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Introduction
Elon Reeve Musk (born June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa) is a businessman and investor. He is the founder of SpaceX; CEO of Tesla, Inc.; owner of X Corp.; founder of the Boring Company and xAI; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI (whew). He had a net worth of more than $199 Billion as of 1/5/24.
Career and Business
After obtaining two degrees in 1995, he decided to drop out of a third graduation program. Musk decided to join the Internet Boom, applying for a job at Netscape, to which he didn't receive any response.
Zip2
In 1995, Musk, along with his brother Kimbal and Greg Kouri, founded Global Link Information Network, later renamed Zip2. The company secured financing, including a $200,000 investment with 10% contributed by their father, Errol Musk.
Zip2 developed an Internet city guide featuring maps and yellow pages, targeting newspapers as its primary market. Musk coded the website nightly from a small rented office in Palo Alto. Zip2 eventually landed contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Despite Musk's efforts to become CEO, the board of directors rejected his proposal.
In February 1999, Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash, earning Musk $22 million for his 7-percent share.
X.com
In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services company, using $12 million from the Compaq acquisition. X.com quickly attracted over 200,000 customers as one of the first federally insured online banks.
Investors regarded Musk as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris, even though Musk founded the company.
In 2000, X.com merged with Confinity to avoid competition, with Musk later returning as CEO. However, his preference for Microsoft over Unix-based software led to internal conflict, resulting in the resignation of Confinity co-founder Peter Thiel.
Facing technological challenges and a lack of direction, Musk was ousted as CEO in September 2000, replaced by Thiel. The company shifted focus to its money-transfer service and rebranded as PayPal in 2001.
In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in stock, earning Musk $175.8 million as its largest shareholder.
SpaceX
In early 2001, Musk joined the Mars Society and explored funding options for sending growth-chambers to Mars. In October of the same year, he went to Moscow with Jim Cantrell and Adeo Ressi to purchase refurbished intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) for the project but returned empty-handed. In February 2002, they revisited Russia with Mike Griffin and explored purchasing three ICBMs. Despite being offered one rocket for $8 million, Musk declined and decided to start SpaceX instead. With $100 million of his own funds, he founded SpaceX in May 2002 and served as CEO and Chief Engineer.
SpaceX launched its first Falcon 1 rocket in 2006, securing a contract from NASA later that year despite rocket failing to reach Earth orbit. After overcoming near-bankruptcy with subsequent launches, SpaceX successfully orbited Falcon 1 in 2008. In 2008, NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract for 12 flights of Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, succeeding the retired Space Shuttle. In 2012, Dragon docked with the ISS, marking a historic achievement.
Pursuing reusable rockets, SpaceX achieved the first Falcon 9 landing in 2015 and expanded to ocean-based landings. In 2018, Falcon Heavy launched Musk's Tesla Roadster. Since 2019, SpaceX has been developing Starship to replace Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. In 2020, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight, Demo-2, becoming the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and dock with the ISS.
Tesla
Tesla, originally Tesla Motors, was established in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who funded the company until the Series A financing round. Both were actively involved in its early development before Elon Musk's entry. Musk led the Series A investment round in February 2004, investing $6.5 million, becoming the majority shareholder, and assuming the role of chairman of Tesla's board. While Musk oversaw Roadster product design, his involvement in day-to-day operations was limited.
Following conflicts in 2007 and the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Eberhard was ousted from the company. Musk took over leadership as CEO and product architect in 2008. A lawsuit settlement in 2009 recognized Musk as a Tesla co-founder, alongside Tarpenning and two others.
Tesla introduced its electric sports car, the Roadster, in 2008, becoming the first serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. Subsequently, Tesla released the Model S sedan , the Model X crossover, and the Model 3 sedan, which became the all-time bestselling plug-in electric car worldwide. The Model Y crossover debuted in 2020, and the Cybertruck, an all-electric pickup truck, was unveiled in 2019.
Other Ventures
Musk provided the initial concept and funding for SolarCity, founded by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive in 2006. Tesla acquired SolarCity for over $2 billion in 2016, merging it with its battery unit to form Tesla Energy.
