elon musk biography starsunfolded

Elon Musk Age, Wife, Girlfriend, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Elon Musk

• Does Elon Musk smoke?: Yes

Elon Musk Drinking Alcohol

• He has his roots in America, Canada, South Africa and also has Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.
• At the age of 10, Elon started teaching himself computer programming after developing an interest in the Commodore VIC-20 (computer).
• He sold his first video game, ‘Blastar’ to ‘PC and Office Technology’ (a magazine) for $500. He was just 12 years old at that time.
• In his childhood, he was deeply inspired by Isaac Asimov’s book, ‘Foundation series.’
• Elon had a very dreadful childhood as he was bullied in his school. Once, he even got hospitalized after a group of boys beat him until he became unconscious and threw him down a flight of stairs.
• Just before his 18th birthday, Elon moved to Canada against his father’s will. His father wanted Elon to complete his graduation from Pretoria itself but Elon chose to flee since he believed that it was easier to get to the United States from Canada.
• In 1995, after raising funds from a small group of ‘angel investors,’ Elon and his brother, Kimbal, founded ‘Zip2’ (a web software company). Elon wanted to become the CEO of Zip2 but was not allowed by the other members of the board. However, Zip2 was later acquired by Compaq in 1999.
• In 1999. Elon co-founded an e-mail payment and online financial services company, ‘X.com.’ A year later, X.com merged with Confinity, which provided a money-transfer service called, ‘PayPal.’ In 2000, He was knocked out from his position of CEO because of some disagreement with the allied party. Elon was the largest shareholder of X.com before it was acquired by eBay in 2002.
• In 2000, he got married to his first wife, Justine Wilson. Their first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, died just after 10 weeks of his birth due to ‘Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).’ Through “in vitro fertilization” the couple was blessed with twins and triplets in the year 2004 and 2006 respectively.
• He drafted “Mars Oasis” in 2001. The project was aimed to gain public interest in space exploration. Elon went to Russia to buy refurbished ‘Dnepr Intercontinental ballistic missiles’ (ICBMs) for his project from the companies like NPO Lavochkin, and Kosmotras. He was spat upon by one of the Russian chief designers after Elon proposed his plan. He returned empty-handed to the US.
• In 2002, in another meeting with the company Kosmotras, the company offered one rocket for $8 million to Elon, which he found too expensive. He left the meeting in between in anger and there he got the idea of founding a company which could build the cost-effective rockets he needed and hence Elon ended up founding “SpaceX” in May 2002.
• In 2003, Tesla (a car manufacturer company) was co-founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. In 2004, Elon joined the company as the Chairman of the board of Directors. Amidst some financial crisis and a few conflicts in 2008, Elon became the CEO of Tesla overthrowing Martin Eberhard from the post.
• Musk’s Salary at Tesla is ₹1 only.
• In 2005, his aircraft: (1994) model Dassault Falcon 900, was used in the film, “Thank you for smoking.” Elon made a cameo in the film as the pilot of the plane.
• He was a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board in 2006.
• Musk provided financial support to his cousins, Lyndon, and Peter Rive, who founded ‘SolarCity’ in 2006. He also helped them by giving the initial concept of the project. Tesla, Inc wholly acquired SolarCity in 2016.
• In 2008, Elon and Justine shared the custody of their five sons after getting separated from each other.
• After dating actress, Talulah Riley, Elon tied the knot with her in 2010. In 2012, Musk announced a divorce with the actress. In 2013, Elon remarried her after which Musk again announced that he had filed for a second divorce from Talulah. Though the divorce was withdrawn but was later finalized in 2016.
• In 2010, his name was among “Time ‘ s 100 people” who affected the world the most and was also listed among the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine.
• Musk was listed among the “America’s 20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 And Under” by Forbes in February 2011.
• In 2013, Musk became the Fortune Businessperson of the year for SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity.

• In 2015, Elon made a cameo, playing himself in an episode, “The Musk Who Fell to Earth” of ‘The Simpsons.’ In the same year, Elon made a guest appearance, playing himself in an episode of the famous series, ‘The Big Bang Theory.’

• Along with Sal Khan and  Mark Zuckerberg , he was listed as one of the “Top 10 Business Visionaries Creating Value for the World” in 2016.
• He held the 21st position on the Forbes list of the World’s Most Powerful People in December 2016.
• In 2016, Musk purchased the Tesla.com domain name from Stu Grossman.
• ‘Neuralink,’ was co-founded by Musk in 2016. It is a startup company that incorporates the human brain with artificial intelligence. It strives to create devices that can be embedded in the human brain.
• In 2017, Elon bought the domain X.com from PayPal, stating that he holds “great sentimental value” with it.

Space X launched Falcon Heavy with a Tesla Roadstar as a dummy payload

• Once, Musk was stuck in a traffic jam, it was then, Musk decided to build a tunnel and unveiled its company’s name, ‘The Boring Company.’

Elon Musk’s ‘Wild Boar’ being tested for the rescue operation

Elon Musk With Yusaku Maezawa

• In an interview, Elon revealed that Tesla would never make an electric motorcycle. He further revealed that when he was a teenager he was almost killed by a truck while driving his motorcycle.
• Being a Philanthropist, he founded the ‘Musk Foundation,’ which aims to provide solar-power energy systems in the disaster-prone areas.
• On his trip to India, he spent a night with a spiritual guru who told him to serve the poor. That is how Musk got the enlightenment of social service.

We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms.

Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”

Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2022

I tried threats, rewards, and arguments to change my father for the better. No way, it just got worse.”

Elon Musk’s tweet about his pet dog Floki as the CEO of Twitter

I realised by then that is someone bullied me, I could punch them very hard in the nose, and they wouldn’t bully me again. They might beat the s*** out of me, but if I had punched them hard in the nose, they wouldn’t come after me again.”

• During an interaction with Canadian psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson in July 2024, he called gender-affirming care “evil” and said he would destroy the woke mind virus that killed his child Xavier. After coming out as transgender in June 2022, Xavier filed a legal request to change her name from Xavier to Vivian and desired she should not be connected with Musk.

References/Sources: [ + ]

South African entrepreneur Elon Musk is known for founding Tesla Motors and SpaceX, which launched a landmark commercial spacecraft in 2012.

Who Is Elon Musk?

Elon Musk is a South African-born American entrepreneur and businessman who founded X.com in 1999 (which later became PayPal), SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003. Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers.

Musk made headlines in May 2012, when SpaceX launched a rocket that would send the first commercial vehicle to the International Space Station. He bolstered his portfolio with the purchase of SolarCity in 2016 and cemented his standing as a leader of industry by taking on an advisory role in the early days of President Donald Trump 's administration.

In January 2021, Musk reportedly surpassed Jeff Bezos as the wealthiest man in the world.

Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. As a child, Musk was so lost in his daydreams about inventions that his parents and doctors ordered a test to check his hearing.

At about the time of his parents’ divorce, when he was 10, Musk developed an interest in computers. He taught himself how to program, and when he was 12 he sold his first software: a game he created called Blastar.

In grade school, Musk was short, introverted and bookish. He was bullied until he was 15 and went through a growth spurt and learned how to defend himself with karate and wrestling.

Musk’s mother, Maye Musk , is a Canadian model and the oldest woman to star in a Covergirl campaign. When Musk was growing up, she worked five jobs at one point to support her family.

Musk’s father, Errol Musk, is a wealthy South African engineer.

Musk spent his early childhood with his brother Kimbal and sister Tosca in South Africa. His parents divorced when he was 10.

At age 17, in 1989, Musk moved to Canada to attend Queen’s University and avoid mandatory service in the South African military. Musk obtained his Canadian citizenship that year, in part because he felt it would be easier to obtain American citizenship via that path.

In 1992, Musk left Canada to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed for a second bachelor’s degree in physics.

