10 companies that made Elon Musk famous

Elon Musk has participated in founding or operating a total of 10 companies, mainly in the technology field with different business ideas.

The South African-born billionaire started his career at the age of 24 and has worked in 10 different companies. At the age of 51, he owns a fortune of about $ 243 billion and is the richest person on the planet according to Forbes statistics .

Billionaire Elon Musk. Photo: Reuters

Zip2

In 1995, with a $28,000 loan from his father, Elon Musk and his younger brother Kimbal started a business with Zip2 - a project that provides map and phone directory services for online newspapers. After four years, they sold the company to Compaq for $307 million. Musk received 22 million USD, became a millionaire and continued to invest this capital in the next projects.

PayPal

In 1999, after the Zip2 deal, Musk used $12 million to establish the online financial services company X.com. In 2000, he accepted a merger with rival Confinity and changed the company's name to PayPal. However, he was later asked by the board of directors to leave his leadership position because of disagreements.

PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002. Musk is the largest shareholder and receives between $160 million and $180 million after taxes. He used this money to invest in SpaceX and Tesla - two companies that helped him become a billionaire.

SpaceX

SpaceX is an aerospace company founded by Musk and Tom Mueller in 2002. The team aims to minimize the cost of transporting people and goods to space and pave the way for future exploration of Mars. .

In December 2010, they became the first private company to launch a spaceship into orbit and return it safely to the ground. By May 2020, Musk's team cooperated with NASA to send people to the International Space Station (ISS). In addition, SpaceX also provides Starlink satellite Internet service.

According to the WSJ , in the first quarter of 2023, SpaceX achieved revenue of $ 1.5 billion and was profitable for the first time. Musk's company is currently valued at about $150 billion.

Tesla

The world's largest electric vehicle company was founded in 2003, named after American physicist Nikola Tesla. Musk has held the position of CEO of the company since 2008. According to Reuters , the company achieved record sales of 466,110 vehicles in the second quarter of 2023, an increase of 83% over the same period last year. In China - the world's second largest consumer of electric vehicles after North America, Tesla also holds a large market share despite competition from rival BYD.

SolarCity

In 2006, based on Elon Musk's idea, his cousins ​​Peter and Lyndon Rive founded SolarCity, a company providing solar energy solutions. Musk later also held the position of chairman and largest shareholder.

According to Lydon Rive, Musk has very little time for the company, he only occasionally communicates by phone and attends some meetings, but still covers SolarCity's operations. In 2013, Solar Power World magazine ranked the company second on the list of top solar system installers in the US.

In 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity for $2.6 billion to supplement Tesla Energy's operations in the field of solar energy storage, to serve free charging stations for electric vehicles.

OpenAI

In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a non-profit startup specializing in artificial intelligence research. However, the American billionaire left the company in 2018 citing concerns about conflicts of interest when he held a leadership position at Tesla - a unit that is also developing AI in self-driving cars.

In 2019, OpenAI received a billion USD in capital from Microsoft. Now the company has switched to a profitable business with its key product, ChatGPT.

Neuralink

Neuralink is a neurotechnology company founded by Musk in 2016. The company's purpose is to research methods of treating brain diseases, and at the same time help connect the human brain to computers through implantable devices. graft.

According to Musk, Neuralink's product will help paralyzed patients control electronics with their thoughts. After a period of testing on animals, the company was allowed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test implanting chips into the human brain from the end of May.

The company has currently raised a minimum of $363 million in capital, including $100 million from Musk and undisclosed amounts from a number of other venture capitalists.

The Boring Company

In January 2017, Musk founded The Boring Company, promising to help change the face of transportation in the US. The company plans to build a network of tunnels for super-fast self-driving cars, from which it can transport passengers and goods without worrying about traffic congestion. However, after many years, the project still has very modest results. WSJ believes that Musk abandoned the project when he stopped advertising the self-driving segment and did not respond to customers. Even some roads under construction were abandoned.

The company representative blamed the government for obstructing, but when there was support, the old works still could not operate. Some experts evaluate The Boring Company's goals as just exaggerated words of an American billionaire.

X

X is originally the Twitter platform, acquired by Musk in October 2022 for 44 billion USD. Musk has repeatedly vowed to turn X into a super application, similar to China's WeChat. To achieve this goal, he fired a series of leaders and required employees to work with high intensity. In July, he changed Twitter's name and logo to X, eliminating all references to the old brand.

However, statistics show that X's financial situation has not improved much. Partners are afraid to sign advertising contracts due to concerns about Musk's erratic regulations. According to Fidelity data in May, X's valuation fell to $15 billion. On August 21, Musk admitted that X may fail, but he will try to create the best social network for users.

xAI

On July 12, Musk founded xAI with the goal of understanding "the nature of the universe" and developing an alternative to ChatGPT. xAI has the participation of many leading experts in the field of artificial intelligence, having worked for Google or Microsoft. According to Business Insider , Musk bought 10,000 graphics cards from Nvidia to serve the AI ​​training process at the new company.