Born: Elon Reeve Musk, June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa
Occupation: Entrepreneur, Industrial, Design Engineer
Net Worth: $203 Billion ( Feb 2021)
Company: Founder, CEO, the lead designer of SpaceX, CEO, product architect of Tesla Inc. Founder of The Boring Company, and X.com ( Now PayPal). Cofounder of Neuralink, Open AI, and Zip2, Chairman of SolarCity.
Childhood
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. His mother is Maye Musk, a model and dietitian born in Canada, his father is Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot sailor, consultant, and property developer. He has one younger brother Kimbal Musk and one younger sister Tosca Musk.
Musk lived mostly with his father after the divorce of his parents in Pretoria. He has an interest in computing while using Commodore Vic-20, he learned computer programming using a manual and by age 12, sold the code of a basic-based video game he created (Blastar to PC and office technology magazine) for approximately $500. Musk was an awkward and introverted child, was hospitalized when a group of boys hurt and threatened.
Education
He attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School and Bryanston High School before graduating from Pretoria Boys High School. Musk attended the University of Pretoria for few months. This allowed Musk to avoid mandatory service in the South African Military. Musk moved to Canada in June 1989. Musk stayed in a youth hostel and then he traveled the west to live with his cousin in Saskatchewan. He stayed there and did odd jobs in a farm and lumber mill.
Musk attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in economics from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in physics. Musk did an internship in two firms called Pinnacle Research Institute in electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage and at Rocket Science Games.
Bruce Leak, the former lead engineer behind apple's Quick Time hired Musk. Musk was accepted into a Ph.D. program in energy physics, material science at Stanford University in California. Musk attempted to get a job in Netscape but never received a response to his job inquiries. He dropped out the Ph.D. program and decided to join the internet boom and launch an internet startup.
Business Carrer
Zip2:
Musk started the web software company "Zip2" with his brother Kimbal from a group of angel investors. The company developed and marketed an Internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry. Before the company became successful Musk worked hard coding at night seven days a week and finally efforts didn't go waste. The company got the contracts with New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. In the end, Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307million in February 1999. Musk received $22 million for his 7% share from the sale.
X.com and PayPal
Musk co-founded X.com, online financial services and email company in march 1999 with $10 million. One year later the company merged with Confinity, which had a money transfer service called PayPal. The merged company focused on PayPal services and renamed PayPal in 2001. In October 2002 PayPal was acquired by eBay $1.5 billion in stock. Musk received $165 Million.
SpaceX
In 2001 Musk conceived Mars Oasis in which a miniature greenhouse on Mars would grow food crops and reawaken public interest in space exploration. In October 2001 Musk traveled to Moscow to buy refurbished Dnepr Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, that could send greenhouse payload into space. He returned empty-handed. In October 2002 again he went to Russia to look at three ICBMs. He was offered one rocket for $8 million, which Musk rejected. Musk decided to start a company that could build affordable rockets. With $100 million Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp traded as SpaceX in May 2002. In May 2020, SpaceX launched its first manned flight, the Demo-2 becoming the first private company to place a person into orbit a crewed space-craft with ISS.
Tesla Inc.
Musk took series of investments in Tesla in February 2004 joining Tesla's board of directors as its chairman. Tesla, Inc (Originally Tesla Motors) was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who financed the company. Both played an active role prior involvement of Musk.
Tesla built an electric sports car the Tesla Roadster in 2008, with sales of about 2500 vehicles to 31 countries. It was the first electric car to use Lithium-Ion Battery cells. Tesla began to focus on electric cars under the leadership of Musk. In Jan 2019, Musk traveled to China for the groundbreaking of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, the company's first large-scale plant outside the US.
Solar City
Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity which his cousins Lyndon and Peter co-founded in 2006. SolarCity was the largest provider of solar power systems in the United State by 2013. In 2014, Musk committed to building a SolarCity advanced solar advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York triple the size of the largest solar plant in the US. Tesla acquired SolarCity for over $2 billion in 2016 and converted it into its solar division; the announcement of the deal resulted in a more than 10% drop in Tesla's stock price.
Neuralink
Musk co-founded Neuralink a neurotechnology startup company to integrate the human brain with AI in 2016. This company centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence.
The Boring Company
In 2016, Musk founded The Boring Company (TBC) to construct tunnels. In Feb 2017 the company began drilling a 30ft wide 50ft long and 15ft deep test trench on the premises of Space X's offices in Los Angeles. A tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Centre was completed in early 2020. Local officials have approved the further expansion of the tunnel system.
Philanthropy
Musk is chairman of the Musk Foundation, which states its purpose is to provide solar power energy systems in disaster areas as well as other goals. Since 2002 the foundation has made over 350 contributions. Around half were to scientific research or education nonprofits. Musk is a trustee of the X prize foundation and in 2012 signed The Giving Pledge promising to give at least half of his fortune to charity.