After leaving Penn, Musk headed to Stanford University in California to pursue a PhD in energy physics. However, his move was timed perfectly with the Internet boom, and he dropped out of Stanford after just two days to become a part of it, launching his first company, Zip2 Corporation in 1995. Musk became a U.S. citizen in 2002.

Zip2 Corporation

Musk launched his first company, Zip2 Corporation, in 1995 with his brother, Kimbal Musk. An online city guide, Zip2 was soon providing content for the new websites of both The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune . In 1999, a division of Compaq Computer Corporation bought Zip2 for $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options.

In 1999, Elon and Kimbal Musk used the money from their sale of Zip2 to found X.com, an online financial services/payments company. An X.com acquisition the following year led to the creation of PayPal as it is known today.

In October 2002, Musk earned his first billion when PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock. Before the sale, Musk owned 11 percent of PayPal stock.

Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, in 2002 with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel. By 2008, SpaceX was well established, and NASA awarded the company the contract to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station—with plans for astronaut transport in the future—in a move to replace NASA’s own space shuttle missions.

Falcon 9 Rockets

On May 22, 2012, Musk and SpaceX made history when the company launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space with an unmanned capsule. The vehicle was sent to the International Space Station with 1,000 pounds of supplies for the astronauts stationed there, marking the first time a private company had sent a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Of the launch, Musk was quoted as saying, "I feel very lucky. ... For us, it's like winning the Super Bowl."

In December 2013, a Falcon 9 successfully carried a satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit, a distance at which the satellite would lock into an orbital path that matched the Earth's rotation. In February 2015, SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 fitted with the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite, aiming to observe the extreme emissions from the sun that affect power grids and communications systems on Earth.

In March 2017, SpaceX saw the successful test flight and landing of a Falcon 9 rocket made from reusable parts, a development that opened the door for more affordable space travel.

A setback came in November 2017, when an explosion occurred during a test of the company's new Block 5 Merlin engine. SpaceX reported that no one was hurt, and that the issue would not hamper its planned rollout of a future generation of Falcon 9 rockets.

The company enjoyed another milestone moment in February 2018 with the successful test launch of the powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. Armed with additional Falcon 9 boosters, the Falcon Heavy was designed to carry immense payloads into orbit and potentially serve as a vessel for deep space missions. For the test launch, the Falcon Heavy was given a payload of Musk's cherry-red Tesla Roadster, equipped with cameras to "provide some epic views" for the vehicle's planned orbit around the sun.

In July 2018, Space X enjoyed the successful landing of a new Block 5 Falcon rocket, which touched down on a drone ship less than 9 minutes after liftoff.

BFR Mission to Mars

In September 2017, Musk presented an updated design plan for his BFR (an acronym for either "Big F---ing Rocket" or "Big Falcon Rocket"), a 31-engine behemoth topped by a spaceship capable of carrying at least 100 people. He revealed that SpaceX was aiming to launch the first cargo missions to Mars with the vehicle in 2022, as part of his overarching goal of colonizing the Red Planet.

In March 2018, the entrepreneur told an audience at the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, that he hoped to have the BFR ready for short flights early the following year, while delivering a knowing nod at his previous problems with meeting deadlines.

The following month, it was announced that SpaceX would construct a facility at the Port of Los Angeles to build and house the BFR. The port property presented an ideal location for SpaceX, as its mammoth rocket will only be movable by barge or ship when completed.

Starlink Internet Satellites

In late March 2018, SpaceX received permission from the U.S. government to launch a fleet of satellites into low orbit for the purpose of providing Internet service. The satellite network, named Starlink, would ideally make broadband service more accessible in rural areas, while also boosting competition in heavily populated markets that are typically dominated by one or two providers.

SpaceX launched the first batch of 60 satellites in May 2019, and followed with another payload of 60 satellites that November. While this represented significant progress for the Starlink venture, the appearance of these bright orbiters in the night sky, with the potential of thousands more to come, worried astronomers who felt that a proliferation of satellites would increase the difficulty of studying distant objects in space.

Tesla Motors

Musk is the co-founder, CEO and product architect at Tesla Motors, a company formed in 2003 that is dedicated to producing affordable, mass-market electric cars as well as battery products and solar roofs. Musk oversees all product development, engineering and design of the company's products.

Five years after its formation, in March 2008, Tesla unveiled the Roadster, a sports car capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, as well as traveling nearly 250 miles between charges of its lithium ion battery.

With a stake in the company taken by Daimler and a strategic partnership with Toyota, Tesla Motors launched its initial public offering in June 2010, raising $226 million.

In August 2008, Tesla announced plans for its Model S, the company's first electric sedan that was reportedly meant to take on the BMW 5 series. In 2012, the Model S finally entered production at a starting price of $58,570. Capable of covering 265 miles between charges, it was honored as the 2013 Car of the Year by Motor Trend magazine .

In April 2017, Tesla announced that it surpassed General Motors to become the most valuable U.S. car maker. The news was an obvious boon to Tesla, which was looking to ramp up production and release its Model 3 sedan later that year.

In September 2019, using what Musk described as a "Plaid powertrain," a Model S set a speed record for four-door sedan at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey County, California.

The Model 3 was officially launched in early 2019 following extensive production delays. The car was initially priced at $35,000, a much more accessible price point than the $69,500 and up for its Model S and X electric sedans.

After initially aiming to produce 5,000 new Model 3 cars per week by December 2017, Musk pushed that goal back to March 2018, and then to June with the start of the new year. The announced delay didn't surprise industry experts, who were well aware of the company's production problems, though some questioned how long investors would remain patient with the process. It also didn't prevent Musk from garnering a radical new compensation package as CEO, in which he would be paid after reaching milestones of growing valuation based on $50 billion increments.

By April 2018, with Tesla expected to fall short of first-quarter production forecasts, news surfaced that Musk had pushed aside the head of engineering to personally oversee efforts in that division. In a Twitter exchange with a reporter, Musk said it was important to "divide and conquer" to meet production goals and was "back to sleeping at factory."

After signaling that the company would reorganize its management structure, Musk in June announced that Tesla was laying off 9 percent of its workforce, though its production department would remain intact. In an email to employees, Musk explained his decision to eliminate some "duplication of roles" to cut costs, admitting it was time to take serious steps toward turning a profit.

The restructuring appeared to pay dividends, as it was announced that Tesla had met its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 cars per week by the end of June 2018, while churning out another 2,000 Model S sedans and Model X SUVs. "We did it!" Musk wrote in a celebratory email to the company. "What an incredible job by an amazing team."

The following February, Musk announced that the company was finally rolling out its standard Model 3. Musk also said that Tesla was shifting to all-online sales, and offering customers the chance to return their cars within seven days or 1,000 miles for a full refund.

In November 2017, Musk made another splash with the unveiling of the new Tesla Semi and Roadster at the company's design studio. The semi-truck, which was expected to enter into production in 2019 before being delayed, boasts 500 miles of range as well as a battery and motors built to last 1 million miles.

Model Y and Roadster

In March 2019, Musk unveiled Tesla’s long-awaited Model Y. The compact crossover, which began arriving for customers in March 2020, has a driving range of 300 miles and a 0 to 60 mph time of 3.5 seconds.

The Roadster, also set to be released in 2020, will become the fastest production car ever made, with a 0 to 60 time of 1.9 seconds.

In August 2016, in Musk’s continuing effort to promote and advance sustainable energy and products for a wider consumer base, a $2.6 billion dollar deal was solidified to combine his electric car and solar energy companies. His Tesla Motors Inc. announced an all-stock deal purchase of SolarCity Corp., a company Musk had helped his cousins start in 2006. He is a majority shareholder in each entity.

“Solar and storage are at their best when they're combined. As one company, Tesla (storage) and SolarCity (solar) can create fully integrated residential, commercial and grid-scale products that improve the way that energy is generated, stored and consumed,” read a statement on Tesla’s website about the deal.

