The Companies
Rockets, cars, satellites, AI, brain implants and tunnels — the businesses Elon Musk runs today, and the ones that got him here.
SpaceX
2002–presentFounder, CEO and chief engineer
Founded in 2002 to cut the cost of spaceflight and make life multiplanetary. The world's busiest launch provider, operator of Starlink and, since 2026, owner of SpaceXAI.
Tesla
2004–presentEarly investor and chairman (2004), CEO since 2008
Electric cars, batteries, solar and robots. Headquartered at Gigafactory Texas in Austin; the world's most valuable automaker since July 2020.
Starlink
2019–presentSpaceX division
Satellite internet from low Earth orbit in about 160 countries — more than 12 million subscribers as of June 2026.
SpaceXAI (xAI)
2023–presentFounder
Founded as xAI in March 2023. Builds the Grok models and the Colossus data centres; part of SpaceX since February 2026.
X (formerly Twitter)
2022–presentOwner (2022), now part of SpaceXAI
Bought for US$44 billion in October 2022 and renamed X in July 2023 — Musk's bet on free speech and an "everything app".
Neuralink
2016–presentCo-founder
Brain–computer interfaces. First human implant in January 2024; the Blindsight project aims to restore some vision to blind people.
The Boring Company
2017–presentFounder
Tunnels to beat traffic. The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop opened in 2021; the Vegas Loop is planned to grow to 68 miles.
Earlier ventures
X.com / PayPal
1999–2002Co-founder
X.com merged with Confinity in March 2000 to form PayPal, which eBay bought for US$1.5 billion in 2002.
SolarCity
2006–2016Chairman
Solar installer founded by Musk's cousins Peter and Lyndon Rive; acquired by Tesla in 2016 and folded into Tesla Energy.
OpenAI
2015–2018Co-founder and co-chair
Co-founded in 2015 as a non-profit with Sam Altman; Musk left the board in 2018 and later founded xAI.