Companies Owned by Tesla (2026)

What companies and brands does Tesla actually own in 2026?

The honest answer surprises people: Tesla owns relatively few separate companies, and almost none of them are consumer brands you would recognize on a shelf. Tesla's strategy has been to buy specific technology, manufacturing capability, or engineering talent and absorb it into the core business rather than to run a portfolio of standalone brands. The clearest exception — and by far its largest acquisition — is SolarCity, the solar installer Tesla bought in 2016 in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $2.6 billion. SolarCity is no longer marketed under its own name; it now operates as part of the Tesla Energy solar and storage business.

The rest of what Tesla owns reads like a list of engineering capabilities rather than brands. It owns Tesla Grohmann Automation (the German manufacturing-automation firm formerly called Grohmann Engineering, acquired 2016 for a reported ~$135 million), the factory-equipment maker Perbix (Minnesota, 2017), DeepScale (a computer-vision startup acquired in 2019 to strengthen Autopilot), and Hibar Systems (a Canadian battery-filling specialist, acquired around 2019 and folded into a Tesla Toronto automation entity). It also kept the dry battery electrode technology from Maxwell Technologies, plus in-house operations like Tesla Insurance Services and the Supercharger network.

Every one of those US operations sits inside a corporate structure made of subsidiaries, and historically many were organized in Delaware. That is the thread this page pulls on: the same legal vehicle a major multinational uses to hold its US operations is available, in single-entity form, to a founder forming their first company. The mechanics scale down cleanly to a single Delaware LLC, and the rest of this page walks through what Tesla owns, what it does not, and how you copy the structure without the overhead.

Is Tesla a Delaware company or a Texas company?

This is the nuance most ownership lists miss, and it is the most important fact on this page. For most of its history Tesla, Inc. was a Delaware corporation— the default home for venture-backed US companies and public companies alike. But in June 2024, after a Delaware Court of Chancery decision in Tornetta v. Musk voided Elon Musk's 2018 pay package, Tesla put a reincorporation to shareholders and, with their approval, converted into a Texas corporation under a plan of conversion. So today the listed parent is a Texas company, headquartered in Austin.

That makes Tesla a high-profile example of a company that left Delaware, and it is worth being precise about it rather than repeating the old assumption that every corporate giant is a Delaware corporation. The reincorporation changed the parent's state of formation; it did not erase Delaware from the picture entirely, because large US groups commonly keep operating companies, holding companies, and acquisition vehicles as Delaware entities even when the listed parent sits elsewhere. The parent's state of incorporation and the subsidiaries' states of incorporation are two different questions.

For a founder, the takeaway is reassuring and a little contrarian: you do not have to follow Tesla out of Delaware to benefit from it. The reasons a giant might reincorporate — a specific court ruling, a founder's control fight — have nothing to do with why a one-person business chooses Delaware. You are choosing the same jurisdiction Tesla's subsidiaries used, with one entity instead of dozens. The Delaware LLC formation process gives you that footing directly, and you can complete it from outside the United States.

What did Tesla get from the SolarCity acquisition?

SolarCity is the centerpiece of any honest list of what Tesla owns. When Tesla bought it in 2016, the pitch was to create a single integrated energy company spanning generation, storage, and transportation. In practice, SolarCity's residential and commercial solar business was folded into Tesla Energy, and the SolarCity brand was retired. The solar panels, Solar Roof, and Powerwall and Megapack storage products that Tesla sells today trace back, in part, to that acquisition.

One detail worth getting right: SolarCity had itself acquired smaller companies before Tesla bought it, including the solar-mounting-hardware firm Zep Solar. Those came along with the deal, which is a small illustration of how acquisitions nest inside one another — a parent buys a company that had already bought others, and the whole stack moves at once. The corporate mechanics that make those layered deals clean are exactly what Delaware's merger law is built for.

The structural point underneath the SolarCity deal matters more than the solar products. Acquisitions of this scale are routinely executed through merger subsidiaries — a shell entity is formed, it merges with the target, and the target survives as a wholly owned subsidiary. That is the same kind of entity, structurally, that a founder forms on day one: a company created for a specific purpose. The giant simply runs the maneuver at enormous scale. When you form your own Delaware LLC, you are reaching for the same toolbox, using one tool from it instead of dozens.