The Boring Company

In January 2017, Musk launched The Boring Company, a company devoted to boring and building tunnels in order to reduce street traffic. He began with a test dig on the SpaceX property in Los Angeles.

In late October of that year, Musk posted the first photo of his company's progress to his Instagram page. He said the 500-foot tunnel, which would generally run parallel to Interstate 405, would reach a length of two miles in approximately four months.

In May 2019 the company, now known as TBC, landed a $48.7 million contract from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to build an underground Loop system to shuttle people around the Las Vegas Convention Center.

In October 2022, Musk officially bought Twitter and became the social media company's CEO after months of back and forth.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S ELON MUSK FACT CARD

Musk’s Tweet and SEC Investigation

On August 7, 2018, Musk dropped a bombshell via a tweet: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." The announcement opened the door for legal action against the company and its founder, as the SEC began inquiring about whether Musk had indeed secured the funding as claimed. Several investors filed lawsuits on the grounds that Musk was looking to manipulate stock prices and ambush short sellers with his tweet.

Musk’s tweet initially sent Tesla stock spiking, before it closed the day up 11 percent. The CEO followed up with a letter on the company blog, calling the move to go private "the best path forward." He promised to retain his stake in the company, and added that he would create a special fund to help all current investors remain on board.

Six days later, Musk sought to clarify his position with a statement in which he pointed to discussions with the managing director of the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund as the source of his "funding secured" declaration. He later tweeted that he was working on a proposal to take Tesla private with Goldman Sachs and Silver Lake as financial advisers.

The saga took a bizarre turn that day when rapper Azealia Banks wrote on Instagram that, as a guest at Musk's home at the time, she learned that he was under the influence of LSD when he fired off his headline-grabbing tweet. Banks said she overheard Musk making phone calls to drum up the funding he promised was already in place.

The news quickly turned serious again when it was reported that Tesla's outside directors had retained two law firms to deal with the SEC inquiry and the CEO's plans to take the company private.

On August 24, one day after meeting with the board, Musk announced that he had reversed course and would not be taking the company private. Among his reasons, he cited the preference of most directors to keep Tesla public, as well as the difficulty of retaining some of the large shareholders who were prohibited from investing in a private company. Others suggested that Musk was also influenced by the poor optics of an electric car company being funded by Saudi Arabia, a country heavily involved in the oil industry.

On September 29, 2018, it was announced that Musk would pay a $20 million fine and step down as chairman of Tesla's board for three years as part of an agreement with the SEC.

Inventions and Innovations

In August 2013, Musk released a concept for a new form of transportation called the "Hyperloop," an invention that would foster commuting between major cities while severely cutting travel time. Ideally resistant to weather and powered by renewable energy, the Hyperloop would propel riders in pods through a network of low-pressure tubes at speeds reaching more than 700 mph. Musk noted that the Hyperloop could take from seven to 10 years to be built and ready for use.

Although he introduced the Hyperloop with claims that it would be safer than a plane or train, with an estimated cost of $6 billion — approximately one-tenth of the cost for the rail system planned by the state of California — Musk's concept has drawn skepticism. Nevertheless, the entrepreneur has sought to encourage the development of this idea.

After he announced a competition for teams to submit their designs for a Hyperloop pod prototype, the first Hyperloop Pod Competition was held at the SpaceX facility in January 2017. A speed record of 284 mph was set by a German student engineering team at competition No. 3 in 2018, with the same team pushing the record to 287 mph the next year.

AI and Neuralink

Musk has pursued an interest in artificial intelligence, becoming co-chair of the nonprofit OpenAI. The research company launched in late 2015 with the stated mission of advancing digital intelligence to benefit humanity.

In 2017, it was also reported that Musk was backing a venture called Neuralink, which intends to create devices to be implanted in the human brain and help people merge with software. He expanded on the company's progress during a July 2019 discussion, revealing that its devices will consist of a microscopic chip that connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone.

High-Speed Train

In late November 2017, after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked for proposals to build and operate a high-speed rail line that would transport passengers from O'Hare Airport to downtown Chicago in 20 minutes or less, Musk tweeted that he was all-in on the competition with The Boring Company. He said that the concept of the Chicago loop would be different from his Hyperloop, its relatively short route not requiring the need for drawing a vacuum to eliminate air friction.

In summer 2018 Musk announced he would cover the estimated $1 billion needed to dig the 17-mile tunnel from the airport to downtown Chicago. However, in late 2019 he tweeted that TBC would focus on completing the commercial tunnel in Las Vegas before turning to other projects, suggesting that plans for Chicago would remain in limbo for the immediate future.

Flamethrower

Musk also reportedly found a market for The Boring Company's flamethrowers. After announcing they were going on sale for $500 apiece in late January 2018, he claimed to have sold 10,000 of them within a day.

Relationship with Donald Trump

In December 2016, Musk was named to President Trump’s Strategy and Policy Forum; the following January, he joined Trump's Manufacturing Jobs Initiative. Following Trump’s election, Musk found himself on common ground with the new president and his advisers as the president announced plans to pursue massive infrastructure developments.

While sometimes at odds with the president's controversial measures, such as a proposed ban on immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, Musk defended his involvement with the new administration. "My goals," he tweeted in early 2017, "are to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy and to help make humanity a multi-planet civilization, a consequence of which will be the creating of hundreds of thousands of jobs and a more inspiring future for all."

On June 1, following Trump's announcement that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, Musk stepped down from his advisory roles.

Personal Life

Wives and children.

Musk has been married twice. He wed Justine Wilson in 2000, and the couple had six children together. In 2002, their first son died at 10 weeks old from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Musk and Wilson had five additional sons together: twins Griffin and Xavier (born in 2004) and triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian (born in 2006).

After a contentious divorce from Wilson, Musk met actress Talulah Riley. The couple married in 2010. They split in 2012 but married each other again in 2013. Their relationship ultimately ended in divorce in 2016.

Girlfriends

Musk reportedly began dating actress Amber Heard in 2016 after finalizing his divorce with Riley and Heard finalized her divorce from Johnny Depp . Their busy schedules caused the couple to break up in August 2017; they got back together in January 2018 and split again one month later.

In May 2018, Musk began dating musician Grimes (born Claire Boucher). That month, Grimes announced that she had changed her name to “ c ,” the symbol for the speed of light, reportedly on the encouragement of Musk. Fans criticized the feminist performer for dating a billionaire whose company has been described as a “predator zone” among accusations of sexual harassment.

The couple discussed their love for one another in a March 2019 feature in the Wall Street Journal Magazine , with Grimes saying “Look, I love him, he’s great...I mean, he’s a super-interesting goddamn person.” Musk, for his part, told the Journal, “I love c’s wild fae artistic creativity and hyper-intense work ethic.”

Grimes gave birth to their son on May 4, 2020, with Musk announcing that they had named the boy "X Æ A-12." Later in the month, after it was reported that the State of California wouldn't accept a name with a number, the couple said they were changing their son's name to "X Æ A-Xii."

Musk and Grimes welcomed their second child, a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, in December 2021. The child was delivered via a surrogate.

Nonprofit Work

The boundless potential of space exploration and the preservation of the future of the human race have become the cornerstones of Musk's abiding interests, and toward these, he has founded the Musk Foundation, which is dedicated to space exploration and the discovery of renewable and clean energy sources.

In October 2019 Musk pledged to donate $1 million to the #TeamTrees campaign, which aims to plant 20 million trees around the world by 2020. He even changed his Twitter name to Treelon for the occasion.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Elon Musk
• Birth Year: 1971
• Birth date: June 28, 1971
• Birth City: Pretoria
• Birth Country: South Africa
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: South African entrepreneur Elon Musk is known for founding Tesla Motors and SpaceX, which launched a landmark commercial spacecraft in 2012.
• Space Exploration
• Internet/Computing
• Astrological Sign: Cancer
• University of Pennsylania
• Queen's University, Ontario
• Stanford University
• Nacionalities
• South African
• Interesting Facts
• Elon Musk left Stanford after two days to take advantage of the Internet boom.
• In April 2017, Musk's Tesla Motors surpassed General Motors to become the most valuable U.S. car maker.

