Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/; born June 28, 1971) is an industrial designer, technology entrepreneur, and philanthropist.[2][3][4] He is a citizen of South Africa, the United States (where he has lived most of his life and currently resides), and Canada. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer/designer of SpaceX;[5] co-founder,[6] CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.;[7][8] founder of The Boring Company;[9] co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI.[10] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018.[11][12] In December 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People,[13] and was ranked joint-first on the Forbes list of the Most Innovative Leaders of 2019.[14] As of May 2020, he has a net worth of $39.4 billion and is listed by Forbes as the 23rd-richest person in the world.[15][1] He is the longest tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally.[16]
Born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk briefly attended the University of Pretoria before moving to Canada when he was 17 to attend Queen's University. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania two years later, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School and a bachelor's degree in physics from the College of Arts and Sciences. He began a Ph.D. in applied physics and material sciences at Stanford University in 1995 but dropped out after two days to pursue a business career. He subsequently co-founded (with his brother Kimbal) Zip2, a web software company, which was acquired by Compaq for $340 million in 1999. Musk then founded X.com, an online bank. It merged with Confinity in 2000, which had launched PayPal the previous year and was subsequently bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.[7][17][18][19]
In May 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, of which he is CEO and lead designer. He joined Tesla Motors, Inc. (Now Tesla, Inc.), an electric vehicle manufacturer, in 2004, the year after it was founded,[7] and became its CEO and product architect. In 2006, he inspired the creation of SolarCity, a solar energy services company (now a subsidiary of Tesla). In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit research company that aims to promote friendly artificial intelligence. In July 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company focused on developing brain–computer interfaces. In December 2016, Musk founded The Boring Company, an infrastructure and tunnel construction company focused on tunnels optimized for electric vehicles.
Apart from Tesla, Musk is not an investor in the stock market.[20] In addition to his primary business pursuits, Musk has envisioned a high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop, and has proposed a vertical take-off and landing supersonic jet electric aircraft with electric fan propulsion, known as the Musk electric jet.[21] Musk has said the goals of SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity revolve around his vision to "change the world and help humanity".[22] His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the risk of human extinction by establishing a human colony on Mars.
Early life
Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa,[25][26] the son of Maye Musk (née Haldeman), a model and dietitian from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada,[27][28][29] and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor.[30] He has a younger brother, Kimbal (born 1972), and a younger sister, Tosca (born 1974).[34][29] His maternal grandfather, Dr. Joshua Haldeman, was an American-born Canadian.[35] His paternal grandmother was British, and he also has Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.[36][37] After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived mostly with his father in the suburbs of Pretoria,[36] a choice he made two years after his parents separated but which he subsequently regretted.[38] Musk is estranged from his father, whom he has referred to as "a terrible human being."[38] He also has a half-sister[39] and a half-brother.[40]
Due in part to the fact that his father owned an emerald mine in Zambia, Musk grew up with a "lavish lifestyle" which led to many of his interests later in life. [41]
During his childhood, Musk was an avid reader.[42] At the age of 10, he developed an interest in computing while using the Commodore VIC-20.[43] He taught himself computer programming and, by the age of 12, sold the code of a BASIC-based video game he created called Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500.[44][45] His childhood reading included Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, from which he drew the lesson that "you should try to take the set of actions that are likely to prolong civilization, minimize the probability of a dark age and reduce the length of a dark age if there is one".[38]
Musk was severely bullied throughout his childhood and was once hospitalized after a group of boys threw him down a flight of stairs.[38][42][46][47]
Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School and Bryanston High School[46] before graduating from Pretoria Boys High School.[47] Although Musk's father insisted that Elon go to college in Pretoria, Musk became determined to move to the United States, saying "I remember thinking and seeing that America is where great things are possible, more than any other country in the world."[48] Musk knew it would be easier to get to the United States from Canada and moved there against his father's wishes in June 1989, just before his 18th birthday,[49] after obtaining a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother.[50][51]
Education
While awaiting Canadian documentation, Musk attended the University of Pretoria for five months.[52] Once in Canada, Musk entered Queen's University in 1989, avoiding mandatory service in the South African military.[53] He left in 1992 to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania; he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics.[54][55]
In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley during the summer: at an energy storage start-up called Pinnacle Research Institute, which researched electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage, and at the Palo Alto-based start-up Rocket Science Games.[56] Bruce Leak, the former lead engineer behind Apple’s QuickTime who had hired Musk, noted: “He had boundless energy. Kids these days have no idea about hardware or how stuff works, but he had a PC hacker background and was not afraid to just go figure things out.”[57][better source needed]
In 1995, Musk commenced a PhD in energy physics/materials science at Stanford University in California. Eager to pursue opportunities in the Internet boom, however, he dropped out after just two days to launch his first company, Zip2 Corporation.
In 1995, Musk and his brother, Kimbal, started Zip2, a web software company, with money raised from a small group of angel investors.[38] The company developed and marketed an internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry, with maps, directions and yellow pages[60], with the vector graphics mapping and direction code being implemented by Musk in Java.[61] Musk obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune,[62][63] and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch.[64] Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted by the board.[42] Compaq acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash[42]:109 in February 1999.[65] Musk received US$22 million for his 7 percent share from the sale.[62][42]:109[63]
X.com and PayPal
