Tesla was founded in 2003 by Elon Musk, Ian Wright, JB Straubel, Lyndon Rive, Marc Tarpenning, Martin Eberhard and Peter Rive.

Who are Tesla's co-founders?

Tesla was co-founded by Elon Musk, Ian Wright, JB Straubel, Lyndon Rive, Marc Tarpenning, Martin Eberhard and Peter Rive.

Company · Automotive & Mobility

Tesla

Q: What happened to Tesla's founders?

16 people who founded or worked at Tesla went on to start 32 other companies, including Alex Jacobs (Sila Nanotechnologies), Bernard Tse (Lucid Motors) and Elon Musk (Zip2, PayPal and 12 more).

Tesla was founded in 2003 in Austin, USA by Elon Musk, Ian Wright, JB Straubel, Lyndon Rive and 3 others. It is an Automotive & Mobility company.

Designs and manufactures electric vehicles, battery energy storage and solar products.

Public Founded 2003 Austin USA Automotive & Mobility

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Tesla founders & co-founders

Co-founder & former CEO

Peter Rive

Co-founder

Where its founders came from

The companies and labs that produced Tesla’s founders.

Zip2 PayPal X.com SpaceX NuvoMedia

What happened to Tesla’s founders and alumni

32 companies All ex-Tesla founders →

People who worked at or founded Tesla and went on to start their own companies.

The Tesla lineage graph — click any node to keep exploring.

Alex Jacobs

1 founded

Sila Nanotechnologies 2011

Bernard Tse

1 founded

Lucid Motors 2007

Elon Musk

14 founded

Zip2 1996 PayPal 1998 X.com 1999 SpaceX 2002 Hyperloop One 2014 OpenAI 2015 Neuralink 2016 The Boring Company 2016 Thud 2017 xAI 2023 X Corp. 2023 SpaceXAI 2023 X Holdings Corp 2023 America PAC

Gene Berdichevsky

1 founded

Sila Nanotechnologies 2011

Ian Wright

1 founded

Wrightspeed 2005

JB Straubel

1 founded

Redwood Materials 2017

Kunal Girotra

1 founded

Lunar Energy 2020