Elon Musk

Date of Birth: 06.28.1971

Elon Reeve Muskk is a Canadian-American engineer, entrepreneur, inventor, and investor of South African descent, billionaire. Founder of SpaceX and X.com (the latter merged with Confinity and was renamed PayPal). Chief designer, CEO, and chairman of Tesla Motors. He is on the board of SolarCity, a company founded by his cousins. He has achieved significant success in the fields of information technology, rocket engineering, and automotive design.

In December 2016, he joined the Presidential Forum on Strategy and Policy - a group of 16 of the most successful and respected American entrepreneurs tasked with advising the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, on issues related to economic growth, job creation, and productivity enhancement.

Net worth. In the billionaire rankings of Forbes, his net worth was estimated at more than $22.5 billion in 2018.

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On January 7, 2021, Elon Musk became the richest person on the planet, surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to take second place. Musk's net worth was estimated at $185 billion. By February 19, 2021, the net worth of the SpaceX and Tesla founder increased to $199.9 billion. He again became the world's richest man, once again surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($194.2 billion), who returned to first place on February 17.

Place of Birth. Education. Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. His mother was a well-known nutritionist, and his father had his own engineering business. At the age of ten, Elon received his first computer as a gift and taught himself to program. At twelve, he sold his first program - a video game in the style of Space Invaders called Blast Star - for $500. At 19, he enrolled at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. In 1992, he moved to the USA and enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Wharton School of Business. Over time, he transferred to Stanford but did not complete his studies.

Career: Zip2. The first company that Musk founded was the startup Zip2. The entrepreneur launched the project with his brother Kimbal in 1995. Zip2 produced software that allowed news organizations to publish content online and offer their customers additional paid services.

One of the investors in the company was Mohr Davidow Ventures. The partners of the fund began planning to resell Zip2, but Musk convinced them that its potential had not yet been fully realized, and the startup could be worth more in the future.

Clients of Zip2 included such publications as The New York Times and Pulitzer Publishing. In 1998, the company’s management announced a merger with CitySearch. The agreement was never finalized, and a year later, in 1999, the startup was acquired by Compaq for $304 million. Musk, whose stake in the company at that time was 7%, received $22 million.

X.com and PayPal. In March 1999, Musk became one of the founders of X.com. In 2000, the merger of X.com and Confinity took place, one of whose divisions was called PayPal. Both systems (X.com and PayPal) were engaged in providing personal electronic money transfers via email, and the goal of the deal was to combine the two payment systems, but this did not happen. Musk adamantly advocated for the X.com brand instead of PayPal, which caused internal political differences that ultimately led to his resignation at the decision of the board of directors.

However, Elon’s strategic decision to merge the two companies, along with active promotion of the electronic payment system on internet auctions (primarily eBay), led to rapid business growth in 2001, which was finally renamed PayPal. Such significant results allowed the company to go public in February 2002 (and thus become the first of the dot-com companies to do so after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001). In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion. At the time of the sale, Musk owned 11.7% of the company’s shares, which allowed him to earn $165 million.

SpaceX. In June 2002, Musk founded his third company - SpaceX. It is a private developer of a series of launch vehicles and a commercial operator of space systems. Musk is currently its CEO and chief engineer. To date, the company has developed two types of potentially reusable launch vehicles: Falcon 1 and Falcon 9, as well as a reusable spacecraft named Dragon.

In 2006, the first SpaceX launch vehicle, Falcon 1, was tested. As a result, engineers managed to launch a Malaysian satellite into orbit.

In December 2008, NASA signed a contract with the company worth $1.6 billion for 12 launches of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, as a replacement for the Space Shuttle ships after the program was discontinued in 2011.

In 2012, the head of SpaceX announced his plans for Mars exploration and colonization. He intended to land a small number of people - 10-15 individuals - and a large amount of cargo with them (up to 100 tons) on Mars. Later, he calculated, the colony could be expanded to 80 thousand people. According to the entrepreneur, Mars exploration would set the price for transport flights to the planet at $500,000 - which is 'quite acceptable' for residents of developed countries and also lay the groundwork for the colonization of other planets.

Tesla Motors. Tesla Motors was founded a year after the creation of SpaceX, in 2003, named after the Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla, who invented the alternating current electric motor. The company is engaged in the creation of environmentally friendly electric vehicles.

