AA

Alcoa Corp

A maker of the raw materials behind everyday aluminum goods, Alcoa mines bauxite, refines it into alumina, and smelts it into aluminum for cars, planes, and packaging. It traces back to 1888, when Charles Martin Hall's discovery of an affordable way to make aluminum launched the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, later renamed the Aluminum Company of America. The nickname 'Alcoa' was coined around 1910 for a company town in Tennessee, and a 2016 split kept the name for the mining and smelting business.