Elon Musk Companies
Visionary, business tycoon and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known for his controversial remarks on social media and the internet. While well-known for his role at Tesla, Musk is also a serial investor and entrepreneur.
As with any long-time investor, some of his efforts haven’t quite panned out, but many have thrived and are among the most exciting names in technology. Here’s a look at just a few of the companies that Elon Musk has invested in, some well-known and others still waiting to break major headlines.
SpaceX
The second name that most people associate Elon Musk with after Tesla is SpaceX. As with most things that Musk experiments with, SpaceX isn’t “just” a rocket company. The true appeal of SpaceX is that it is cost-effective as compared to any other traditional rocket technology, owing to the fact that the company’s rockets are self-landing and reusable. SpaceX creates a base for one of Musk’s biggest dreams, the mission to Mars.
https://www.spacex.com/
Tesla(TSLA)
Any list of Elon Musk’s investments has to begin and end with Tesla, which has made history by being the first viable and profitable maker of electric vehicles. Musk and Tesla continue to innovate, from the original roadster to the newer Model S, Model 3 and new Roadster models. Tesla stock surged about 700% in 2020 alone, helping make Musk the richest person in the world.
https://www.tesla.com/
SolarCity
As the CEO of Tesla, Musk is well-known for supporting environmental and sustainable causes. Thus, it should be no surprise that he’s a fan of SolarCity, which is one of the country’s largest installers of solar panels. In fact, in 2016 Musk’s Tesla actually acquired the company. This actually created legal problems for Musk, as he is currently in court defending the acquisition, which was said to unjustly enrich family members.
https://www.solarcity.com
Neuralink
Neuralink is a company that Musk co-founded in 2016 that has recently raised $205 million in additional capital from Google Ventures and others. As the name implies, the company aims to create a neural link between brains and computers via high-bandwidth brain implants. While this can seem a bit “Terminator-esque,” the company’s first goal is to help quadriplegics interact with digital devices like computers and phones.
https://neuralink.com/
X.com/Paypal
Musk’s innovative investments are generally focused on technology, but they are actually quite diverse in terms of the actual industry. One of Musk’s earliest investments was in a payment processing company that was the forerunner to PayPal, X.com. In that sense, Musk can be considered to be the father of email payment processing as well.
https://www.paypal.com/
Zip2 Corporation
Zip2 Corporation is notable because it is the first of Elon Musk’s many known investments. Back when the internet needed yellow pages — that is, before search engines like Yahoo and Google — Zip2 Corporation filled in the blanks, way back in 1995. Musk later sold the company to Compaq in a $307 million deal, which at the time was the largest sum ever paid to acquire an internet company.