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Elon Musk Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/business-leaders/elon-musk
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: October 31, 2022
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• I'm very pro-environment, but let's figure out how to do it better and not jump through a dozen hoops to achieve what is obvious in the first place.
• Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

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Elon Musk Biography

Birthday: June 28 , 1971 ( Cancer )

Born In: Pretoria, South Africa

Elon Musk is one of the greatest and most prolific modern inventors and is responsible for monumental advancements in futuristic technology like renewable energy and space travel. Many of his innovations seem to be right out of a science-fiction movie, but throughout his career he has brought about huge scientific breakthroughs. After making his first fortune from the internet payment service ‘PayPal’, he invested $100 million in his space travel company, ‘SpaceX’ and began building satellites, launch vehicles and other spacecraft both for NASA and for his own company, creating new milestones with his privately funded spacecraft. Many of his revolutionary ideas and inventions focus on space travel, renewable energy, commercial electric cars and other technologies, that look to a future where fossil fuels and other resources may be in shorter supply. His futuristic and visionary ideas have won him both scientific and philanthropic recognition and awards. The pop culture sometimes portrays him as a sort of real life super hero, dedicated to providing worldwide solutions to international problems. Musk looks to the future, hopes for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and continues to plan far-reaching futuristic goals such a human colony on Mars. Scroll down to learn all about this illustrious personality.

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Girlfriend: Grimes (2018)

Also Known As: Elon Reeve Musk

Age: 53 Years , 53 Year Old Males

Spouse/Ex-: Justine Musk (m. 2000–2008), Talulah Riley (m. 2010–2012; m. 2013–2016)

father: Errol Musk

mother: Maye Haldeman

siblings: Kimbal Musk , Tosca Musk

children: Damian Musk, Griffin Musk, Kai Musk, Nevada Alexander Musk (died), Saxon Musk, Xavier Musk

Born Country: South Africa

CEOs Automobile Industry

Ancestry: German American, South African American, South African Canadian

Personality: INTJ

City: Pretoria, South Africa

Founder/Co-Founder: PayPal, SpaceX, Zip2, X.com, Musk Foundation, Tesla Motors

education: University Of Pennsylvania

You wanted to know

What companies does elon musk own, what is elon musk's role at tesla, what is neuralink and what is elon musk's involvement with it, what is the hyperloop and how is elon musk associated with it, what are some notable achievements of spacex, founded by elon musk.

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Elon Musk was briefly in a relationship with American actress Amber Heard in 2016, but the couple split owing to their conflicting schedules.

Elon Musk started dating Canadian musician Grimes in 2018. In May 2020, Grimes gave birth to their son. In March 2021, Musk stated that he was single. In March 2022, Grimes revealed that they have broken up and she further stated that they welcomed a daughter through surrogacy in December 2021. 

In 2022, Insider, an American financial and business news website published court documents stating that Musk fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, the company's top executive, in November 2021. As of June 2022, Elon Musk has nine children with three different women.

See the events in life of Elon Musk in Chronological Order

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Elon Musk: The Complete Biography of an Extraordinary Innovator

• by history tools
• March 26, 2024

Elon Musk is one of the most famous entrepreneurs and business leaders of the 21st century. As the co-founder of PayPal, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and driving force behind many other companies, Musk has had an outsized influence on technology, space exploration, and solving some of humanity‘s biggest challenges.

Let‘s take a closer look at Musk’s remarkable life story, complex persona, monumental successes and occasional setbacks, and what makes him such a polarizing character.

Childhood and Early Life in South Africa

Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, one of South Africa’s wealthiest and most segregated cities during apartheid. His mother Maye was a famous dietitian and model who grew up in Canada, while his father Errol was a wealthy white South African electromechanical engineer.

As a child, Musk was an avid reader and self-taught computer programmer. At age 12 he created and sold a video game called Blastar to a computer magazine for $500. But his relationship with his father was difficult – his parents divorced when he was 9 years old. Musk chose to live mostly with his father, which he would later regret considering they became estranged.

Discovering His Calling

After spending two years in the South African military, Musk moved to Canada at age 19. He studied at Queen‘s University in Ontario for two years, avoiding mandatory service in the South African military, before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania.

At Penn, Musk pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Physics as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Most notably, he rekindled an early passion by taking extra classes at the Stanford School of Engineering. It was a harbinger of innovations to come.

Founding Zip2 and PayPal

In 1995 Musk dropped out of Stanford’s PhD program to found his first startup Zip2 Corporation with his brother Kimbal. Zip2 provided online city guides to newspapers like the New York Times and Chicago Tribune.

Compaq bought Zip2 in 1999 for $307 million, earning Musk $22 million. He soon co-founded X.com, one of the first online banks providing services like checking accounts and money transfers.

X.com merged with its rival Confinity in 2000 to become PayPal, with Musk serving as the new CEO. Despite internal struggles at the new company, PayPal went on to revolutionize online payments. In 2002 eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk received $175 million.

“If something‘s important enough you should try, even if the probable outcome is failure.”

Making History with SpaceX

Flush with cash from the PayPal sale, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in 2002 with an audacious long-term goal: make humanity multi-planetary by establishing a human colony on Mars.

SpaceX develops rockets, spacecraft and satellites aimed at revolutionizing space transportation to eventually make it affordable for private citizens to travel into orbit and to other planets. It almost went bankrupt in 2008, but Musk kept it afloat with personal funds.

In 2012 SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spaceship to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. And in 2020 SpaceX sent astronauts to the ISS for the first time, effectively resurrecting American manned spaceflight.

Tesla Accelerates Ahead with Musk at the Helm

Also in 2004 Musk made the series A investment round in Tesla Motors and joined Tesla’s board of directors as chairman. Founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003, Tesla aimed to prove electric cars could be better than gasoline-powered cars.

The original Roadster sports car impressed critics, but by 2007 Tesla was also on the verge of bankruptcy. Musk invested heavily in Tesla and took over leadership of the company, serving as CEO and product architect.

Under his guidance, Tesla went public in 2010 to raise funds and the Model S sedan was named Motor Trend‘s 2013 Car of the Year. By 2023 Tesla had become the world‘s most valuable automaker, dominating the rapidly growing EV market.

Expanding His Entrepreneurial Portfolio

In addition to SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has founded or co-founded a number of new companies over the last two decades. These include:

• The Boring Company (2016) – Develops tunnels aimed at eliminating street traffic to reduce transportation time
• Neuralink (2016) – Develops implantable brain-machine interfaces to connect human brains with computers
• OpenAI (2015) – Non-profit AI research company working to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits humanity
• Starlink (2019) – SpaceX project to provide global satellite Internet access coverage

Not all of these companies have proven successful so far. But Musk continues to think big while attracting top talent to bring innovative new technologies to reality.

Taking Over Twitter for $44 Billion

In January 2022, Musk started acquiring shares of social media company Twitter. By March he had accumulated a 9.2% stake to become Twitter‘s largest shareholder. This set in motion a tumultuous year that eventually led to his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion on October 27, 2022.

Shortly after acquiring Twitter, Musk laid off roughly half the company‘s 7,500 employees and radically changed the platform‘s operations. Many users have quit the platform over concerns about misinformation as Musk grants "amnesty" to suspended accounts. The long-term implications of his takeover remain uncertain.

“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”

Marriages, Relationships and Family

In 2000, Musk married Canadian author Justine Wilson. Their first son died unexpectedly from SIDS at 10 weeks old. They share custody of 5 sons – a set of twins and a set of triplets – born through IVF. Musk and Wilson separated in 2008.

