The myth surrounding Elon Musk‘s role in Tesla’s founding has been thoroughly debunked by legal documents that reveal a vastly different story than the one Musk has repeatedly told to media outlets and podcasters like Joe Rogan.
In numerous public appearances, Musk has consistently presented himself as a founder of Tesla Motors. However, legal documents from a 2009 lawsuit filed by Martin Eberhard, the actual founder of Tesla, reveal a pattern of false claims that contradicts the historical record.
According to court filings from Eberhard v. Musk, Tesla Motors was founded in January 2002 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, more than two years before Musk’s involvement.
Eberhard, who holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Illinois and had previously founded two successful companies, incorporated Tesla Motors on July 1, 2003, alongside his business partner Mark Tarpenning. This was nearly two years after Musk had been fired from his CEO position at Confinity (PayPal) for incompetence and hiding financial information from investors.
The document reveals that Eberhard and Tarpenning had been developing their electric vehicle concept since January 2002, financing the company’s operations entirely with their own money until 2004. It was Eberhard who named the company after Nikola Tesla, envisioned the Roadster as a high-performance electric vehicle, and personally invested his own money to rescue AC Propulsion—the company whose technology would become fundamental to Tesla’s early development.
Ironically, Musk himself tweeted in 2018 that AC Propulsion’s TZero sports car “inspired the Tesla Roadster” and that without it, Tesla “would not exist.”
Musk didn’t enter the picture until April 2004 as merely an investor, contributing $6.5 million in Series A funding. Despite this timeline, Musk has repeatedly claimed founding status in media appearances and interviews.
Rather than contributing to the company’s success, the legal filing alleges that Musk “immediately began a campaign to appropriate control of the company and Eberhard’s legacy as the company’s founder and visionary.”
Musk’s involvement allegedly resulted in production delays and financial instability as he obsessed over marginal details like electronic door latches—modifications that cost millions and continue to endanger Tesla drivers when the latches fail without power.
The document details how Musk systematically rigged Tesla’s board with loyalists, using the same tactics he had employed at his previous companies. By 2007, Musk had engineered Eberhard’s ouster from the company he founded, first demoting him from CEO while he was out of town, then ultimately forcing him to resign entirely through threats to convert stock options and gain control of additional board seats.
During an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Elon Musk made a bold claim about his role in Tesla’s founding that directly contradicts well-documented historical records. When discussing his various business ventures, Musk flatly stated that Tesla “did not exist in any meaningful form” when he joined.
Elon Musk: The narrative saying I didn’t create Tesla is wrong.
Joe Rogan: “You came in at Tesla in the beginning, but they were already doing something, right?”
Elon: “No, Tesla did not exist in any meaningful form. There were no employees. JB Straubel and I joined three other… pic.twitter.com/zQs8pBn0pK
— ELON CLIPS (@ElonClipsX) October 12, 2025
“Tesla did not exist in any meaningful form that it was there were no employees,” Musk told Rogan during the podcast. “JB Straubel and I joined three other people there was no car there was no nothing… there weren’t even any employees… there wasn’t even a prototype yet.”
This narrative directly contradicts publicly available records and court documents. When Rogan mentioned the common understanding that Musk didn’t create Tesla from scratch, Musk laughed and dismissed it as “wrong.”
However, the facts paint a different picture. By the time Musk invested in Tesla, the company had already been working on electric vehicle technology for months. The original founders had identified the Lotus Elise as a potential platform for their electric sports car and had begun preliminary discussions with Lotus about a partnership.
In 2009, Eberhard sued Musk and Tesla, alleging that Musk had pushed him out of the company and was attempting to rewrite history by claiming founder status. The lawsuit was eventually settled, with terms that reportedly allowed Musk and four others, including Eberhard and Tarpenning, to call themselves co-founders.
The legal complaint lists numerous instances where Musk either claimed to be Tesla’s founder or failed to correct such assertions in media coverage. These include statements to major publications like CNN, articles on Tesla’s own website describing Musk as “involved in key product decisions since the start of Tesla Motors,” and various interviews where he positioned himself as the company’s creator rather than acknowledging Eberhard and Tarpenning’s foundational work.
Perhaps most tellingly, the lawsuit draws parallels to Musk’s similar behavior regarding PayPal.
The case was ultimately settled out of court, with the details sealed. However, Musk’s statement following the settlement acknowledged that “without Martin’s indispensable efforts, Tesla Motors would not be here today.”
Despite this admission, Musk has continued to present himself as Tesla’s founder in subsequent years.