It is also worth being precise that SolarCity is an integrated business line today, not a brand you can buy or a company that trades on its own. When people ask "does Tesla still own SolarCity," the accurate answer is that the legal entity and its assets are part of Tesla, while the consumer-facing SolarCity name has effectively been retired in favor of Tesla's own branding. That distinction — between a brand, a legal entity, and a product line — is exactly the kind of thing that trips up ownership lists, and it is the same distinction that matters when you form your own company: you are creating a legal entity first, and any brands or product names you use sit on top of that single Delaware filing.

What battery and manufacturing companies does Tesla own?

Most of Tesla's acquisitions are about making batteries and building factories, not selling branded products. These are genuinely owned assets, though several were bought for a narrow slice of technology or talent rather than for a whole standalone business.

• Maxwell dry battery electrode tech— Tesla acquired Maxwell Technologies in 2019 in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $218 million, primarily for its dry-electrode process, which feeds into Tesla's battery-cell work.
• Hibar Systems — a Canadian maker of high-precision battery-filling and dispensing systems, acquired around 2019 and later operated under a Tesla Toronto automation entity.
• Tesla Grohmann Automation— German manufacturing automation (formerly Grohmann Engineering), acquired in 2016 to build Tesla's own production lines.
• Perbix — a Minnesota maker of automated manufacturing equipment, acquired in 2017.
• DeepScale — a computer-vision startup acquired in 2019, whose team was folded into the Autopilot effort.

The Maxwell entry is the one to dwell on, because it shows how Tesla treats acquisitions as a way to buy a capability rather than a company. Tesla bought Maxwell mainly for its dry-electrode battery process, and in 2021 it soldMaxwell's ultracapacitor business to UCAP Power — a firm connected to former Maxwell people — while keeping the dry-electrode technology it actually wanted. That is a clean example of a giant absorbing the part of a target it values and divesting the rest, and a reminder that ownership lists for an active acquirer change frequently. The same predictability that lets Tesla carve up an acquired company and re-sell a division is what Delaware's settled corporate law provides; the underlying entity mechanics are the same ones, scaled down, that a founder uses when they form one Delaware LLC. The lesson for a small owner is not the battery chemistry — it is that an entity is a container you can fill, empty, merge, or sell, and that clarity of ownership is what makes each of those moves clean.

Which companies are commonly mistaken as owned by Tesla but are NOT?

This is where most lists about Tesla go wrong, so it deserves its own section. Because Elon Musk runs or controls several high-profile companies, people assume Tesla owns them. It does not. The companies below are frequently attributed to Tesla and are not Tesla subsidiaries — owning Tesla stock gives you no stake in any of them.

A couple of further clarifications round this out. Tesla does notown its battery-cell partners: Panasonic, CATL, and LG are suppliers and joint-venture partners on cell production, not Tesla subsidiaries. And OpenAI, which Musk co-founded in 2015, is not a Tesla company either — Musk left its board in 2018 and OpenAI is run independently. The safe rule when listing what Tesla owns is to separate "companies Elon Musk controls" from "companies Tesla, Inc. owns," because those are very different lists. The same discipline — separating the person, the brand, and the legal entity — is exactly what you practice when you form one clean Delaware LLC and keep your personal affairs on one side of it and the business on the other.

Why do giant companies hold their businesses through Delaware entities?

The reason a large company layers Delaware subsidiaries under its parent is not glamour — it is predictability. Delaware has the most developed body of corporate case law in the United States and a dedicated business court, the Court of Chancery, that hears corporate disputes without juries and produces detailed, citable rulings. When a company is constantly raising money, signing major contracts, and acquiring other businesses, that legal certainty reduces risk at every step.

A second reason is structural cleanliness. A holding company can sit above a set of operating entities, each a separate Delaware filing, so that the liabilities of one business do not automatically reach the assets of another. When a group buys a company, it can drop the acquired business into a new or existing Delaware subsidiary instead of merging it messily into the parent. This is the everyday plumbing of corporate America, and Delaware is where most of that plumbing is installed.

