American Express is one of the top-ranked places to work in the US

American Express is one of Warren Buffett's top stocks

Buffett's long investment in American Express is indicative of his highly principled investment strategy. Buffett often invested in longstanding businesses with strong core products and services. As of 2025, Buffett owned around 20% of all American Express stock, and his investment in American Express made up around 16% of his portfolio.

See a timeline of American Express' history

Since its founding in 1850, American Express has evolved from a mail delivery service to a multinational financial services company. Small additions to the company over time, such as taking money orders and inventing traveler's cheques, were key drivers of the company's transformation.

American Express caters its business to wealthy cardholders

American Express cards charge high annual fees, but also offer significant rewards and credits. It's just one way the company targets affluent customers who spend higher dollar amounts per transaction and tend to have more transactions than the average cardholder. This strategy decreases the company's risk, since it actually offers credit instead of just acting as a card network.

American Express is both a card issuer and a processing network

Unlike most credit card companies, American Express issues credit cards and processes payments—something called a closed-loop model. By offering both services, American Express profits from both interest and interchange fees, and also has access to more data on how customers spend their money so it can offer better perks.

In 2025, American Express paid $230M to settle fraud and deceptive marketing charges

American Express launched a wire payment service targeted at small businesses and falsely touted the service as a tax-deductible business expense in 2018. American Express was also accused of allowing small businesses to open corporate credit cards without the necessary employer identification number (EIN).

Learn more about American Express' membership rewards

American Express is well known for its membership program that allows cardholders to earn points. These points allow members to earn extra benefits and rack up savings at places like hotels, airlines, and restaurants.

American Express has acquired restaurant software companies to elevate its cardholder experience

One of the many perks of American Express cards is dining credits and special reservation access to fine dining restaurants. Since American Express cardholders are often more affluent than other credit card users, restaurants have benefited from increased partnerships with American Express to offer cardholders preferential reservations and premium experiences. In 2019, American Express acquired Resy, a reservation software, and went on to acquire Tock in 2024.

Two of American Express' co-founders also founded Wells Fargo

Henry Wells and William Fargo formed Wells, Fargo & Co. two years after American Express was created. Wells and Fargo saw an opportunity to expand the express delivery service from the East Coast and Middle America to the West Coast. The two initially asked the American Express board to expand operations, but the board declined, so they decided to create their own company. Today, Wells Fargo is among the top four largest banks in the US.

In 2013, American Express became the first credit card company to open an airport lounge

American Express opened its first airport lounge, the Centurion, in Las Vegas more than a decade ago. Since then, not only has American Express increased the number of lounges it has in airports across the country, but other credit card companies have also opened lounges.

American Express was the first company to offer 'gold' cards to borrowers

American Express began offering gold cards to affluent consumers in 1966. However, other credit card companies began offering similar, premium cards in the 1980s, which quickly became a status symbol for wealthy Americans.

American Express briefly owned Lehman Brothers

In 1984, Shearson, a retail banking company and American Express subsidiary, bought the investment banking company Lehman Brothers—best known for its historic 2008 collapse—for $360M. The businesses were then called Shearson Lehman/American Express. American Express spun off Lehman Brothers with an IPO in 1994 that attracted nearly $3B in new capital.

Visa, the first credit card network, still dominates competitors with a roughly 52% market share by purchase volume.

Among the major credit card companies in the US, Mastercard had about 25% of the market share in 2025. American Express had roughly 20%, and Discover had the smallest market share of about 4%.

The 50 best (and highest paying) jobs in America

Here are the 50 Best Jobs in America, according to Glassdoor. Where does your job fall? This report ranks jobs according to each job’s Glassdoor Job Score, determined by combining three factors: number of job openings, salary, and overall job satisfaction rating.

Apollo Global Management and Blackstone are among the world's top 20 private credit fund managers

While Blackstone is the world's largest alternative asset manager, Apollo Global Management is a large private equity firm. Apollo had $480B in private credit assets under management as of January 2025.

American CEOs getting super rich has a lot to do with stock buybacks

In 1965, the pay gap between American CEOs and their workers was roughly 15-to-1. But by 2018, that ratio had ballooned to 220-to-1.

See US News’ most recent business school ranking

Although Harvard is often cited as the most prestigious MBA program in the US (given that it is considered to have pioneered the modern version of the MBA), US News ranked the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton as 2025’s best business school.

Facts and figures on the largest credit unions

As of early 2024, credit unions had $2.31T in assets under management and were growing exponentially. Some of the biggest players limit access to military personnel, residents of specific states, and those with active religious affiliations. If you want to bank with some of the top names in the US, this list will help you check to see if you qualify.

The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the US

No institution wields more power in US finance than the Federal Reserve—but opinion polls indicate that most Americans don't know what it does. Curious about the country's central bank? 1440's got your breakdown of how the Federal Reserve works.

League tables show the number of deals top investment banks do in a time period

These tables provide a visual to help keep track of the leading companies in investment banking. Companies such as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs typically sit up top.

Amazon's largest profit engine is the cloud-computing platform Amazon Web Services

Also known as AWS, Amazon Web Services is a suite of IT resources such as storage, databases, and more. While Amazon owns AWS, lots of other tech companies—including Slack and Pinterest—use it to help run their IT operations. In 2023, AWS brought in $25B in profit—outpacing Amazon's entire North American retail division.

The S&P 500, managed by the same company, is another major stock index

Also run by S&P Dow Jones Indices, the S&P 500 tracks 500 large US firms using market-value weighting. Many analysts view it as a more accurate gauge of the American economy.

Read Time Magazine's profile of Estée Lauder—the only woman named to a list of the most influential business leaders of the 20th century

Time Magazine's 1998 profile of Estée Lauder credited much of Lauder's global success to her incredible work ethic and her dedication to creating the highest-quality products, even if those products weren't trendy.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Americans are historically more supportive of free speech than people in most other countries

A 2016 survey of 38 countries found that the US scored highest in support for free expression, with 71% of Americans saying people should be able to say what they want without government censorship, more than in any other nation surveyed.

Amazon is the most-loved brand among baby boomers

Macy's ranked at number five for the oldest generation alive today, whereas Gen Xers have Apple in their number one slot. This data visualization outlines the most-loved brands among baby boomers.

Flexible spending accounts are operated by employers

Unlike health savings accounts, which can be opened at banks and credit unions, FSAs are employer-owned and operated—meaning you can only access an FSA through an employer benefit, and the account doesn't follow you if you move jobs. To use an FSA to pay for a medical service or product, purchases typically have to be uploaded, approved, and then employees can be reimbursed.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

The USPS spent $3.97B in 2024, accounting for .058% of the federal budget.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Animal phobias are likely the most common type of phobias, followed by an extreme fear of heights.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'