He runs both of those companies. He's not a passive investor. He's CEO. He's highly involved at every level of both of them.

That seems true, at least for the car company, but the specific statement was that he had founded them.

You're bikeshedding now. Could Elon Musk hold his own in a conversation with any aerospace engineer? Absolutely. Could he hold his own in a conversation with a process engineer? Absolutely. The guy is super smart, reads voraciously, and has self taught himself many different disciplines. Its not a superpower by the way, you can too. We live in the information age. Study any subject well enough and you can hold your own, too.