Tesla held its initial public offering on the Nasdaq on June 29, 2010.
Tesla sold 13.3 million shares in its IPO at $17 per share, raising about $226 million before expenses. It was the first American automobile company to go public since Ford Motor Company in 1956, making the offering notable well beyond the electric-vehicle industry.
Tesla was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Elon Musk joined soon afterward as an early major investor and became chairman, later serving as chief executive. The company’s market value grew dramatically as investors anticipated large-scale adoption of electric vehicles and related energy products.
Tesla’s IPO year is sometimes confused with the launch of the Roadster, its first production car. The Roadster entered production in 2008, two years before Tesla became publicly traded.