Tesla's own 2024 move out of Delaware is the interesting wrinkle here. That same Court of Chancery whose predictability companies prize is the court that voided Musk's pay package, which is what prompted the reincorporation vote. It is a useful reminder that Delaware's value is the certainty of its rules, not a guarantee that any particular party always wins — the rules are settled and tested, and they apply to everyone. For a small founder, that certainty is almost entirely upside: the same statute, the same Division of Corporations, and the same court stand behind a one-member Delaware LLC as behind a Fortune 100 subsidiary, and the disputes that occasionally send a giant to Texas simply do not arise for a one-business owner. If you do want the corporate form Tesla used to use, our Delaware C-Corp guide covers it.

How does a single founder use the same Delaware vehicle Tesla used?

You do not need a holding company, a board, or a stack of entities. For almost every founder, the right starting structure is one Delaware LLC. It gives you a recognized US legal identity, a wall between your business and your personal assets, and a clean base from which to open banking and accept payments. The formation route is the same Delaware LLC formation path, adapted so it works even if you have no US Social Security Number, visa, or address — the full premise is laid out on our Delaware LLC for non-residents guide.

In practice the sequence is short. You confirm an available name, we file the Certificate of Formation with a Delaware registered agent included, and your LLC legally exists in about 48 hours. From there you apply for an EIN for your Delaware LLC, which takes 2 to 4 weeks for applicants without an SSN, and then you move on to banking and payments. The full walkthrough lives on our how it works page.

The contrast with Tesla is the point. A company like Tesla runs many entities because it operates many distinct businesses — solar, storage, automation, insurance, vehicle sales across countries. You run one because you have one. Same state, same legal framework, vastly simpler footprint — and a setup you can complete remotely from anywhere. There is no requirement to ever graduate into a holding-company structure; most founders run a single LLC for the life of the business and never need a second entity. Adding entities you do not need just multiplies filings and annual fees for no benefit.

Once your LLC is formed and the EIN is issued, the practical next step is US banking. You can open a US business bank account in the company's name even as a non-resident: fintech banks such as Mercury, Relay, and Wise onboard founders entirely online, and approval typically lands within 1 to 5 business days after the EIN is in hand. Approval is always the bank's own decision, never ours, so we help you present a clean application and apply to more than one provider if the first does not work out. Our Delaware LLC banking guide walks through the options in detail.

If you sell online, you will likely also want Stripeto accept card payments. Stripe approval is the provider's decision and is not guaranteed either; a clear business description and consistent details across your formation documents, EIN letter, and application are what help a review go smoothly. We do not promise approval from any bank or processor, and we never quote an approval percentage — what we commit to is helping you apply correctly and trying alternatives if a first application is declined, because each provider reviews independently and a decline from one is not a decline from all.

What does this cost, in year one and year two?

Our service is a single flat fee of $397, and the Delaware state filing fee is already included — there is no separate state charge bolted on at checkout. That covers the Certificate of Formation, the EIN application, a registered agent for year one, your operating agreement, and US bank and Stripe application support. The table below lays out the recurring picture so there are no surprises in year two.

The one ongoing state obligation for a Delaware LLC is the flat $300 franchise tax, due June 1 starting the year after you form. There is no annual report for an LLC. Miss the June 1 deadline and Delaware adds a $200 penalty plus 1.5% interest per month, and the LLC loses good standing — which is exactly why we track the date for you. The full breakdown is on our Delaware LLC cost page and our Delaware franchise tax guide.

It is worth clearing up one of the most common points of confusion here, because it directly involves the difference between you and a company like Tesla. Delaware calculates corporate franchise tax using two methods — the authorized shares method and the assumed par value capital method — and those calculations can produce very large bills. They apply only to Delaware corporations, the kind of entity Tesla used to be. They do not apply to LLCs at all. A Delaware LLC pays a single flat amount: $300 per year, full stop, with no share-based math and no annual report to file. So while a corporation works through those methods, your single LLC faces one predictable number each June.

