AECOM (No. 1) disrupted size norms in the design world in 2014, when it purchased URS Corp. By the end of last year, it had became an $18-billion engineer-construct behemoth with more than 90,000 staffers.
The firm now is building on broadened capabilities to cast its lot with mega-disruptor Elon Musk, CEO of Space-X, and other technology firms to build U.S. test beds to assess the viability of the ultra-high-tech Hyperloop transportation system that the developers contend could one day could move people and goods in levitating pods through vacuum tubes at up to 750 miles per hour.