Bio

Elon Musk is a name just about everyone knows by now. From Tesla to Twitter, he has caused quite a stir in various industries. With his ambitious vision and relentless drive, Musk has revolutionized the electric vehicle market through Tesla’s innovative designs and technology. 

 

Additionally, his bold ideas for space exploration with SpaceX have captured the world’s attention and reinvigorated interest in space travel. Not only that, but he is the richest person in the world, a testament to his incredible success and impact on the business world. 

 

Early Life-Education

 

On June 28, 1971, Elon Musk was welcomed into the world by a Canadian mother and a South African father. Early on, he showed aptitude for computers and entrepreneurship. He made a video game at the age of 12 and sold it to a computer magazine. 

 

Musk left South Africa in 1988 after obtaining a Canadian passport because he didn’t want to participate in the country’s mandatory military service, which supported apartheid, and because he wanted to pursue greater economic opportunities in the United States.

 

Musk left Canada in 1992 to pursue his academic interests at the University of Pennsylvania in business and physics. He completed his undergraduate studies in economics and stayed on to complete a second bachelor’s degree in physics.

 

Musk left Penn and moved to Stanford University in California to pursue a PhD in energy physics. 

 

He left Stanford after just two days to join the Internet boom, launching his first company, Zip2 Corporation, in 1995. However, his decision was made at the exact right moment. In 2002, Musk naturalized as a citizen of the United States.

 

Career/Business Ventures

 

In 1995, Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk founded their first business, Zip2 Corporation. Zip2, an online city guide, soon started contributing content to The New York Times and Chicago Tribune’s new websites. For $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options, a division of Compaq Computer Corporation acquired Zip2 in 1999.

 

Musk then went on to establish  X.com, a provider of online financial services that later evolved into PayPal. When PayPal was purchased by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock in October 2002, Musk made his first billion. Musk owned 11% of PayPal stock before the sale.

 

SpaceX was established by Musk in 2002 with the objective of taking over NASA’s space shuttle missions. SpaceX secured a contract from NASA in 2008 to manage cargo transportation for the International Space Station. 

 

SpaceX’s grand ambition was to develop rockets with reduced costs. Introducing the Falcon 1 in 2006 and the larger Falcon 9 in 2010, these two rockets were specifically designed to be significantly cheaper compared to their competitors. Not stopping there, SpaceX revolutionized the industry again with the launch of Falcon Heavy in 2018.

 

Elon Musk, one of the co-founders of Tesla Motors, has taken on the roles of CEO and product architect. 

 

Since its establishment in 2003, Tesla Motors has focused on creating electric vehicles that are affordable and available to everyone.

 

The company’s first major success came with the release of the Tesla Roadster in 2008, a sports car that could travel up to 245 miles on a single charge. This groundbreaking achievement demonstrated the potential of electric vehicles and marked the beginning of Tesla’s mission to revolutionize the automotive industry. 

 

With Musk at the helm, Tesla Motors has continued to innovate and push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of electric transportation.

 

As of August 2016, Musk made a significant move towards expanding sustainable energy and products to a larger market by finalizing a $2.6 billion deal. This involved merging his electric car and solar energy companies. Tesla Motors Inc., which Musk is a majority shareholder of, announced an all-stock acquisition of SolarCity Corp., a company that he had assisted his cousins in founding back in 2006.

 

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop, an invention promoting commuting between major cities, was unveiled in 2013. Musk has since joined OpenAI, a nonprofit focused on digital intelligence, and founded The Boring Company in 2017. The Boring Company focuses on drilling and constructing tunnels to reduce traffic. After acquiring Twitter in 2022, Musk became its CEO. 

 

There are also high speed trains and flamethrowers in the works. Bottom line: Elon Musk plans on having the world live like The Jetsons within the next decade or two.

 

Personal Life

 

Musk is a twice-married man. In 2000, he married Justine Wilson, with whom he had six children. In 2002, their first child passed away at the age of 10 weeks from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). 

 

Griffin and Xavier, twins born in 2004, and Kai, Saxon, and Damian, triplets born in 2007, were the other two sons Musk and Wilson had together (born in 2006).

 

Musk met Talulah Riley, an actress, after a contentious divorce from Wilson. The couple tied the knot in 2010. 2012 saw their breakup, but 2013 saw them remarry. Their marriage eventually came to an end with a divorce in 2016.

 

Musk and Amber Heard were previously dating after their divorce. They broke up in August 2017, reconnected in January 2018, and split again in May 2018. In May 2018, Grimes changed her name to “c,” symbolizing light speed. 

 

They gave birth to a son named “X Æ A-12” in May 2020, later changing it to “X Æ A-Xii” due to California’s restrictions. In December 2021, Musk and Grimes welcomed their second child, Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, who was delivered via surrogate.

 

Net Worth

 

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the Forbes Real Time Billionaires list, Musk is the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $242.5 billion USD as of Nov 2023. 

 

This wealth is primarily derived from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. Tesla Inc.’s CEO and chief product architect.

 

Activism

 

Musk established the Musk Foundation, which is committed to space exploration and the search for renewable and clean energy sources, in order to further his long-standing interests, which are the preservation of the future of the human race and the limitless potential of space exploration.

 

Musk announced in October 2019 that he would donate $1 million to the #TeamTrees initiative, which seeks to plant 20 million trees worldwide by the year 2020. For the occasion, he even changed his Twitter handle to Treelon.

 

Controversy

 

Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022. However, concerns arose over his changes to the platform. Antisemitic and racist tweets surged within 24 hours, with the Anti-Defamation League reporting over 1200 tweets and retweets spreading antisemitism. 

 

Hateful rhetoric towards Black people also increased, with the Washington Post finding a 500 percent increase in the use of the N-word on Twitter just half a day after Musk’s acquisition.

 

Elon Musk tweeted that he was not a fan of self-identifying pronouns, he also mocked them by stating, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci” Musk’s controversial statement on self-identifying pronouns sparked a heated debate on social media, with many accusing him of being insensitive and dismissive towards the LGBTQ+ community. 

 

Critics argued that his remarks perpetuated a harmful and exclusionary attitude, further highlighting the need for inclusive language and respect for diverse identities. 

 

These are just some of the controversies he has been involved with, there is a lot more.