Which company owns the luxury electric-car brand Tesla and the spacecraft maker SpaceX?

Neither company owns the other: Tesla and SpaceX are separate companies associated with Elon Musk.

Tesla is a publicly traded electric-vehicle and clean-energy company. SpaceX is a privately held aerospace company founded by Musk in 2002. Musk has served as a leading executive at both, but their ownership and corporate structures are distinct.

Tesla’s shares trade publicly, so its market capitalization is reported continuously during stock-market hours. SpaceX does not have a standard public-market capitalization because its shares are not listed on a public exchange.

This distinction matters when comparing the world’s richest companies by market capitalization. A founder or executive can be connected with several businesses without those companies being subsidiaries of one another. Tesla’s vehicle brands and SpaceX’s rockets therefore should not be treated as one listed corporation.