - chiefly offworld colonies, spaceports like Quito, and city-states such as Singapore and Montreal - where governments have offered special tax incentives to industry or created tax-free zones. However, until the human population base can be drastically reduced, this is not a viable plan for Earth as a whole.
The resurgence of nationalism sparked by space colonization has resulted in some large companies being seen as virtual symbols of national pride. “What's good for Columbia Aerospace is good for America,” Xiao Chu is strongly identified with Chinese expansion in space, and Ithemba-VeldtKorp symbolizes South Africa's rise as a Fourth Wave power. Nevertheless, the future may be the transnational, with global or systemwide interests, owing allegiance to no single nation, its central offices in a free city or offworld. System Technologies and Biotech Euphrates are prime examples of large transnationals.
This is a partial list of corporations and major companies operating in the 22nd century, some of which exist in the real world, and others which have been founded in the years between now and 2155. Companies that exist today are marked with a *, and linked sections note how the company has developed in the intervening years.
mines that reach most of the way into the planet’s crust.
in applications of “wet” nanotechnology.
well as regular service to low Earth orbit.