If you ever did want a corporation instead — for example to raise venture capital from US investors who expect a C-Corp — the structure and its heavier compliance, including the corporate franchise-tax methods and an annual report, are covered on our Delaware C-Corp page. For the wider federal and state tax picture of running an LLC, including how a single-member LLC is treated as a pass-through by default, see our Delaware LLC taxes overview. Whether a non-resident owner ultimately owes US income tax is a fact-specific question that turns on the nature of the business and any applicable tax treaty, so it is best confirmed with a qualified CPA rather than assumed from a general rule.

What do non-resident founders need to know to copy this structure?

You can form and own a Delaware LLC from outside the United States with no US Social Security Number, no ITIN, no visa, and no US address. That is the whole premise of our service. The EIN is obtained with Form SS-4, which the IRS processes by fax or mail for non-resident applicants — the reason it takes 2 to 4 weeks rather than minutes. The full path is on our Delaware LLC for non-residents guide.

The one federal filing most non-resident single-member owners must not miss is Form 5472. If a non-US person owns 25% or more of a single-member Delaware LLC treated as a disregarded entity, the IRS requires Form 5472 each year, attached to a pro forma Form 1120, reporting transactions between you and your LLC. The penalty for failing to file is $25,000 under IRC 6038A, and the return is due April 15 (extendable with Form 7004). We track this for the founders we work with; the detail is in our Form 5472 for Delaware LLCs guide.

On beneficial-ownership reporting, the rules changed meaningfully in 2025, and it is worth being careful about how you describe them. A FinCEN interim final rule issued in March 2025 removed the BOI reporting obligation for US-formed domestic reporting companies, leaving only certain foreign reporting companies registered to do business in the US within scope. That is a significant shift from the framework many older guides describe, and the area is still evolving. The responsible approach is to confirm the current FinCEN position at the source before relying on any summary, rather than treating previously published deadlines as if they remain in force. We flag changes to founders we work with, but the duty to file if a filing is ever required rests with the owner.

One more practical note for sellers: if you run an online store or marketplace through your Delaware LLC, the federal 1099-K reporting threshold is back to more than $20,000 in payments and more than 200 transactions in a year, after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act repealed the much lower $600 threshold that had been scheduled to take effect. That is a reporting threshold for the payment processor, not a tax you newly owe, but it is the kind of number worth knowing before you assume every small sale triggers a federal form. The practical sequence for a non-resident, then, looks like this: form the Delaware LLC, obtain the EIN over the following few weeks, open US banking and payments once the EIN letter is in hand, and from year two onward keep two dates in view — the flat $300 franchise tax due June 1, and the April 15 Form 5472 deadline if you are a 25%-or-more foreign owner of a disregarded single-member LLC. None of these steps requires you to set foot in the United States.

How does forming one LLC compare to the alternatives?

A single Delaware LLC is the right starting point for most founders, but it is worth seeing it next to the other paths. The comparison below is a quick orientation, not legal advice — confirm the right structure with an advisor before deciding.

Notice that the holding-company row is the Tesla pattern in miniature: it makes sense precisely when you have many separate businesses to keep apart — solar, automation, insurance — each with its own liabilities, contracts, and possible buyers. That is the situation a large company lives in every day, and it is why subsidiaries stacked under a parent are worth the overhead for them. For a founder with one business, that same machinery is pure unnecessary cost — more filings, more annual franchise taxes, more bookkeeping, and no added protection you would actually use. The lesson to draw from studying what Tesla owns is not to imitate its complexity but to recognize that the building block underneath all of it is a single entity, and that one building block is all most founders need.

So start with one Delaware LLC. It gives you the recognized US identity, the liability separation, and the clean banking base that the giants get from their subsidiaries, without the apparatus they carry to manage hundreds of them. If your plans later call for outside investment, our Delaware C-Corp guide explains when the corporate route earns its extra weight, and our how it workspage shows the full path from name check to a funded account. Either way, you can begin the whole process remotely, today, from anywhere in the world — the same Delaware framework Tesla's subsidiaries relied on, available to you for a flat $397 with the state filing fee included.

Many of these companies chose Delaware for the same reasons founders do today — the Court of Chancery, flexible LLC statutes, and strong privacy protections. Form your Delaware LLC for $397, all-inclusive, in 48 hours. Form your Delaware LLC → | Read the complete Delaware LLC guide →