Authors Nafnlaus
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30 days
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Every now and then, the old lie, "Martin Eberhard founded Tesla, Elon Musk stole it from him!" crops up.
Facts matter, so let's break down the actual timeline.
'94: Musk does a summer internship developing advanced capacitors in hopes of being able to use them for EVs.
'94: AC Propulsion (Gage, Cocconi) release the first version of the AC-150 powertrain.
'94: Musk founds Zip2 along with Kimbal and Greg Kouri. Musk's investment was the PC.
Fall, '94: Musk moves to California to attend Stanford for postgraduate physics studies, but immediately drops out due to the internet boom and the rising success of his company Zip2.
'97: Gage starts tzero construction. Cocconi further develops the powertrain.
'97: Eberhard and Tarpenning cofound NuvoMedia, an e-book company
Spring '98: Straubel receives BS in Energy Systems Engineering from Stanford
Feb. '99: Compaq purchases Zip2 for $305M. Elon earns $22M.
Nov '99: Musk founds
Jan '00: Gemstar-TV acquires NuvoMedia from Eberhard and Tarpenning for $187M, making them likewise wealthy.
Mar '00: * Straubel receives M.S. in Energy Engineering from Stanford. * https://t.co/FaUDDd5T0X merges with Confinity to form PayPal. * The dotcom bubble peaks.
Facts matter, so let's break down the actual timeline.
'94: Musk does a summer internship developing advanced capacitors in hopes of being able to use them for EVs.
'94: AC Propulsion (Gage, Cocconi) release the first version of the AC-150 powertrain.
'94: Musk founds Zip2 along with Kimbal and Greg Kouri. Musk's investment was the PC.
Fall, '94: Musk moves to California to attend Stanford for postgraduate physics studies, but immediately drops out due to the internet boom and the rising success of his company Zip2.
'97: Gage starts tzero construction. Cocconi further develops the powertrain.
'97: Eberhard and Tarpenning cofound NuvoMedia, an e-book company
Spring '98: Straubel receives BS in Energy Systems Engineering from Stanford
Feb. '99: Compaq purchases Zip2 for $305M. Elon earns $22M.
Nov '99: Musk founds
Jan '00: Gemstar-TV acquires NuvoMedia from Eberhard and Tarpenning for $187M, making them likewise wealthy.
Mar '00: * Straubel receives M.S. in Energy Engineering from Stanford. * https://t.co/FaUDDd5T0X merges with Confinity to form PayPal. * The dotcom bubble peaks.