Elon Musk (born June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa) is a South African-born American entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal and established SpaceX, a launch vehicle and spaceship manufacturer. He was also one of the original major investors in and the CEO of Tesla, an electric car company.
Elon Musk Early Life
- Musk was born in Canada to a Canadian mother and a South African father.
- He showed an early interest in computers and business.
- He produced a video game at the age of 12 and sold it to a computer magazine.
- Musk left South Africa in 1988 after getting a Canadian passport because he refused to support apartheid through compulsory military duty and wanted to pursue the higher economic prospects offered in the United States.
Elon Musk Business
- Elon Reeve Musk FRS is a billionaire businessman, entrepreneur, and investor.
- He is the co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, as well as the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer of SpaceX.
- He is also an early-stage investor, CEO, and Product Architect of Tesla, Inc., and the founder of The Boring Company.
Elon Musk Education
- Musk began his studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, before moving to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1992 and completing bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
- He enrolled in physics graduate school at Stanford University in California, but he dropped out after only two days, believing that the Internet had far more potential to revolutionise society than physics.
- Zip2, a startup that provides maps and business directories to online newspapers, was started by him in 1995.
- After Zip2 was purchased by computer manufacturer Company for $307 million in 1999, Musk launched X.com, which later became PayPal, an online financial services company that specialised in online money transfers.
- PayPal was purchased for $1.5 billion in 2002 by the online auction site eBay.
Elon Musk Philosophy
Musk has long believed that mankind must evolve into a multi planet species in order to survive. He was, however, concerned with the high cost of rocket launchers.
SpaceX
- He founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in 2002 with the goal of making more economical rockets.
- The Falcon 1 (first launched in 2006) and the bigger Falcon 9 (first launched in 2010) were the company’s first two rockets, both of which were planned to be substantially less expensive than rival rockets.
- The Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018) was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, roughly twice as much as its closest competitor, the Boeing Company’s Delta IV Heavy, at a third of the price.
- The Super Heavy–Starship is the successor to the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, according to SpaceX.
Tesla
- Musk has long been fascinated by the potential of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he became one of the primary investors in Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle startup created by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.
- Tesla debuted its first automobile, the Roadster, in 2006, with a range of 245 miles (394 kilometres) on a single charge.
- It was a sports car that could travel from 0 to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometres per hour) in less than four seconds, unlike most earlier electric vehicles, which Musk considered were stodgy and uninspiring.
- The company’s Initial public offering (IPO) in 2010 raised $226 million. Tesla released the Model S sedan two years later, which was praised by automotive critics for its performance and design.