From SpaceX to Neuralink, a look at Elon Musk’s growing business empire

Elon Musk's business empire spans SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company and other ventures. With interests ranging from artificial intelligence and electric vehicles to brain implants and space exploration, Musk oversees one of the world's most influential corporate networks

New York: Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and now the first-ever trillionaire, controls a wide range of businesses.

Electric vehicles. Brain implants. Underground tunnels. A social media platform once called Twitter. And a rocket maker that began trading on Wall Street this week.

---

Over time, more and more of these ventures have found themselves 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 the CEO role at several corporations today, in addition to various other executive titles and ownership stakes.

Here’s a look at Musk’s vast business empire.

SpaceX

Musk is CEO of SpaceX, which he founded in 2002.

The company has grown far beyond rockets. It owns satellite communications service Starlink, a major source of revenue that generated $4.4 billion in operating income last year. SpaceX also houses social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, which Musk bought for $44 billion in 2022 and placed under xAI, the maker of the Grok chatbot.

Both xAI and X are loss-making businesses, with the AI company losing $6.4 billion from operations last year. Nonetheless, SpaceX — which lost $2.6 billion overall from operations last year — generated enough market interest to debut with the largest initial public offering in history on Friday, closing at just under $161 per share, or a total market value of $2.1 trillion.

Some analysts believe that valuation significantly overstates the company’s worth.

SpaceX has promised it will become a leader in AI and one day help make human life multiplanetary, with ambitious goals ranging from putting data centres in space to colonising Mars. However, much of that vision depends on unproven technology and substantial capital requirements.

Tesla

Musk is also CEO of Tesla, a role he has held at the electric vehicle maker since 2008.

Tesla has struggled with rising competition in the EV sector. Last year, the company lost its crown as the world’s largest EV maker to China’s BYD. Sales were also affected by boycotts linked to Musk’s political views. Those numbers have since recovered somewhat, but Musk has repeatedly downplayed such concerns, emphasising that Tesla’s future lies less in selling cars than in providing self-driving taxi services.

Beyond the road, Tesla has been increasing production of robots for homes and businesses. It has also been in the solar energy business for about a decade following its acquisition of SolarCity, which was founded by Musk and two of his cousins.

Tesla went public in 2010 and later joined the trillion-dollar club on the S&P 500. Its market capitalisation currently stands at around $1.5 trillion.

Neuralink

Musk also holds the CEO title at Neuralink, a brain-computer interface company he co-founded in 2016.

Neuralink is one of several groups working to connect the human nervous system to machines. It has launched clinical trials for people with spinal cord injuries, ALS and other conditions. The company, and sometimes Musk himself, has announced a number of brain implant developments in recent years. In January, Neuralink said it had 21 trial participants worldwide.

The Boring Company

Musk also founded The Boring Company, a decade-old tunnel-digging and underground transportation business.

The Boring Company is behind projects such as the “Vegas Loop”, a network of underground Tesla transport tunnels that first opened around the Las Vegas Convention Center in 2021. It has promised to deliver a high-speed transit network, with plans to also build tunnels in Dubai and Nashville.

However, criticism has mounted along the way. The company has been accused of violating multiple safety and environmental requirements in Las Vegas, where its full route remains unfinished, and has also faced opposition from some local officials in Nashville.

PayPal and other previous endeavours

Musk made his initial fortune by creating two companies, Zip2 and PayPal (once X.com). Those start-ups were sold to new owners decades ago, but earned him about $200 million from the sales, which Musk later used to start SpaceX and invest in Tesla.