He is the founder, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla Inc.; co-chairman of OpenAI; founder and CEO of Neuralink. He was previously co-founder and chairman of SolarCity; co-founder of Zip2; and founder of X.com, which merged with Confinity and took the name PayPal.[20] As of May 2017, he has an estimated net worth of $15.2 billion, making him the 80th-wealthiest person in the world.[21] In December 2016, Musk was ranked 21st on the Forbeslist of The World's Most Powerful People.[22]
Musk has stated that the goals of SolarCity, Tesla, and SpaceX revolve around his vision to change the world and humanity.[23] His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the "risk of human extinction" by "making life multiplanetary"[24][25] by establishing a human colony on Mars.