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.