From 2010 to 2012, Musk was married to English actress Talulah Riley. After divorcing, they remarried in 2013 before finalizing their divorce again in 2016. Musk also had an on-and-off relationship with musician Grimes which began in 2018. They had 2 children – a son born in 2020 and daughter born in 2021 via surrogate.

In 2022 it was revealed that Musk secretly had twins in 2021 with Shivon Zilis, a top executive at his company Neuralink. He now has 10 children from 3 relationships. But his 18-year-old transgender daughter has disowned him, changing her name in opposition to Musk‘s "public transphobia."

Losing and Regaining Title of World‘s Richest Person

Thanks mostly to his shares in Tesla Motors, Musk experienced an astronomical rise in his personal net worth. He became the richest person in the world for the first time in January 2021 when he surpassed Jeff Bezos.

But his net worth dropped in 2022 and early 2023 as Tesla‘s share price declined. On January 6, 2023 Musk lost the title of world‘s richest person to Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH.

What‘s more, with an estimated $183 billion loss between November 2021 and January 2023, Musk holds the record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history according to Guinness World Records. Despite these setbacks, Musk’s supporters are betting he’ll reclaim the top spot someday.

What Makes Musk Such a Polarizing Figure

Musk has earned both ardent fans and vocal critics. So what makes him such a polarizing public figure?

Reasons supporters are drawn to Musk include:

• Daring vision for future innovations
• Willingness to take risks
• Commitment to tackling climate change with sustainable energy
• Power to make things happen that others consider impossible
• Relatable sense of humor on social media

However some people are strongly critical of Musk for:

• Poor treatment of employees by demanding unrealistic hours and goals
• Controversial public stances on issues like pandemic lockdowns
• Spreading misinformation and making questionable promises on Twitter
• Brash communication style and vindictiveness towards naysayers
• Concerns about concentration of power held by billionaires

But there‘s no questioning the outsized impact Musk already made on multiple industries. Even his detractors admit they‘re curious to see what he’ll achieve next.

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PayPal and SpaceX

• X (formerly Twitter)

When was Elon Musk born?

Where did elon musk go to school, what did elon musk accomplish.

Elon Musk (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria , South Africa) South African -born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm PayPal and formed SpaceX , maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft . He was also one of the first significant investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electric car manufacturer Tesla. In addition, Musk acquired Twitter (later X) in 2022.

Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he sought the greater economic opportunities available in the United States .

Musk attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, where he received bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics in 1997. He enrolled in graduate school in physics at Stanford University in California , but he left after only two days because he felt that the Internet had much more potential to change society than work in physics. In 1995 he founded Zip2 , a company that provided maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later became PayPal, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion.

Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humanity has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to make more affordable rockets. Its first two rockets were the Falcon 1 (first launched in 2006) and the larger Falcon 9 (first launched in 2010), which were designed to cost much less than competing rockets. A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company’s Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. SpaceX has announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy–Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit . The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for providing fast transportation between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars. SpaceX also developed the Dragon spacecraft, which carries supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). Dragon can carry as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. The first test flights of the Super Heavy–Starship system launched in 2020. In addition to being CEO of SpaceX, Musk was also chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Starship. SpaceX is contracted to build the lander for the astronauts returning to the Moon by 2025 as part of NASA ’s Artemis space program.

Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric car company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning . In 2006 Tesla introduced its first car, the Roadster , which could travel 245 miles (394 km) on a single charge. Unlike most previous electric vehicles, which Musk thought were stodgy and uninteresting, it was a sports car that could go from 0 to 60 miles (97 km) per hour in less than four seconds. In 2010 the company’s initial public offering raised about $226 million. Two years later Tesla introduced the Model S sedan, which was acclaimed by automotive critics for its performance and design. The company won further praise for its Model X luxury SUV, which went on the market in 2015. The Model 3, a less-expensive vehicle, went into production in 2017 and became the best-selling electric car of all time.

Dissatisfied with the projected cost ($68 billion) of a high-speed rail system in California, Musk in 2013 proposed an alternate faster system, the Hyperloop , a pneumatic tube in which a pod carrying 28 passengers would travel the 350 miles (560 km) between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 35 minutes at a top speed of 760 miles (1,220 km) per hour, nearly the speed of sound . Musk claimed that the Hyperloop would cost only $6 billion and that, with the pods departing every two minutes on average, the system could accommodate the six million people who travel that route every year. However, he stated, between running SpaceX and Tesla, he could not devote time to the Hyperloop’s development.

X (formerly Twitter )

Musk joined the social media service Twitter in 2009, and, as @elonmusk, he became one of the most popular accounts on the site, with more than 85 million followers as of 2022. He expressed reservations about Tesla’s being publicly traded, and in August 2018 he made a series of tweets about taking the company private at a value of $420 per share, noting that he had “secured funding.” (The value of $420 was seen as a joking reference to April 20, a day celebrated by devotees of cannabis .) The following month the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Musk for securities fraud, alleging that the tweets were “false and misleading.” Shortly thereafter Tesla’s board rejected the SEC’s proposed settlement, reportedly because Musk had threatened to resign. However, the news sent Tesla stock plummeting, and a harsher deal was ultimately accepted. Its terms included Musk’s stepping down as chairman for three years, though he was allowed to continue as CEO; his tweets were to be preapproved by Tesla lawyers, and fines of $20 million for both Tesla and Musk were levied.

Musk was critical of Twitter’s commitment to principles of free speech , in light of the company’s content-moderation policies. Early in April 2022, Twitter’s filings with the SEC disclosed that Musk had bought more than 9 percent of the company. Shortly thereafter Twitter announced that Musk would join the company’s board, but Musk decided against that and made a bid for the entire company, at a value of $54.20 a share, for $44 billion. Twitter’s board accepted the deal, which would make him sole owner of the company. Musk stated that his plans for the company included “enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.” In July 2022 Musk announced that he was withdrawing his bid, stating that Twitter had not provided sufficient information about bot accounts and claiming that the company was in “material breach of multiple provisions” of the purchase agreement. Bret Taylor, the chair of Twitter’s board of directors, responded by saying that the company was “committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk.” Twitter sued Musk to force him to buy the company. In September 2022 Twitter’s shareholders voted to accept Musk’s offer. Facing a legal battle, Musk ultimately proceeded with the deal, and it was completed in October.

Among Musk’s first acts as Twitter’s owner were to lay off about half the company and to allow users to purchase for $8 a month the blue check-mark verification, which had previously been bestowed by Twitter upon notable figures. In addition, he disbanded Twitter’s content-moderation body and reinstated many banned accounts, most notably that of former U.S. president Donald Trump , which had been suspended after the U.S. Capitol attack on January 6, 2021 . Advertising revenue fell sharply as many companies withdrew their ads from the platform. Musk changed the name of the company from Twitter to X in July 2023. (Tweets became posts with the change.)

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Elon Musk Quick Facts

Elon musk’s family, elon musk’s early life & education, musk’s college career, notable businesses, elon musk’s net worth, can i buy tesla stock, key elon musk facts and statistics, famous and controversial moments, elon musk’s social impact, wrapping up, elon musk faqs.

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Elon Musk Facts: History, Achievements and Net Worth

Wealth Management, Personal Finance

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As one of the richest men in the world, few names command as much attention and intrigue as Elon Musk.

From owning multi-billion companies and pushing to revolutionize the automotive and space industries through innovation and unique business models, Musk is often cited as one of the most influential figures of our time.

This article delves into this entrepreneur’s life, providing more depth to the understanding of his management, leadership and investment styles. Reading across a host of Elon Musk facts will ensure investors better understand who he is and the businesses he has built – offering an extra layer for informed decision making when it comes to Elon Musk’s companies.

