Elon Musk joined Tesla as chairman in 2004, one year after the company was founded.
Tesla was established in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk led the company's first major funding round and became chairman, while later becoming its most prominent executive and public representative.
A frequent misconception is that Musk founded Tesla. He was not one of the original founders, although his early investment, leadership, and involvement in product development were central to the company's growth. Tesla's first production vehicle was the Roadster, introduced in 2008.
Tesla helped move battery-electric vehicles from a niche technology toward mainstream attention. Its market capitalization has also reflected expectations about batteries, charging networks, energy storage, software, and autonomous-driving technology, not only current vehicle sales.