Elon Musk’s X.com merged with Confinity in 2000.
Musk founded X.com in March 1999 as an online financial-services company. Confinity, founded by Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Luke Nosek, and others, had initially worked on security software for handheld devices before developing an electronic payment service called PayPal.
X.com and Confinity merged in March 2000. The combined company focused increasingly on PayPal, whose simple email-based payment system gained traction among online users and eBay customers. Musk became chief executive of the merged company for a period, but the board later replaced him with Peter Thiel.
The company changed its name from X.com to PayPal in 2001. It was acquired by eBay the following year, linking Musk’s early online-finance venture to the payment brand that became globally recognized.