The first car available for sale, Tesla Motors, was introduced in 2008 under the name Tesla Roadster. Although the car was not well received, Musk and his company worked hard on more advanced electric vehicles, and in 2011, the Tesla Model S was introduced.

On September 27, 2012, a revolutionary network of supercharging stations for long-distance travel was launched.

From January 28 to February 2, 2014, for five days, the journey across the United States from the west coast to the east took place. Two Tesla Model S arrived in New York, setting a speed record for electric cars crossing the USA. Only 'superchargers' (electric refueling stations) were used for recharging. The trip from Los Angeles took 76.5 hours and cost $0, thus setting a Guinness World Record.

At the end of 2014, Tesla Motors presented the Tesla Model X - a new electric crossover vehicle. In 2016, a new budget model, the Tesla Model 3, was introduced. By 2016, the company's stock price reached $231.55, with a market capitalization of $29 billion.

SolarCity. Elon Musk's project SolarCity is also notable for its ambition. The company, founded by the entrepreneur in 2006, produces solar panels for electricity generation. SolarCity is one of the leading suppliers of such panels worldwide.

By 2040, Musk believes that solar energy will account for up to 40% of all electricity in the world. The entrepreneur plans to establish 'waste-free production' - sending used car batteries to power plants. The thing is, a battery that has worn out by 30% is unsuitable for use in an electric car, but can serve many more years at a power station.

Hyperloop. In 2012, Musk, in addition to announcing his plans for space conquest, announced another project - high-speed pipeline passenger transport Hyperloop. The idea is similar to capsules used to transport documents in large offices to other departments - only human-sized. One such capsule is supposed to accommodate 28 people.

Charity. Elon became the chairman of the Musk Foundation charity fund. In January 2015, the fund donated $10 million to the Future of Humanity Institute for research on control over artificial intelligence.

Personal Life. His first wife, Justine Musk, studied with him at the same university in Canada. They married in 2000, and the family had six sons (the firstborn died at 10 weeks of life). In September 2008, Elon and Justine announced their divorce, as Musk began dating British actress Talulah Riley. They married in 2010. In 2012, Musk and Riley divorced, but married again in 2013. In March 2016, they filed for divorce, which was finalized in October of the same year.

On May 7, 2018, Musk and Canadian singer Grimes (Claire Boucher) announced that they were dating. On May 4, 2020, the couple had a son, whom Musk reportedly named 'X Æ A-12'.

Elon Musk and Grimes separated in September 2021. In December 2021, Elon Musk and Grimes welcomed a daughter via surrogate, who was referred to as 'Y' in line with their son.

In 2021, Shivon Zilis, an employee of Musk's company, gave birth to twins - a son, Strider, and a daughter, Azure.

On September 11, 2023, Elon Musk confirmed that he and singer Grimes had become parents of their third child together. The former couple welcomed a son, named Techno Mechanicus, also referred to as 'Tau'. The boy became Musk’s eleventh child.

Interesting Facts. According to Jon Favreau, the director of the film 'Iron Man' (2008), Elon Musk served as an inspiration for Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr. In 2010, Musk made a cameo in 'Iron Man 2' as himself (in the storyline, Elon is a friend of Tony Stark).

In 2013, he also played himself in an episode of 'Machete Kills'. Musk is visible among the audience at the presentation of artificial intelligence in the sci-fi movie 'Transcendence' (2014, at mark 00:07:39), and his name is in the credits.

Elon Musk voiced a cameo in season 26, episode 12 of 'The Simpsons', which aired on January 25, 2015.

In episode 9 of season 9 of 'The Big Bang Theory', he appears as a cameo.

In 2017, he starred in the comedy 'Why Him?' as himself.

Hobbies. Musk owned an Aero L-39 Albatros aircraft of Czechoslovak manufacture. Later, he bought a Dassault Falcon 900 jet from the film 'Thank You for Smoking'.

After selling Zip2 in 1999, Musk bought a McLaren F1 supercar but crashed it the following year while riding with Peter Thiel.

In October 2013, Musk purchased the submarine car Wet Nelly from the 1977 James Bond film 'The Spy Who Loved Me' at auction for $997,000.

Awards. Esquire magazine included Musk in their list of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century in 2008. In June 2011, he was awarded the Heinlein Prize for his achievements in commercializing space worth $500 thousand. In February 2011, Forbes included Musk in their list of the 20 most influential CEOs under 40 years old. In 2014, Musk won the Edison Achievement Award.

09.19.2023