We all know Elon Musk as the face of Tesla. But originally the company had five co-founders and Martin Eberhard is one of them. He was the CEO of the company before Elon Musk took over the operations.
For those who don’t know Martin Eberhard is an engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. He may not be as famous as Elon Musk, but he has a massive net worth of $500 million.
If you are intrigued to know more about Martin Eberhard, this post is for you.
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Early Life
Martin Forest Eberhard was born on the 15th of May, 1960. He grew up in Kensington, California. He was passionate about inventing things from a very young age. He attended the University of Illinois, where he acquired his computer engineering degree. He completed his master’s degree in electrical engineering from the same institution.
Right after his post-graduation, he secured a job at Wyse Technology. There he worked as a full-time electrical engineer. Around this time, he created his first product called WY-30 ASCII.
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Personal Life
Martin Eberhard retired from Tiveni in 2021. Despite being a famous personality, he likes to keep his private life personal. However, we do know that he is a married man. His wife’s name is Carolyn Eberhard. As per sources, the two have been dating since their college days.
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Career
Eberhard established his first company Network Computing Devices in 1987. After nine years, he co-founded NuvoMedia ebook company with March Tarpenning. During this time, the two became very good friends.
They both shared the same concern about global warming and fossil fuels. This led them to establish Tesla Motors, a company that specializes in making electric cars. So now you know that Eberhard and Tarpenning are the two founders of Tesla.
Elon Musk is the biggest investor in the company. JB Straubel and Ian Wright, two of the early employees also held the title of co-founders. At that time, Eberhard was the CEO and chairman of the company.
However, things got rocky after Elon joined the company. He was not confident about Eberhard’s abilities, and so he forced him to quit the CEO position.
In 2009, Eberhard sued Elon for libel and slander. However, he didn’t drag the case for reasons not known. After quitting Tesla, Eberhard started working with Volkswagen.
In 2016, he invented a power storage provider called inEVit. It was acquired by Series the following year. In 2019, Eberhard founded Tiveni, a company involved in the manufacturing of intelligent EV batteries.
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Net Worth and Earnings
Martin Eberhard is no longer associated with Tesla. But he will always remain one of the original co-founders of the company. He still owns shares in the company.
He founded multiple companies throughout his career. This helped him earn a massive amount of wealth. As per sources, he earned a sizeable amount from Tesla. His current net worth is around $500 million. He is not a billionaire, but he still has a lot of money.
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