Founded in 1803, Carnegie is headquartered in Stockholm with offices across the Nordic region, as well as in London, New York, and Luxembourg.

The company has market leading positions in equities research and brokerage, corporate finance advisory and private wealth management.

When David Carnegie, Sr. died in 1890, Ekman inherited a substantial amount of shares and obtained majority ownership of the company.

In 1907 the company was once again taken over, this time by Ekman's son-in-law Karl Langenskiöld, whereupon the formerly brewing and sugar businesses were divested.

In the wake of the economic crisis of 2008, Carnegie Investment Bank AB was, to avoid bankruptcy, taken over by the Swedish National Debt Office on 10 November 2008.

The bank had crossed the restrictions from the Swedish supervisory authority, Finansinspektionen, when lending too high of a sum to one client, property magnate Maths O.