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Tesla's circulated IQ figures range from 160 to 310 in different popular sources, none of which are anchored to any documented test administration. The Stanford-Binet was developed in 1916 when Tesla was 60 years old and well past the patent activity that defined his career.

Tesla's patents underpin alternating-current power transmission, the induction motor (1888), the Tesla coil, fluorescent lighting (early forms), and significant early work on radio transmission. He worked briefly for Edison's direct-current power company before leaving over the AC/DC dispute.

His later life in New York was financially precarious despite his earlier success. He died in 1943 in a hotel room with extensive unpublished notebooks that were promptly seized by U.S. government investigators (the Office of Alien Property). His reputation has expanded substantially in the decades since, in popular culture more than in technical-historical accounts.