In 1963, Malone began his business career at
Bell Telephone Laboratories of
AT&T, working in economic planning and research and development. In 1968, he joined
McKinsey & Company, and in 1970, became group vice president at
General Instrument Corporation (GI). He was later president of
Jerrold Electronics, a GI subsidiary. For twenty-four years, from 1973 to 1996, Malone was president and CEO of
Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI). In business dealings Malone has been dubbed "Darth Vader", a nickname allegedly given to him by
Al Gore when Malone was the head of TCI. In 1994,
Wired portrayed Malone on their cover as "Mad Max" from
The Road Warrior (also known as
Mad Max 2), with an interview describing his battles with the FCC. Malone is known throughout the business world as the "Cable Cowboy". Bloomberg estimated him to be worth over US$9 billion in May 2021. ==Land ownership==