Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s AI career includes founding leadership at OpenAI and later leadership of xAI. He studied physics and business at the University of Pennsylvania, helped build early software companies, and led SpaceX from 2002. He joined Tesla’s board in 2004 and became chief executive in 2008. OpenAI’s 2015 announcement named Musk and Sam Altman as cochairs alongside a wider founding team. Musk left its board in 2018. He became xAI chief executive in March 2023. The xAI team introduced Grok later that year and released its Grok-1 base model weights in 2024. In February 2026 xAI announced its acquisition by SpaceX.
- Now at
- xAI
Timeline
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2002
Establishing SpaceX
He has led SpaceX since May 2002.
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2004–2008
A role at Tesla
Joined Tesla’s board in 2004 and became chief executive in 2008.
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2015
Helping establish OpenAI
Was named an OpenAI founding cochair with Sam Altman.
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2018
Leaving the OpenAI board
Left OpenAI’s board in February 2018.
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2024
Releasing a model checkpoint
The xAI team released the Grok-1 base model checkpoint in 2024.
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2026
Joining the space company
xAI announced its acquisition by SpaceX in February 2026.
Sources and credits
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