Elon Musk is widely recognized as the visionary behind Tesla. However, the company was originally founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk joined later, led a major investment, and used strategic moves and legal maneuvers to rewrite the narrative and establish himself as a co-founder.

For most of its existence, Tesla being synonymous with Elon Musk has been an asset for the company. Though the world’s richest man was often embroiled in weird public scandals, customers and investors largely waved off the CEO’s behavior and continued to adore Tesla — presuming that the benefits Musk brought were worth the cost.