/ap_310870414984-5bfc30db46e0fb0026026c28.jpg "Who Is Elon Musk? What Is His Claim to Fame? 1")
Entrepreneur Elon Musk has achieved world fame because the chief government of electrical autos maker Tesla Inc. (TSLA), the CEO and lead designer of his area firm SpaceX, and, extra lately, because the world’s richest human.
Musk co-founded PayPal (PYPL), was an early investor in Tesla, and in April 2022 negotiated a deal to take Twitter Inc. (TWTR) non-public.
Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk is the charismatic chief government of electrical automotive maker Tesla and rocket producer SpaceX, and has made a deal to purchase Twitter.
- Born and raised in South Africa, Musk frolicked in Canada earlier than transferring to the U.S.
- Educated on the College of Pennsylvania in physics, Musk began getting his toes moist as a serial tech entrepreneur with early successes like Zip2 and X.com, which merged with an organization that turned PayPal.
- Musk has behaved eccentrically on occasion. He has stated he has Asperger’s syndrome.
Investopedia / Bailey Mariner
His success and private type has given rise to comparisons to different colourful tycoons from U.S. historical past, together with Steve Jobs, Howard Hughes, and Henry Ford.
He was the richest particular person on the planet with an estimated internet price of $224 billion as of Might 15, 2022. Musk achieved that distinction in 2021, surpassing Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos.
Let’s look briefly on the lifetime of the person who has scaled the top of the enterprise world.
Early Life and Schooling
Elon Reeve Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, the oldest of three kids. His father was a South African engineer, his mom a Canadian mannequin and nutritionist.
After his dad and mom divorced in 1980, Musk lived primarily together with his father. He would later dub his father “a horrible human being… nearly each evil factor you could possibly probably consider, he has completed.”
“I had a horrible upbringing. I had numerous adversity rising up. One factor I fear about with my children is that they don’t face sufficient adversity,” Musk would later say.
Bullied as a Baby
Musk attended the non-public, English-speaking Waterkloof Home Preparatory College—he began a yr early—and later graduated from Pretoria Boys Excessive College. A self-described bookworm, he made few mates in these locations.
“They acquired my greatest (expletive) pal to lure me out of hiding so they might beat me up. And that (expletive) harm,” Musk stated. “For some motive, they determined that I used to be it, and so they have been going to go after me nonstop. That’s what made rising up tough. For quite a lot of years, there was no respite. You get chased round by gangs in school who tried to beat the (expletive) out of me, after which I’d come dwelling, and it might simply be terrible there as nicely.”
Early Accomplishments
Know-how turned an escape for Musk. At 10, he turned acquainted with programming utilizing a Commodore VIC-20, an early and comparatively cheap dwelling pc. Earlier than lengthy, Musk had develop into proficient sufficient to create Blastar—a online game within the type of House Invaders. He bought the BASIC code for the sport to a PC journal for $500.
In a single telling incident from his childhood, Musk and his brother, deliberate to open a online game arcade close to their college. Their dad and mom nixed the plan.
Musk’s School Years
At 17, Musk moved to Canada. He would later get hold of Canadian citizenship by his mom.
After emigrating to Canada, Musk enrolled in Queen’s College in Kingston, Ontario. It was there that he met Justine Wilson, an aspiring author. They might marry and have 5 sons collectively, twins and triplets, earlier than divorcing in 2008.
Getting into the U.S.
After two years at Queen’s College, Musk transferred to the College of Pennsylvania. He took on two majors, however his time there wasn’t all work and no play. With a fellow scholar, he purchased a 10-bedroom fraternity home, which they used as an advert hoc nightclub.
Musk graduated with a bachelor of science diploma in physics, in addition to a bachelor of arts in economics from the Wharton College. The 2 majors foreshadowed Musk’s profession, however it was physics that left the deepest impression.
“(Physics is) an excellent framework for considering,” he would say later. “Boil issues all the way down to their elementary truths and motive up from there.”
Notable Accomplishments
Musk was 24 years previous when he moved to California to pursue a Ph.D. in utilized physics at Stanford College. However, with the Web exploding and Silicon Valley booming, Musk had entrepreneurial visions dancing in his head. He left the Ph.D. program after simply two days.
X.com
In 1995, with $15,000 and his youthful brother Kimbal at his aspect, Musk began Zip2, an internet software program firm that will assist newspapers develop on-line metropolis guides.
In 1999, Zip2 was acquired by Compaq Laptop Corp. for $341 million. Musk used his Zip2 buyout cash to create X.com, a fintech enterprise earlier than that time period was in large circulation.
