Tesla electric vehicles and energy products

Tesla, Inc. is a leading American multinational company that has revolutionized the automotive and clean energy industries. Originally founded as Tesla Motors in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in San Carlos, California, the company was named in honor of the physicist Nikola Tesla. Elon Musk joined as the largest investor in 2004 and has served as CEO since 2008, leading the brand's transition from a niche luxury automaker to a global leader in mass-market electric vehicles (EVs), battery storage, and solar energy.

Manufacturing of Tesla products is distributed across a global network of high-tech facilities known as 'Gigafactories.' Major production hubs include the Fremont Factory in California and Gigafactory Texas in Austin, which also serves as the global corporate headquarters. Internationally, Tesla operates Gigafactory Shanghai in China—a critical export hub for Asian and European markets—and Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg in Germany. This diversified manufacturing strategy allows Tesla to produce vehicles like the Model S, 3, X, Y, and Cybertruck closer to their respective regional markets.

Ownership of Tesla is public, with the company traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker TSLA. As of 2026, Elon Musk remains the largest individual shareholder and the dominant figure in the company’s strategic direction, though large institutional investors such as Vanguard and BlackRock also hold significant stakes. The company continues to evolve beyond car manufacturing, positioning itself as an artificial intelligence and robotics powerhouse through initiatives like the Optimus humanoid robot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology.