[1] They are also primarily known for other activities in the automotive industry by investing in Ferrari (1969), Lancia (1969), Alfa Romeo (1986) and Chrysler, the latter acquired by Fiat after it filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

Most members of the family are stakeholders in privately owned Giovanni Agnelli B.V., which in turn has a controlling stake in the publicly listed holding company Exor.

The family has sometimes been described in American media as "the Kennedys of Italy" for their role in the country's contemporary history and their activity of patronage in modern art and in sports.

[3] In 1899, Giovanni Agnelli (1866–1945) and a group of investors founded the company Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino (Fiat), being after senator of the Italian government.

[17][18] February 1992 saw the start of the mani pulite (Clean Hands) judicial inquiry into Tangentopoli,[19][20][21] nationwide corruption with a large number of politicians, bureaucrats and entrepreneurs involved including senior Fiat executives.

[9] A year after Romiti took over as chairman of Fiat, he was convicted of "having falsified company accounts, committing tax fraud and making illegal payments to political parties.

Even though Gianni Agnelli was not implicated by the magistrates, some believed that he had lacked judgement in not denouncing Italy's endemic corruption and in downplaying Fiat's responsibilities.

[8][9] Gianni Agnelli in fact had defended the actions of Romiti and the co-accused Francesco Paolo Mattioli, Fiat's chief financial officer.

[9] A 1997 article published in The Economist quoted Gianni Agnelli confidence in the Turin Two's innocence and concluded that business attitudes among Italy's powerful ancien régime was left unchanged since the scandal of tangentopoli ("bribesville") emerged.

[22] "Mr. Romiti and Mr. Mattioli had approved a series of slush funds from 1980 through 1992 to provide for Fiat's illegal political contributions and had falsified accounts to hide the payments.

"[21]: 193 Professor Gaspare Nevola of the Università degli Studi di Trento, explained that Italian society celebrated a common sense of belonging and national identity through collective identification at Gianni Agnelli's Funeral.

[24] IFIL's fat investment portfolio included stakes in Club Méditerranée, French conglomerate Worms & Cie., and department store chain La Rinascente, and provided the family with a steady stream of reliable dividends that offset the wild fluctuations of profitability—and lately, loss—at Fiat.

In a lawsuit filed in 2007 and rejected in 2010,[3] Margherita Agnelli asked the annullation of the 2004 inheritance agreement signed with her mother; she said that it was based on incomplete information.

[3] The lawsuit demanded that Gabetti, Grande Stevens, and Marrone provide a report on her father's estate "with information pertaining to the historic evolution of the assets" from January 24, 1993, forward.

D'Antona & Partners, a Milan-based public-relations firm, provided The Wall Street Journal with news of the lawsuit before the Agnelli family was aware of it.

In Turin, Italy in March 2010 Judge Brunella Rosso rejected the lawsuit filed against Margherita's mother Marella Agnelli and advisers Franzo Grande Stevens and Gianluigi Gabetti.

[11] In 2009 as the U.S. automobile industry was collapsing Fiat became a trailblazer by acquiring an initial 20% stake in the then-bankrupt Chrysler company in a deal with the Obama administration.

According to an article in the Financial Post,[34] in February 2007 Consob, Italy's market regulator, fined the Agnelli family holding company, then-called Ifil (now known as Exor), for engaging in a complicated illegal trade in 2005.

"[34] Gianluigi Gabetti was director general of IFIL Group, the family investment company since 1971 and worked there as Gianni's closest financial adviser for over 30 years.

[35] Stellantis, a multi-national company and a core business of the clan, was established in 2021 after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Groupe PSA merged.

[39] The Agnellis have the club's majority shares since it was constituted as a private limited company under the legal entity of società a responsabilità limitata in 1949,[2] and have been credited for much of the team's success and by extension in the development of football in Italy due an administrative gestion model and sporting ethos called by the country's mass media since the 1930s as Stile Juventus, or Juventus Style,[40][41] based in patience, consistency and a kind of effective and efficient long-term strategic planning unusual for the administrative model generally used in Italy, both of which the ownership is renowned for.