Its holding include auto and truck manufacturers Stellantis, Ferrari, and Iveco, agricultural and construction firm CNH Industrial, health technology company Philips, the association football club Juventus FC, the international newspaper The Economist, and the Italian media company GEDI Gruppo Editoriale, as well as several other minor investments.

In 1957, IFI acquired control of Istituto Commerciale Laniero Italiano (ICLI), which conducted activities in the financial field, particularly in the textile and wool sector.

[3] Over the following decades, while remaining the largest shareholder in FIAT, IFI gained holdings in numerous firms, including Buzzi Unicem, Rockefeller Center, Cinzano, Club Med, 3M and a minority stake in Swiss bank SGS.

[8] In April 2007 John Elkann, who had been nominated as his successor and largest shareholder by Gianni Agnelli, assumed the chairmanship of IFI.

[9] With the aim of simplifying the capital structure, on 1 March 2009 IFIL Investments merged with and into IFI to create Exor S.p.A., the new listed holding company of the Agnelli group.

On 12 August 2015, it was announced Exor would purchase three-fifths of The Economist Group shares then owned by Pearson PLC,[20] which had held a non-controlling 50% stake since 1928.

[24] With a press release on 14 April 2015, Exor announced a tender offer to acquire PartnerRe, a Bermuda-based insurance company, for $6.4 billion.

[25] After months of public negotiations due to a competing bid from Axis Capital, Exor signed an agreement to acquire PartnerRe on 3 August 2015, valuing the company at $6.9 billion.

[28] After initially selling a 9% stake through an IPO on the NYSE in October 2015, FCA announced that it would distribute its remaining 81% interest in Ferrari N.V. to shareholders.

[31] Exor announced on 25 July 2016 that it would relocate its legal and fiscal domicile to the Netherlands, with the purpose of aligning its capital structure with that of major subsidiaries.

[37] Upon learning of Sergio Marchionne's irrevocable health conditions on 21 July 2018, Exor led efforts to replace him in all group companies in which he was involved: Mike Manley replaced him as CEO of FCA, Suzanne Heywood as chairwoman of CNH Industrial, and John Elkann as executive chairman of Ferrari, with Louis Camilleri assuming the role of Ferrari CEO.

[39] In December 2019, the board of Compagnie Industriali Riunite (CIR) accepted Exor's offer to buy its 43.78% stake in GEDI Gruppo Editoriale.

[43] In December 2020, Exor announced an €80 million investment in Chinese luxury brand Shang Xia, partnering with Hermès.

[50] Exor became a minority shareholder of the French fashion house Christian Louboutin in March 2021, purchasing 24% of the company for €541 million.

[67][68] In June 2023, Exor announced its partnership with Impala to form TagHolding, single shareholder of TagEnergy, a company operating in the renewables and energy storage sectors.

[69] On 14 August 2023, Exor acquired 15% of Philips, a multinational company in the health and technology sector, in an operation worth €2.6 billion.

[70] As part of an agreement signed with Philips, Exor may increase its shareholding to 20% and gains the right to appoint one member of the supervisory board.

[73] In March 2024, Exor increased its stake in UK-based Clarivate, a global provider of data, analytics, technology and expert services, to 10.1%.

[74] Also in 2024, Exor, through NUO, acquired a 30% stake in Osit Impresa SpA, which owns Italian women's fashion brand Subdued.

[91] Known investments as of 23 April 2024, excluding those reclassified as "Companies" or acquired, are the following:[92] As part of its already existing Exor Ventures program, in March 2022 Exor launched VENTO, a venture capital firm in Italy guided by Diyala D'Aveni, to create "an Italy-focused seed initiative to support the country’s most promising entrepreneurs building the next generation of great companies".

As of 23 April 2024, VENTO's portfolio includes the following companies:[93] As of 23 April 2024, the board of directors in charge of Exor was as follows:[94] John Elkann, Ginevra Elkann, Alessandro Nasi and Tiberto Ruy Brandolini D'Adda are members of the Agnelli family and representatives of Giovanni Agnelli BV, the company's controlling shareholder.

[95] On 27 September 2021, former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive, joined Exor's Partners Council along with the announcement of a multi-year collaboration with his creative collective LoveFrom.

[96] As of 22 July 2022, in addition to Elkann, Ive, and Osborne, it consisted of CEO and Spotify founder Daniel Ek, Benefits Management Group chief investment officer Michael Larson, 3G Capital co-founder Jorge Paulo Lemann, Alphabet and Google senior vice president and chief financial officer Ruth Porat, OCI Global CEO Nassef Sawiris; Sequoia Capital China founder and managing partner Neil Shen, Tishman Speyer president and CEO Rob Speyer, Alibaba Group executive vice chairman Joseph Tsai, Index Ventures co-founder Mike Volpi, and 7-Main founder, owner, and chairwoman Ruth Wertheimer.