Will there be a billion-dollar company with only one person by 2040?
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The promise of automation in AI claims that fewer people would be employed on companies that rely on knowledge workers. Many processes can be outsourced, but many have to be done in-house.

But maybe with AI agents, we'll be able to run companies with fewer and fewer people.

The question begs that if that number is going to reach one, while the company is able to reach the valuation of $1 billion with only having a headcount of one.

This will include the usage of all sort of robotics for work that has to be done in the real world, and AI agents for knowledge work.

Will there be a publicly traded billion dollar company in the US, New York exchange that is operated by only one person before January 1st, 2040?

Resolution Criteria:

This question will resolve to "Yes" in all caps. If before January 1st, 2040, a billion-dollar company in the US with only one person in their payroll fulfills the following criteria:

1. The company must have started with only one person and never hired anyone on full-time payroll, other than the founder.

2. It cannot be accompanied in finance.

3. The company did not outsource any of their core activities.

4. This is a company fully traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

5. It complies with all SEC regulations.

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I know Bitcoin doesn't meet the letter of this description, but it's a trillion dollar product probably made by one person.

I think it’s unclear whether it was really made by one person only.

Bitcoin is open source so I wouldn't say it fits the idea of a one person company. Yearn Finance comes to mind as maybe a better example. 3 billion dollar market cap back in 2021 and was developed and launched all by one person (Andre Cronje).

How does this resolve if we have companies that meet the criteria but with fewer than one person, but none with exactly one?

Fewer than one person means an AI does all the work? But there will probably be an owner in control of the AI, right?

Maybe the AI will be owned by someone. But the AI will build and run the company itself.

Since this question is about how many humans will be on the payroll, whether the AI is owned by someone doesn't matter