Full Name: Elon Reeve Musk

Parents: Errol Musk, Maye Musk

Siblings: Sister Tosca Musk and brother Kimbal Musk

Born: June 28th, 1971

Place of Birth: Pretoria, South Africa

Net Worth: $208.6 billion (as of March 2024)

Current Partner: Grimes

Ex-Spouse(s): Justine Wilson, Talulah Riley

Owner Of: SpaceX, Tesla Inc, X (formerly Twitter), The Boring Company, xAI, and Neuralink

Musk is the son of Errol, a South African engineer, and Maye, a Canadian model and nutritionist. Musk’s parents divorced in 1980 shortly before his 9th birthday.

He is the eldest of three siblings, Kimbal Musk and Tosca Musk, who also share his entrepreneurial spirit. Kimbal is the founder of three food companies, while Tosca is a director, producer and the owner of Passionflix, a romance series/film streaming service.

Partners & Children

Elon Musk has fathered 11 children with 4 partners.

Musk’s first wife (2000-2008), Justine Wilson, is the mother of 6 of his children, although their firstborn tragically died at 10 weeks from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Musk and Wilson would later have twins Griffin Musk and Vivian Jenna Wilson through in vitro fertilization. The couple also had a set of triplets; Kai, Saxon, and Damian, also via IVF. While still in contact with most of his children, Musk’s continued vocal anti-trans stance caused Vivian to completely cut all contact with her father in 2022. 

He married his second wife, British actress Talulah Riley, in 2010. The couple divorced in 2012, and then remarried in 2013. The pair split for good in 2016.

Musk started dating Grimes, a Canadian musician, in 2018 and the couple had their first son, X AE A-XII, two years later. They welcomed a daughter (Exa Dark Siderael Musk) in December 2021 through a surrogate despite splitting up in September of the same year.

The tech entrepreneur was also the sperm donor for a set of twins in 2021, with Shivon Zilis, a director of operations and special projects at Neuralink.

Musk and Grimes still consider themselves best friends, and recently revealed they’d had another son via a surrogate birth, Techno Mechanicus, in September 2023.

Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. After his parents divorced in 1980, he initially lived with his father, although later came to regret the decision and eventually became estranged from his father.

Musk spent much of his time reading both genre fiction and non-fiction during his time at private preparatory school, and later also during Pretoria Boys High School. It was while at High School that Elon reportedly called someone’s father “stupid” for dying by suicide, he was beaten up and thrown down a short flight of concrete steps. His father allegedly offered no sympathy due to his actions, despite Elon’s injuries.

It was at age ten that the soon-to-be entrepreneur developed an interest in computing and video games. He soon taught himself to code using relevant manuals, and at age twelve had already sold a videogame to a PC magazine for around $500.

Did Elon Musk’s Family Own an Emerald Mine?

Yes, Musk’s father was a part owner of the emerald mine situated near Lake Tanganyika. Although Elon refutes these claims, Errol Musk has previously confessed to being a shareholder of the mine in an interview with Business Insider, Africa, in 2018. Errol Musk reveals, “I said, ‘Oh, all right’. So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years.” In the interview, he says he spent half of the £80,000 he got from selling an airplane to purchase part of the mine. Consequently, he and his family received emeralds for the following six years.

Musk enrolled at the University of Pretoria, where he studied for only five months before migrating to Canada and joining the Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1990. Here, he met his first wife, Justine Wilson, then an aspiring writer.

Two years later, he made the transition to the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania. There, he pursued and successfully obtained two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in physics and a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School of Business. During his time there, Musk organized house parties with a door fee in order to help pay for his tuition, and created a business plan for an electronic book-scanning service along a similar vein as Google Books.

In 1994, Musk worked at two notable internships in Silicon Valley: one at the forward-thinking energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, and another at the Palo Alto-based startup, Rocket Science Games. The following year, he received acceptance into a PhD program in materials science at Stanford University. However, enticed by the fast-growing Internet industry, Musk decided to drop out rather than start the PhD, opting instead to pursue tech-based opportunities.

When Did Elon Musk Come To America?

In 1992, Elon transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in America.

Elon Musk has created a solid reputation for being a highly successful entrepreneur. His propensity for risk-taking has enabled him to create and take forward a series of ground-breaking companies. Here are some of the notable businesses the entrepreneur is or has been involved in:

X.com (Paypal)

For some time, Musk had envisioned developing an online bank system and eventually spent about $12 million on co-founding X.com in 1999 with several other investors. The platform went on to attract more than 200,000 sign-ups within 2 months of being live.

X.Com later merged with Confinity, a money transfer company, to become PayPal. Being the largest shareholder, Musk became the CEO of the tech firm that now enabled users to send money utilizing the web and email. By the time PayPal was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion, Musk had an 11.7% stake. As a result, he generated approximately $180 million after taxes, creating additional substantial wealth.

This is the company that the billionaire is most well-known for. Founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, Tesla has continuously made headlines owing to its innovations in the automotive industry and contributions to clean energy efforts.

Musk joined the company in 2004 by becoming one of its main funders. He was later appointed the chairman of the board of directors before assuming the position of CEO in 2008.

Elon was also the visionary behind the Roadster, an all-electric vehicle released in 2008 that achieved 245 miles on a single charge and boasted massive acceleration thanks to its immensely powerful lithium-ion batteries. Tesla sold thousands of these revolutionary vehicles between 2008 and 2011, earning substantial revenue.

Through Musk’s stewardship, Tesla launched another innovative electric car—the Model S—in 2012. The vehicle was praised for its performance and design, with Consumer Reports naming it the best overall car of that year. The company won further acclaim for its Model X luxury SUV launched in 2015. Model 3 came soon after (2017) and became the best-selling electric car of all time, with the ability to travel 263 miles on a single charge.

Tesla has grown to be one of the most valuable companies globally, with the TSLA market cap exceeding $755 billion. It also continues to increase its electric vehicle production annually, a move that has helped expand its revenues.

Chart source: Investing.com Tesla (TSLA) Stock page

Boring Company

The Boring Company was established by Musk in 2016. It mainly focuses on infrastructure and underground tunnel construction to reduce urban congestion and mitigate traffic challenges. The firm also seeks to offer high-speed, long-distance travel through a transportation mode called “hyperloop.” This is where passengers are transported underground using electric cars with no stops in between. The overarching goal is to test the loop-based transportation system and research ways to make tunneling more affordable and faster.

Boring is still growing after successfully raising $675 million in a Series C funding round. This in turn increased its value to $5.75 billion as of April 2022.

This company is central to Musk’s ambition to colonise Mars. Musk started SpaceX in 2002 using some of the money he received from selling PayPal. He aims to decrease costs associated with space exploration by designing and manufacturing affordable rockets.

The Falcon 1 rocket first launched in 2006, followed by Falcon 9 in 2010. Both launch vehicles cost much less than other competing rockets.

The years that followed saw Musk spearhead the development of further groundbreaking innovations. An example is the Falcon Heavy (2018) which could carry 53,000 kg weight and orbit almost twice the distance of its biggest competitor (the Delta IV Heavy from Boeing) for a third of the cost.

SpaceX also invented the Dragon spacecraft that carries astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station.

These inventions under Musk’s leadership have made SpaceX one of the most valuable private companies globally.

Musk and a team of scientists and engineers launched Neuralink in 2016. This neurotechnological company seeks to develop brain implants capable of “communicating” (i.e. linking) with computers and phones. The company aims to help treat severe brain illnesses in the short term, with the ultimate goal to enhance the human brain’s cognitive abilities.

In May 2023, the FDA gave Neuralink the go-ahead to start testing the chips on humans despite rejecting the application in 2022, citing safety concerns. The company opened its first human trials for recruitment in September 2023.Like many of his other businesses, Neuralink has generated substantial returns for Musk. In June 2023, Neuralink’s value sat at $5 billion .