X.com merged with a cash switch agency known as Confinity, and the ensuing firm got here to be often known as PayPal. Peter Thiel ousted Musk as PayPal’s CEO earlier than eBay (EBAY) purchased the funds firm for $1.5 billion, however Musk nonetheless profited from the buyout through his 11.7% PayPal stake. “My proceeds from PayPal after tax have been about $180 million,” Musk stated in a 2018 interview. “$100 million of that went into SpaceX, $70 million into Tesla and $10 million into SolarCity. And I actually needed to borrow cash for hire.”
In 2017, Musk bought the X.com area identify again from PayPal, citing its sentimental worth.
Tesla
Musk turned concerned with the electrical automobiles enterprise as an early investor in 2004, finally contributing about $6.3 million to start with and joined the workforce, together with engineer Martin Eberhard, to assist run an organization then often known as Tesla Motors. Following a sequence of disagreements, Eberhard was ousted in 2007, and an interim CEO was employed till Musk assumed management as CEO and product architect. Underneath his watch, Tesla has develop into the world’s Most worthy automaker and one in every of his best-known manufacturers.
Along with producing electrical automobiles, Tesla maintains a strong presence within the photo voltaic vitality area, due to its acquisition of SolarCity. The corporate at present produces two rechargeable photo voltaic batteries. The smaller Powerwall was developed for dwelling backup energy and off-the-grid use, whereas the bigger Powerpack is meant for industrial or electrical utility grid use.
SpaceX
Musk used many of the proceeds from his PayPal stake to discovered House Exploration Applied sciences Company, the rockets developer generally often known as SpaceX. By his personal account, Musk spent $100 million to discovered SpaceX in 2002.
Underneath Musk’s management, SpaceX landed a number of high-profile contracts with the U.S. Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Air Pressure to design area launch rockets. Musk has publicized plans to ship an astronaut to Mars by 2025 in a collaborative effort with NASA.
A frequent poster on the messaging community, Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in Twitter in April 2022. Twitter responded by providing Musk a seat on the board, which he accepted earlier than declining days later. Musk then despatched a “bear hug” letter to Twitter’s board proposing to purchase the corporate at $54.20 per share.
Twitter’s board adopted a poison capsule provision to discourage Musk from accumulating a fair bigger stake, however finally accepted Musk’s supply after he disclosed $46.5 billion in dedicated financing for the deal in a securities submitting.
Private Eccentricities
On Sept. 7, 2018, Musk smoked hashish throughout a filmed interview for a podcast.
Only a month earlier, Musk posted an notorious tweet claiming he was contemplating taking Tesla public and had secured the wanted funding. Musk subsequently settled a U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) grievance alleging he knowingly misled buyers with the tweet by paying a $20 million high quality together with the identical penalty for Tesla, and agreeing to let Tesla’s legal professionals approve tweets with materials company info earlier than posting.
In March 2022 Musk filed a courtroom movement to overturn the consent decree stemming from that case. In April 2022 throughout a stay TED Speak, Musk known as SEC regulators on the case “bastards.”
Throughout his Might 8, 2021 look on the TV present Saturday Night time Dwell, Musk revealed that he has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum dysfunction. “I am really making historical past tonight as the primary particular person with Asperger’s to host SNL. Or at the least the primary particular person to confess it,” he stated. How does neurodevelopment situation present itself? “I do not at all times have numerous intonation or variation in how I converse, which I am instructed makes for nice comedy,” Musk defined.
Is Elon Musk Married?
Elon Musk has been divorced 3 times—twice from his second spouse, Talulah Riley. From 2018 to 2022, he had been in a relationship with the Canadian singer/songwriter Claire Elise Boucher, professionally often known as Grimes, with whom he has a son in 2020 and a daughter in 2022. They continue to be greatest mates. He additionally has 5 sons from his first marriage to Justine Musk.
How Wealthy Is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk’s internet price was estimated at $224 billion as of Might 2022, making him the wealthiest human on the planet.
What Does Elon Musk Do at Tesla?
Elon Musk is formally listed because the co-founder and CEO of Tesla on the corporate’s web site. In a 2021 securities submitting, the corporate disclosed a further Musk title as “Technoking of Tesla.”
The Backside Line
Musk’s early pursuits in philosophy, science fiction, and fantasy novels are mirrored in his idealism and concern with human progress—and in his enterprise profession. He works in fields he has recognized as essential to humanity’s future, notably the transition to renewable vitality sources, area exploration, and the Web. Musk has defied critics, disrupted industries, and made probably the most cash anybody ever has from PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX—game-changers all, regardless of the inevitable missteps.