Tesla, Inc.

Tesla Motors was incorporated on July 1, 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Elon Musk did not found the company. He joined as chairman and lead investor in the Series A round in 2004, contributing $6.5 million. Musk would later fight a prolonged legal battle with Eberhard over credit for the founding — a dispute settled out of court in 2009.

By Christmas Eve 2008, Tesla was days from bankruptcy. The global financial crisis had frozen capital markets, and Musk had personally invested nearly his entire fortune into Tesla and SpaceX simultaneously. On December 24, Tesla closed a $40 million emergency financing round with hours to spare.

When Tesla launched the Model S in 2012, Consumer Reports gave it 99 out of 100 — the highest score in the publication's history. Motor Trend named it Car of the Year. The automotive industry, which had dismissed electric vehicles as glorified golf carts, quietly began its own electric programmes.

Tesla joined the S&P 500 in December 2020, triggering one of the largest index rebalancing events in history. Funds were forced to buy over $80 billion worth of Tesla shares in a single week. By year end, Tesla's stock had risen over 700%.

Tesla began aggressive price cuts in 2023, dropping some vehicle prices by over 20% to protect market share against surging Chinese competition, particularly from BYD. The strategy worked for volume but hurt margins.