Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and now the first trillionaire, controls many different businesses.
Electric vehicles, brain implants, underground tunnels, a social media platform once called Twitter and now X, and a rocket manufacturing company that began trading on the New York Stock Exchange this week.
Over time, more of these ventures have come under the same roof. Musk merged SpaceX — which went public on Friday — with his artificial intelligence company xAI earlier this year. But he still holds CEO positions at several corporations, among other various executive titles or ownership stakes.
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 rockets.
It owns the Starlink satellite communications service, a major source of cash for the company, which generated $4,4 billion in operating income last year.
SpaceX also owns the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, which Musk bought for $44 billion in 2022 and placed under xAI, the maker of the chatbot Grok.
Both xAI and X are money losers (the AI business lost $6,4 billion in business last year).
Still, SpaceX, which lost a total of $2,6 billion from operations last year, managed to raise enough market capitalization to debut the largest initial public offering in history on Friday, closing at just under $161 per share, giving it a total market value of $2,1 trillion.
Some believe that price significantly overvalues the company.
SpaceX has promised to become a leader in artificial intelligence and one day help make human life multiplanetary — with lofty, and sometimes science fiction, goals ranging from placing data centers in space to colonizing Mars.
But most of it depends on technology and huge capital needs.
Musk is also the CEO of Tesla, a position he has held at the electric car manufacturer since 2008.
Tesla is battling growing competition in the electric vehicle sector. Last year, the company lost its title as the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer to China's BYD.
Sales were also hurt during the boycott over Musk's policies.
Those numbers have since recovered somewhat, but Musk has repeatedly ignored the problems, emphasizing that Tesla's future lies less in selling cars than in people using them as autonomous taxis.
Tesla is ramping up production of robots for homes and businesses. It has also been in the solar energy business for about a decade with the purchase of SolarCity, a company founded by Musk and two of his cousins.
Tesla went public in 2010 and joined the trillion-dollar club on the S&P 500. 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 with machines.
They have launched clinical trials for people with spinal cord injuries, ALS, and other conditions. The company (and sometimes Musk himself) has announced several brain implants in recent years. In January, Neuralink announced that it had 21 trial participants worldwide.
Musk also founded The Boring Company, a decade-old tunneling and underground transportation company.
The Boring Company is behind projects like the “Vegas Loop” – a network of underground tunnels for Tesla, which first opened around the Las Vegas Convention Center in 2021.
It has promised to deliver a rapid transit network – with plans to also build tunnels in Dubai and Nashville.
However, the company has been accused of violating multiple safety and environmental requirements in Las Vegas, where its entire route is still not completed. There has also been criticism from some local officials in Nashville.
Musk made his initial fortune by creating two companies, Zip2 and PayPal (formerly X.com). Those startups were sold to new owners decades ago — but they netted him about $200 million in sales, which Musk later used to start SpaceX and invest in Tesla.
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