Well he turned Tesla into a multi billion dollar behemoth in a short time and revolutionized the electric car industry. He didn’t create Tesla but he did “create” Tesla the billion dollar company.

PayPal is more complicated agreed. Elon’s portion of it might be a billion due to inflation? But regardless he set the basis for it.

It's not so black and white.

The biography of Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance goes into more detail for those curious. It's based on hundreds of hours of interviews with Elon and those close to him — including family, friends, co-workers, etc. And Elon wasn't allowed to read it until it was published.