Twitter (Now X)

Twitter is one of the latest companies to be acquired by Musk. He initially revealed having a 9% stake in the social media company after being an active user for many years. Musk expressed his interest in buying the whole firm in April 2022.

Twitter agreed to sell the company at $44 billion, though Musk tried to withdraw from the deal. The deal was eventually closed in October of the same year, with Musk officially taking over as the owner and CEO. The company was subsequently privatised and removed from the stock market, with each shareholder receiving $0.52 per Twitter share as a buyout.

Unfortunately, X lost nearly 50% of its ad revenue several months after the takeover. The number of users declined substantially worldwide, as did the company’s value. In March 2023, Musk admitted that Twitter was worth about $20 billion , representing a 55% decline from what he paid while purchasing it.

When did Twitter Become X?

Musk renamed Twitter to X in July 2023.

What Does Elon Musk Own?

Alongside Tesla, Boring Company, Neuralink and X, Musk launched the xAI Company in 2023. The venture aims to develop alternative products to OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT.

Musk also acquired SolarCity, a company that sells solar energy generation systems, through Tesla in 2016 for $2.6 billion.

Here’s how Musk’s wealth has grown since 2014:

How Does Elon Musk Make Money?

Elon Musk is well known for his remarkable entrepreneurial skills, focus, and role as a tech visionary. He has also been hailed as a genius for his innovative approach to technology for clean energy and space exploration.

In any case, Musk has created wealth mainly through the many companies he has founded and invested in. He established his first company Zip2 in 1995 and sold it in 1999, pocketing millions of dollars as a result. He also co-founded X.com (now PayPal) and earned millions after selling it to eBay in 2002. It was during this period that he created SpaceX, a spaceflight services company that he still owns. Forbes puts the company’s worth at nearly $150 billion, with Musk’s ownership at about 42%.

The business genius also makes money from his electric car company, Tesla, which he became involved with through funding in 2004. Currently, Musk has a 21% stake in Tesla stocks and options. Even though Tesla doesn’t guarantee him a salary, it nevertheless awards him a package when he achieves certain performance targets.

His tunnel-digging firm, the Boring Company, and the neurotechnology business, Neuralink, also earn him a significant amount of money through stock options. Other investments that contribute to his fortune include Twitter, SolarCity, and xAI. The entrepreneur has also been known to invest in cryptocurrency, which while volatile, can produce remarkable return percentages.

Yes, you can. Tesla (TSLA) is a publicly traded company, and is listed on major stock exchanges like the NASDAQ. The purchase process is easy and entails the following:

• Step 1: Open an online account with a reputable and regulated broker and deposit funds.
• Step 2: Log in to your account, look for the Tesla stock ticker symbol (TSLA) and select it.
• Step 3: State the number or amount of shares you wish to buy.
• Step 4: Remember to indicate the type of order . You can either choose a market or limit order. If you choose the former, your broker will execute trades at the current market price. Selecting a limit order means your stock is traded when it reaches a specified price.

Step 5: Submit your order and ensure you monitor the investment. Tesla stock prices can change often, so staying updated on any developments that may affect the parent company or the market in general is essential. Consequently, you can adjust your position to optimize gains or curb potential losses.

Here are some important Elon Musk statistics and facts:

• His first company, Zip2, was established in 1995 and mainly focused on offering an online city guide service in partnership with newspapers. He sold it 4 years later to Combaq for $340 million.
• Musk has earned several awards, including the President’s Award for Exploration and Technology of the Explorers Club, the Royal Aeronautical Society Award, the Edison Achievement Award, and more.
• Musk officially bought Twitter in October 2022 and now owns approximately 74% of the company that’s now known as X.
• In 2012, Musk became part of Bill Gates/Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, which requires billionaires to commit a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
• His Neuralink Company wants to create interfaces that make it possible to connect the human brain to computers.
• He holds citizenship in multiple countries: South Africa, Canada, and the United States.
• He co-founded PayPal and sold it to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.
• Musk is known for his ambitious vision of colonizing Mars and making humanity multi-planetary. He has stated that he plans to die on Mars, “but not on impact”.
• In 2008, SpaceX’s Falcon 1 became the first privately-funded liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.
• Tesla’s Model S, introduced in 2012, was the first electric car to have a range of over 300 miles per charge.
• Musk has advocated for the development of artificial intelligence, while also warning about its potential risks.
• Musk is a proponent of renewable energy and sustainable transportation.
• Musk has frequently clashed with regulatory agencies and traditional automakers over issues like safety standards and direct sales of Tesla vehicles.
• Musk has made headlines for his often controversial statements and behavior on social media surrounding trans and female rights, immigration and racism.
• Musk has expressed interest in developing a high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop (similar to a train or metro line, but with additional efficiencies).
• He purchased the domain name “X.com” in 2017, the same domain used by his online payment company that eventually became PayPal.
• Musk has a fascination with science fiction and has cited authors like Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams as influences.
• Musk has stated that he works up to 100 hours per week across his various companies and projects.

Elon Musk seems to thrive on controversy, and he has been criticized severally for offensive comments on various issues.

For instance, the US Security Exchange Commission sued the entrepreneur for distributing misleading info in 2018 when he tweeted about privatizing Tesla at $420 per share despite failing to secure funding.

In another instance, he faced backlash for calling a British diver involved in rescuing a group of boys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand a “pedo” on Twitter (now X).

Musk also received a lot of criticism after officially purchasing Twitter towards the end of October 2022. While the acquisition itself raised eyebrows but wasn’t a cause for concern, his almost immediate actions around the treatment of his employees and controversial user-facing practices such as charging users who wanted their accounts verified, suspending parody accounts without warning, and rolling back hate-speech guidelines, were widely criticized.

In 2018, he appeared on the Joe Rogan Podcast show, where he famously smoked marijuana during the interview, instantly becoming an actual meme on the internet.

The famous businessman was outspoken during the COVID-19 pandemic and regularly made controversial statements. From terming the stay-at-home orders ‘fascist’ to stating that the panic over the virus was ‘dumb’ and casting doubt on the efficiency of tests.

More recently, in November 2023, Musk said, “Go f*ck yourself” to advertisers who stopped spending on X following his promotion of anti-Semitic conspiracies on the platform.

Famous Musk Quotes

Musk is known for speaking his mind and certainly isn’t shy about letting the world know what drives him. Here are some of his famous quotes:

• “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” – From an interview with Business Insider, February 19, 2014.
• “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.” – From an interview with Gigaom, May 11, 2008.
• “Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.” – From an interview with The Independent, November 24, 2017.
• “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” – From a speech at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference, July 19, 2017.
• “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.” – From an interview with Aeon Magazine, December 12, 2014.
• “I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.” – From an interview with Mashable, September 18, 2015.
• “If something’s important enough, you should try. Even if the probable outcome is failure.” – From an interview with TED Talks, March 2013.
• “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.” – From an interview with Wired, December 24, 2012.
• “I would like to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.” – From an interview with Rolling Stone, November 15, 2017.
• “Really pay attention to negative feedback and solicit it, particularly from friends. Hardly anyone does that, and it’s incredibly helpful.” – From an interview with Business Insider, February 19, 2014.
• “There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.” – From an interview with Vanity Fair, April 3, 2013.
• “I do think there is a lot of potential if you have a compelling product and people are willing to pay a premium for that.” – From an interview with Bloomberg, February 15, 2013.
• “Great companies are built on great products.” – From an interview with CBS News, November 13, 2011.
• “If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not.” – From an interview with Inc. Magazine, June 1, 2008.
• “The future of humanity is going to bifurcate in two directions: Either it’s going to become multi-planetary, or it’s going to remain confined to one planet and eventually there’s going to be an extinction event.” – From an interview with Aeon Magazine, December 12, 2014.

