Several weeks ago saw the first appointment of an AI controlled robot (called Tang Yu) as a company CEO - Chinese gaming company Fujian NetDragon Websoft. Hard to imagine anything more modern than that.

A few days our planet became sole shareholder of outdoor clothing company Patagonia, whose 2022 revenue has been estimated at $1.5 billion (US).

And there it is.

Science fiction includes many examples of sentient planets, eg. Asimov's Gaia or Guardians of the Galaxy's Ego, but did any of them own a major corporation?

Reality may have beaten science-fiction to this one.

Company founder Yvon signed a note on Instagram reading:

Earth is now our only shareholder.

That's not literally possible but the privately owned company has been restructured so that all voting stock (2%) is owned by a trust and the remaining 98% by a collective who will receive all profits not invested back into the company.

With the collective spending that money - estimated at approx $100 million annually - on protecting the planet.

Today Patagonia had to creatively engineer their own solution for transferring ownership to Earth.

But who knows what tomorrow may bring?

[ Main Image: Earth 2022. Credit: NASA EPIC. ]

References

Patagonia (September 14, 2022). We’ve always been dead serious about saving our home planet—and now we’re putting the entire business where our mouth is. Instagram.

Patagonia Works (September 14, 2022). Patagonia's Next Chapter: Earth is Now Our Only Shareholder.

Sundaravelu, Anugraha (August 30, 2022). Chinese company appoints female robot as its CEO. Metro UK.

Wikipedia. Patagonia, Inc. (viewed September 16, 2022)