new york:
Elon Musk, the richest person in the world and the first billionaire in history, runs a variety of businesses.
electric car. brain implant. underground tunnel. The social media platform formerly known as Twitter. and the rocket maker that was cut off from Wall Street this week.
Over time, these ventures increasingly came together under the same roof. Earlier this year, Musk merged SpaceX, which went public on Friday, with his artificial intelligence company xAI. However, he still holds CEO roles in several companies, as well as various other positions and ownership positions.
Here’s a look at Musk’s vast business empire.
Musk is the CEO of SpaceX, which he founded in 2002. The company has grown far beyond Rocket. The company owns the satellite communications service Starlink, which is a major source of cash for the company, which generated $4.4 billion in operating profit last year. SpaceX also has social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, which Musk acquired for $44 billion in 2022 and brought under xAI, the maker of the Grok chatbot.
xAI and X are both loss-making companies (the AI business lost $6.4 billion in operating losses last year). Nevertheless, SpaceX, which lost $2.6 billion overall in operations last year, was able to generate enough market hype on Friday to make the largest initial public offering in history, closing at just under $161 per share and a market cap of $2.1 trillion.
Some believe this price significantly overvalues the company. SpaceX promises to be a leader in AI and one day help make human life multiplanetary. The goals range from putting data centers in space to colonizing Mars and sound lofty and sometimes science fiction-like. But much of it depends on unproven technology and huge capital requirements.
Musk is also Tesla’s CEO, a position he has held at the electric car maker since 2008.
Tesla is struggling with increasing competition in the EV field. Last year, the company lost its position as the world’s largest EV maker to China’s BYD. Sales also took a hit due to the boycott over Musk’s politics. Those numbers have since rebounded somewhat, but Mr. Musk has repeatedly ignored the troubles and stressed that Tesla’s future lies less in selling cars and more in offering people rides in self-driving taxis.
Beyond the roads, Tesla is ramping up production of robots for homes and businesses. It also acquired SolarCity, a company founded by Musk and two of his cousins, and has been in the solar energy business for about 10 years. Tesla went public in 2010, joining the S&P 500 index’s trillion-dollar club. Its market capitalization is currently around $1.5 trillion.
Musk also holds the title of CEO of Neuralink, a brain-computer interface company he co-founded in 2016.
Neuralink is one of many groups working to connect the human nervous system to machines. The company has begun clinical trials targeting people with spinal cord injuries, ALS, and other illnesses. The company (and sometimes Musk himself) has announced several brain implants in recent years. Neuralink announced in January that it had 21 trial participants worldwide.
Musk also founded The Boring Company, a tunneling and underground transportation business that lasted a decade.
The Boring Company is pushing ahead with projects like the Vegas Loop, a network of underground tunnels hailing Tesla that first opened in 2021 around the Las Vegas Convention Center. It promises to provide a high-speed transit network, with plans to build tunnels in Dubai and Nashville as well. Still, there was a lot of backlash along the way. The company has been accused of violating multiple safety and environmental requirements in Las Vegas, where the entire line is still unfinished, and has faced other criticism from some local officials in Nashville.
Musk first made his fortune by founding two companies: Zip2 and PayPal (formerly X.com). These startups were sold to new owners decades ago for a profit of about $200 million, which Musk later used to found SpaceX and invest in Tesla.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