The Musk Foundation is a private entity that Musk established in 2002. The foundation provides grants that support paediatric research, science and engineering education, renewable energy research, and human space exploration research. Some of the foundation’s recipients include World Spine Care, the co-educational Mirman School for Gifted Children, and Doctors Without Borders.

Does Musk Do Anything For Charity?

Yes. Musk has long been involved in various philanthropic activities, although their efficacy has often come under scrutiny. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the billionaire donated more than 1,000 ventilators and other medical equipment to hospitals in New York. Unfortunately, these were later deemed to be the incorrect type of ventilator required for the safe intubation of COVID-19 patients. 

Elon Musk was also able to provide clean drinking water to 12 schools in Flint, Michigan, where the water supply was contaminated with lead and other toxins. He achieved this by giving money to set up new water fountains with filtration systems in a dozen schools. However, this falls short of his promise to “fixing the water in any house in Flint.” 

He has also contributed millions of dollars to the X Prize Foundation, which he worked with in 2021 to develop a prize for carbon removal projects.

However, he has been criticized several times for using less than 1% of his total wealth on philanthropic activities and never quite fully following through with the philanthropic promises he makes across social media.

Regardless of individual sentiment on him as a person, Elon Musk’s achievements are indeed remarkable. His focus and ability to take advantage of opportunities have seen him rise over the years to become one of the consistently wealthiest people on the planet. 

He has leveraged the power of the internet and technology to create companies like SpaceX, Neuralink, and Boring from scratch and steer them to success. Tesla has also experienced massive growth under his leadership; arguably the best is yet to come.

Musk continues to inspire up-and-coming entrepreneurs that hard work, innovativeness, and persistence pay.

Q. How Many Kids Does Elon Musk Have?

Elon Musk has 11 children:

• Nevada Alexander (deceased)
• Griffin Musk and Vivian Jenna Wilson – April 2004
• Kai, Saxon, and Damian Musk – January 2006
• X AE A-Xii – May 2020
• Azure and Strider – November 2021
• Exa Dark Siderael Musk – December 2021
• Techno Mechanicus – June 2022

Q. Where Was Elon Musk Born?

Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1971. He stayed with his father in the country during his early life before moving to Canada at 17 and later to the USA.

Q. What Nationality is Elon Musk?

The tech mogul has three nationalities — South African, Canadian, and American.

Q. Where is Elon Musk From?

Musk is originally from South Africa.

Q. Why Did Elon Musk Buy Twitter?

He acquired Twitter with the aim of transforming it into a platform that supports free speech globally. He hoped the platform would significantly promote democracy. According to Musk, the offer to buy was not driven by the desire to increase his wealth.

Q. When Did Musk Buy Twitter?

Elon Musk Twitter deal was initiated on April 14, 2022, and he offered to purchase the platform for $44 billion. However, he later put the agreement on hold, stating concerns over the prevalence of bot and spam accounts. This prompted the company to sue Musk to force him to honor the deal. He eventually completed the purchase on October 27, 2022, at the original offer.

Q. Does Musk Have Autism?

Yes. He confirmed having autism during a TED talk. He believes living on the spectrum drove his specialized interest in science and technology, contributing to who he is today.

Q. Did Elon Musk Bring Out A Single?

Yes. The track is called “Don’t doubt your vibe,” and is available on SoundCloud. Musk wrote the lyrics, and so far, it has attracted millions of listens.

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Elon Musk’s Early Life: From Childhood to College

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Elon Musk" by Ashlee Vance. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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What was Elon Musk’s early life like? Where was Elon Musk born and raised?

Elon Musk’s early life was difficult in that he felt like an outsider growing up in South Africa. He also was bullied and struggled with the divorce of his parents. On the bright side, he grew up with the freedom and resources to explore his interests and was eventually able to move to Canada to attend college.

Keep reading to learn more about Elon Musk’s early life.

Elon Musk’s Childhood

Elon Musk was born in South Africa in 1971. Vance describes how in Elon Musk’s early life, Musk felt like an outsider since he was a quiet, nerdy child. He spent most of his time reading, even consuming encyclopedias after he’d read all of the books at local libraries. Because of his photographic memory, he remembered specific facts and could accurately recite them. Using this knowledge, he often corrected people, thus gaining a reputation as a know-it-all.

Parental Troubles

Elon Musk’s early life wasn’t always easy. When Musk was eight years old, his parents divorced, and his mother Maye moved the three children to the Musk’s holiday home on the east coast of South Africa. After a few years, Musk decided to live with his father, Errol. Vance notes that Musk wouldn’t go into great detail about his father, but he acknowledged that Errol was a difficult person to be around, inflicted a level of psychological torture on him, made his life miserable, and dismissed Musk’s dream of moving to America.

(Shortform note: While Musk doesn’t explain the specifics of what made Errol a difficult father, Maye provided more insight in her memoir A Woman Makes a Plan . She explains that Errol was manipulative and abusive—physically, financially, and emotionally . In another interview, Musk supported her claim, stating Errol was physically violent with him when Musk was very young.) 

Social Problems

Musk’s bookishness and know-it-all reputation set him apart from his peers, and he was beaten and bullied by a group of boys for several years. Vance noted that this was one of the most difficult experiences in Elon Musk’s early life. The bullying finally stopped when he switched to a different high school with a more peaceful environment.

(Shortform note: Musk is one of many successful people who were the victims of childhood bullying . For example, Steve Jobs, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, singer Rihanna, and Duchess Kate Middleton are just a few notable people who were bullied as children. The reasons for the bullying varied—race, disposition, personal interests, appearance, intelligence, or physical size—but all stem from being viewed as different. Often the traits they were bullied for are now part of their success, indicating resilience and embracing these different features are key to success and overcoming the long-term negative effects of bullying.)

Developing Lifelong Interests

But Elon Musk’s early life also had its perks—Musk had the freedom and resources to explore what interested him:

• Technology : Errol bought Musk a computer, feeding his fascination with technology and leading to an interest in coding and software. He also became interested in Silicon Valley, which was a hub of technological advancement at the time.
• Renewable energy : Vance explains that Musk’s interest in clean energy also started at a young age. In high school, Musk drew attention for his strong views on solar power as a replacement for fossil fuels. 
• Space : His love of sci-fi novels encouraged an interest in rockets and space exploration. 

Vance notes that Musk’s interests are lifelong ones, as we’ll see reflected in each of his companies. 

(Shortform note: While Musk found his interest in technology, renewable energy, and space early on in life, Angela Duckworth notes that this isn’t always the case for people—in fact, she thinks many people have unrealistic expectations of how interests are discovered. In Grit , she contends that most people don’t find their interests early—they discover and develop them over time . So don’t expect to discover your interest early in life or right out of college. You need to nurture that interest through time, persistence, and practice by frequently engaging with it. This kind of passion can last a lifetime.)

Leaving South Africa

After graduating high school, Musk left South Africa for Canada because he wanted to avoid mandatory military service since that would have required him to contribute to the apartheid regime. He also thought Canada would help him get to America as quickly as possible, which was his ultimate goal. Vance explains that he spent a few years in Canada and attended college. While there, he met and dated another student named Justine, who would eventually become his first wife. Midway through his degree, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, thus completing his goal of moving to America. (Shortform note: While Musk went to college, he believes it isn’t necessary for success, citing Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as examples of people who accomplished great things without a college degree—although he doesn’t account for the fact that both Gates and Jobs attended university without finishing their degrees. Musk has said that college is “basically for fun” and doesn’t require employees at his companies to have a college degree .)

———End of Preview———

Like what you just read read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of ashlee vance's "elon musk" at shortform ..

Here's what you'll find in our full Elon Musk summary :

• A look into Elon Musk’s childhood and early companies
• Musk's roles in SpaceX and Tesla, and later, in SolarCity
• The traits and management methods that helped Musk succeed
• ← The 2 Bad Comparisons You Need to Stop Making
• Mythology Paintings: Self-Serving Snobbery? →

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