Elon Musk Biography

Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/; born June 28, 1971) is an entrepreneur and business magnate. He is the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer at SpaceX; early-stage investor, CEO, and Product Architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI. With an estimated net worth of around US$243 billion as of February 2022,[2] Musk is the wealthiest person in the world according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the Forbes real-time billionaires list.[3][4]

Education

An ornate school building

Musk graduated from Pretoria Boys High School in South Africa.

Aware that it would be easier to enter the United States from Canada,[27] Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother.[28][29] While awaiting the documentation, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months; this allowed him to avoid mandatory service in the South African military.[30] Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989, and lived with a second-cousin in Saskatchewan for a year,[31] working odd jobs at a farm and lumber-mill.[32] In 1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.[33][34] Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics.[35][36][37][38]

Business career

Zip2

Main article: Zip2

External video

video icon Musk speaks of his early business experience during a 2014 commencement speech at USC on YouTube

In 1995, Musk, Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded web software company Zip2 with funds from angel investors.[17] They housed the venture at a small rented office in Palo Alto.[42] The company developed and marketed an Internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry, with maps, directions, and yellow pages.[43] Musk says that before the company became successful, he could not afford an apartment and instead rented an office and slept on the couch and showered at the YMCA, and shared one computer with his brother. According to Musk, "The website was up during the day and I was coding it at night, seven days a week, all the time."[42]

X.com and PayPal

Main articles: X.com, PayPal, and PayPal Mafia

In 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company.[52] The startup was one of the first federally insured online banks, and, in its initial months of operation, over 200,000 customers joined the service.[53] The company's investors regarded Musk as inexperienced and had him replaced with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year.[54] The following year, X.com merged with online bank Confinity to avoid competition.[42][54][55] Founded by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel,[56] Confinity had its own money-transfer service, PayPal, which was more popular than X.com's service.[50][57] Within the merged company, Musk returned as CEO. Musk's preference for Microsoft software over Linux created a rift in the company and caused Thiel to resign.[58] Due to resulting technological issues and lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000.[59][note 2]

SpaceX

Main article: SpaceX

Musk, dressed in a suit, holds a metal model of the Starship

Musk explains the planned capabilities of SpaceX Starship to NORAD and Air Force Space Command in 2019

In 2001, Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society. He was inspired by plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars and discussed funding the project himself.[67] In October 2001, Musk traveled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell and Mike Griffin to buy refurbished Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the greenhouse payloads into space. He met with companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras; however, Musk was seen as a novice and was even spat on by one of the Russian chief designers. The group returned to the United States empty-handed. In February 2002, the group returned to Russia to look for three ICBMs. They had another meeting with Kosmotras and were offered one rocket for $8 million, which Musk rejected. Musk instead decided to start a company that could build affordable rockets.[68] With $100 million of his early fortune,[69] Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp., traded as SpaceX, in May 2002.[70] As of 2021, he remains the company's CEO and also holds the title of Chief Engineer.[71]

Tesla

Main article: Tesla, Inc.

Musks stands, arms crossed and grinning, before a Tesla Model S

Musk next to a Tesla Model S at the Tesla Fremont Factory in 2011

Tesla, Inc.—originally Tesla Motors—was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who financed the company until the Series A round of funding.[92] Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement.[93] Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $6.5 million, became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman.[94][95] Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations.[96] Following a series of escalating conflicts in 2007 and the 2008 financial crisis, Eberhard was ousted from the firm.[97][98] Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008.[99] A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others.[100][101] As of 2019, Elon Musk was the longest tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally.