Elon Musk adds AI to empire of Twitter, Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink & Boring Company
His newest company, xAI, wants to 'understand the true nature of the universe]
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Elon Musk added Wednesday to his already-lengthy resume when he officially introduced his new artificial intelligence company, xAI.
The 52-year-old executive, born in South Africa, currently has leadership or founder positions at numerous companies in the tech sector. His serial entrepreneurship has helped him build a personal fortune worth roughly $250.4 billion as of Friday, making him the world’s richest person, according to Forbes.
He got his start with Zip2, an online business directory service, and X.com, which later became PayPal, as FOX Business previously reported.
Find a closer look at his various businesses below:
xAI
The artificial intelligence (AI) company got unveiled roughly four months after Musk moved to register X.AI as a domestic corporation in Las Vegas. xAI, which has a stated mission to "understand the true nature of the universe," has the tech billionaire steering it, according to its website.
Team members at xAI "have previously worked at DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla, and the University of Toronto," the company said.
ELON MUSK INTRODUCES XAI, A NEW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COMPANY
While Musk has expressed concerns about AI and encouraged regulation, he has also indicated a "maximum truth-seeking" AI chatbot was a tool he was interested in building.
Musk ran Twitter as CEO for roughly seven months after buying the platform for an eye-popping $44 billion last year and taking it private.
In that time, he brought numerous product changes like an edit button and a 25,000-character limit for tweets that users must now pay $8 per month to get access to along with a blue verification badge. The company’s headcount has also been trimmed by roughly 6,000, he has said.
In this photo illustration, the Elon Musk Twitter account seen displayed on a smartphone and Twitter logo in the background. (Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
In early June, when former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino took on the title of Twitter’s CEO, he switched to "overseeing product, software & sysops" as executive chair and CTO.
Tesla
The tech billionaire’s tenure at Tesla has spanned nearly 15 years so far.
SHANGHAI, CHINA - JUNE 02: Aerial view of Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory on June 2, 2023 in Shanghai, China. ((Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
The electric vehicle and clean energy company hit a production milestone in early March – building its 4 millionth vehicle. Its slate of cars currently includes Models S, 3, X and Y, with a Cybertruck on the way. It has also started rolling out Tesla Semi trucks.
TESLA COMMITS TO PROMOTING ‘CORE SOCIALIST VALUES’ IN PLEDGE WITH CHINESE AUTO COMPANIES
Companies such as Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Rivian have recently revealed plans to add accessibility to Tesla’s Supercharger network via its North American Charging Standard.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSLA | TESLA INC. | 319.87 | +8.69 | +2.79% |
Tesla Inc
SpaceX
SpaceX, which Musk founded in 2002 and helms as CEO, has done a total of 245 rocket launches so far, according to its website. The company has lucrative contracts with NASA, including a $2.9 billion one for a lunar lander.
This undated photo provided by SpaceX shows the company's Starship rocket at the launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. ((SpaceX via AP) / AP Newsroom)
It also operates Starlink, a satellite-based internet service that’s available in dozens of countries around the world. In a May tweet, the service said it had over 1.5 million customers.
Neuralink
Musk’s Neuralink tweeted in late May it had been authorized to pursue its "first-in-human" clinical study, having finally received FDA approval to do so.
ELON MUSK'S BRAIN IMPLANT TECHNOLOGY GAINS FDA APPROVAL
The neurotechnology company has identified its goal as building a "generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today" as well as "unlock[ing] human potential" in the future. Its current focus is giving quadriplegics the "ability to control their computers and mobile devices" via thought, according to its website.
He helped found the company about seven years ago.
Neuralink logo displayed on a phone screen, a silhouette of a paper in shape of a human face and a binary code displayed on a screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on December 10, 2021. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Boring Company
The Boring Company aims to reduce traffic and "transform" cities, something it aims to do via building transportation, utility and freight tunnels, according to its website.
There, the Musk-founded company lists a few projects – including its Las Vegas Convention Center Loop, a research-and-development tunnel in Hawthorne, California, and a hyperloop test track – as having been completed. The "Vegas Loop" under the Strip and a tunnel connecting Resorts World Las Vegas to the convention center are still in the works.
Last year, the flamethrower-selling company offered a "Burnt Hair" perfume, over 10,000 of which were sold, FOX Business previously reported.
Breck Dumas and Daniella Genovese contributed to this report.