In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, investing $100 million to develop brain-machine interface devices for integrating human brains with artificial intelligence.
He also established The Boring Company in 2017 to construct underground tunnels for high-speed transit systems, aiming to alleviate urban traffic congestion.
In December 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit AI research organization dedicated to creating safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence. The company aimed to democratize access to advanced AI systems and prevent their control by governments and corporations.
In 2018, Musk stepped down from the OpenAI board to prevent potential conflicts of interest with his role as Tesla's CEO, as Tesla increasingly delved into AI with projects like Tesla Autopilot.
On July 12, 2023, Musk launched xAI, an AI company focused on developing generative AI technology to compete with products such as ChatGPT. Elon Musk is the owner of X (formerly Twitter) after purchasing Twitter for approximately $44 Billion in October 2022.
Personal Life
Musk, who has 10 surviving children, married his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, in 2000 after meeting her at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. Tragically, their first child died of sudden infant death syndrome in 2002, leading them to turn to IVF to expand their family. They welcomed twins in 2004 and triplets in 2006 before divorcing in 2008.
In 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley, marrying her two years later. The couple divorced in 2012, remarried in 2013, and finalized their second divorce in 2016. Musk then briefly dated Amber Heard in 2017 before entering a relationship with Canadian musician Grimes in 2018. They had a son in May 2020 and a daughter via surrogacy in December 2021.
Despite rumors of separation in 2021, Musk confirmed his single status in December 2021. In March 2022, Grimes said of her relationship with Musk: "I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid." Grimes announced their breakup later that month. They welcomed a third child in September 2023, and Grimes sued Musk for parental rights and custody of their eldest son in October 2023.
In November 2021, Musk had twins with Shivon Zilis, director of operations at Neuralink. They were born weeks before Musk and Grimes had their second child via surrogate in December. The Wall Street Journal reported an alleged affair with Nicole Shanahan in 2021, leading to her divorce from Google co-founder Sergey Brin the following year, which Musk denied. Musk also had a relationship with Australian actress Natasha Bassett.
Interesting Facts
Elon Musk holds a triple citizenship. He was born in South Africa, became a Canadian citizen at 17, and U.S. citizen in 2002.
Robert Downey Jr. modeled his character, Tony Stark, in Iron Man after Elon Musk. Musk does a cameo in Iron Man 2.
He purchased an F1 McLaren as a reward from his sell-off of Zip2. He later crashed his F1 McLaren.
He wants to put a roller coaster in the Tesla Factory.
Elon Musk purchased James Bond’s Lotus Espirit submarine car for ~$1 million dollars and plans to convert it into an actual functional submarine car.
Developed a video game called Blastar at the age of 12 and sold for approximately $500.
Bribed the Russian police after being held at gunpoint en route to purchase three $7 Million rockets.
Musk was selected as Time's "Person of the Year" for 2021.
Musk’s father was a part owner of an emerald mine.
Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Tony Stark in Iron Man is inspired by Elon Musk. Musk also had a cameo in Iron Man 2.
Musk made a cameo in an episode of The Big Bang Theory.
Musk has received numerous awards, such as the President’s Award for Exploration and Technology from the Explorers Club, the Royal Aeronautical Society Award, the Edison Achievement Award, etc.
Musk has stated that he works up to 100 hours per week across his various companies and projects.
Musk faced backlash for a tweet suggesting Tesla's privatization by claiming secured funding. The SEC filed a complaint alleging investor deception. To settle, Musk and Tesla each paid a $20 million fine and agreed to pre-approve tweets containing material corporate information.
He currently splits his time between SpaceX and Tesla, spending Mondays and Tuesdays at SpaceX, Wednesdays and Thursdays at Tesla, and Fridays evenly divided between both companies.
Elon Musk wants to put a roller coaster in the Tesla Freemont Factory.
Musk's official annual pay for Tesla is $ 0.
Musk’s tweets have influenced cryptocurrency markets, especially Dogecoin.
In 2021, Musk briefly became the world’s richest person.
Musk wants to put a colony on mars.
Musk is the only person to start four Billion-dollar companies.
He started a school called 'Ad Astra' in 2014. The school shuttered in 2020 and now runs online only.