Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa.
His mom, Maye Musk, is an expert dietitian and mannequin, showing on bins of Particular Okay cereal and the duvet of TIME journal. Final yr, on the age of 74, she was on the duvet of Sport Illustrated’s swimsuit version.
Maye and Musk’s father, Errol, have been married for almost a decade earlier than they divorced. Maye mentioned in her e book that she’d needed to finish the wedding earlier, however the Divorce Act, which legalized the termination of a wedding in South Africa, was not enacted till 1979. Musk’s dad and mom divorced the identical yr the regulation was handed.
After their dad and mom divorced, 9-year-old Musk and his youthful brother Kimbal determined to stay with their father. It wasn’t till after the transfer was made that his notoriously troubled relationship together with his dad started to emerge. “It was not a good suggestion,” Musk mentioned of the transfer in an interview with Rolling Stone.
Schooling
Musk’s faculty days weren’t straightforward — he was as soon as hospitalized after being overwhelmed by bullies. The bullies threw Musk down a set of stairs and beat him till he blacked out, as detailed in Ashlee Vance’s e book “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Unbelievable Future.” Musk’s father informed Enterprise Insider the incident occurred after Musk made some insensitive feedback to a classmate.
The Tesla CEO has mentioned he did not all the time really feel he was on the identical wavelength as his classmates.
“Social clues weren’t intuitive,” Musk mentioned throughout a TED convention final yr. In 2021, the billionaire mentioned throughout his efficiency on “Saturday Evening Dwell” that he has Asperger’s syndrome.
Musk has mentioned he spent quite a lot of his childhood studying and coding late into the evening — and it paid off. At 17, he took a university-level aptitude check on his laptop programming abilities. Examiners made him retake the check as a result of they’d by no means seen such a excessive rating, his mom mentioned in a tweet.Â
After graduating from highschool, Musk moved to Canada together with his mom, Maye; his sister, Tosca, and his brother, Kimbal, and spent two years finding out at Queen’s College in Kingston, Ontario, in response to the college.
He later completed his research on the College of Pennsylvania, incomes levels in physics and economics.
Whereas finding out on the College of Pennsylvania, Musk and a classmate rented out a 10-bedroom frat home and turned it right into a nightclub. The transfer, which Musk undertook with Adeo Ressi, was one in every of his first entrepreneurial experiments, Vogue reported.
After commencement, Musk traveled to Stanford College to review for his Ph.D. — however he barely began this system earlier than leaving it. He deferred his admission after solely two days in California, deciding to check his luck within the dot-com increase that was simply getting underway. He by no means returned to complete his research at Stanford.
Musk’s faculty girlfriend Jennifer Gwynne would later public sale a set of photographs of Musk from his time finding out on the College of Pennsylvania.
Late Nineties – 2000: Early profession
With brother Kimbal, Musk launched Zip2. A cluster of Silicon Valley traders helped to fund the corporate, which offered metropolis journey guides to newspapers like The New York Instances and Chicago Tribune, per the Rolling Stone interview with Musk.
Whereas Zip2 obtained off the bottom, Musk lived within the workplace and showered at an area YMCA, he mentioned in a Stanford College video. The arduous work paid off when Compaq purchased Zip2 in a deal price $341 million in money and inventory, incomes Musk $22 million.
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Musk subsequent began X.com, a web based banking firm. He launched the corporate in 1999 utilizing $10 million of the cash he obtained from the Zip2 sale, Investopedia reported. A few yr later, X.com merged with Confinity, a monetary startup cofounded by Peter Thiel, to kind PayPal.
Musk was named the CEO of the newly minted PayPal — but it surely would not final lengthy. Whereas Musk was en path to Australia for a much-needed trip, PayPal’s board fired him and made Thiel the brand new CEO. “That is the issue with holidays,” Musk informed Fortune years later about his ill-fated journey in late 2000.
2002-2004: Elon Musk begins SpaceX and invests in Tesla
However issues labored out for Musk — he made one other windfall when eBay purchased PayPal in late 2002. As PayPal’s single largest shareholder, he netted $165 million of the $1.5 billion value eBay paid, Cash.com reported.
Even earlier than the PayPal sale, Musk was dreaming up his subsequent transfer, together with a wild plan to ship mice or vegetation to Mars. In early 2002, Musk based the corporate that will be often called House Exploration Applied sciences, or SpaceX, with $100 million of the cash obtained from the PayPal sale. Musk’s aim was to make spaceflight cheaper by an element of 10.
One early SpaceX automobile was named after the music “Puff the Magic Dragon.” The identify of the spacecraft, the Dragon, was Musk’s jab at skeptics who informed him SpaceX launches would by no means be capable of put autos into house, Musk later shared on Twitter.
SpaceX’s long-term aim is to make colonizing Mars reasonably priced. Musk has mentioned that SpaceX inventory will not be accessible an preliminary public providing till what Musk calls the “Mars Colonial Transporter” is flying repeatedly.
Musk had additionally been protecting loads busy right here on Earth, notably with Tesla Motors. In 2004, Musk made the primary of what can be $70 million of whole Tesla investments, an electrical automobile firm. Tesla’s founders have been veteran startup executives Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.
Musk has mentioned he took an energetic product position on the carmaker, serving to develop its first automobile, the Tesla Roadster, the Roadster.
The Roadster was constructed on the chassis of a Lotus Elise — a tiny British sports activities automobile that Tesla remade into an electrical automobile with a lithium-ion battery. The all-electric Roadster debuted in 2006 when Musk was serving as Tesla’s chairman.Â
2008: Elon Musk turns into Tesla CEO
In 2007, Musk staged a boardroom coup at Tesla, first ousting Eberhard from his CEO seat after which from the corporate’s board and government suites completely.
In 2008, with the monetary disaster critically limiting his choices, a Tesla chapter was personally halted by Musk. He invested $40 million in Tesla and loaned the corporate $40 million extra. Not coincidentally, he was named CEO the identical yr.
However between SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, Musk almost went broke. He described 2008 as “the worst yr of my life” in an interview with 60 Minutes. Tesla stored shedding cash, and SpaceX was having bother launching its Falcon 1 rocket. By 2009, Musk was dwelling off private loans simply to outlive.
Proper round Christmas 2008, Musk obtained two items of excellent information: SpaceX had landed a $1.5 billion contract with NASA to ship provides into house, and Tesla lastly discovered extra exterior traders.
Musk’s profession was beginning to get observed in different circles, too, most notably in Hollywood. Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark within the “Iron Man” motion pictures is at the very least partially based mostly on Musk, director Jon Favreau mentioned on the “Recode Decode” podcast. Musk even had a cameo in “Iron Man 2.”
2015: OpenAI
In late 2015, Musk additionally cofounded OpenAI, a nonprofit devoted to researching synthetic intelligence and guaranteeing it would not destroy humanity.
He later introduced that he would step down from the board to keep away from any potential conflicts of curiosity with Tesla, which has made strides into synthetic intelligence for its self-driving automobile know-how.
The billionaire has since spoken out in opposition to the corporate on a number of events and is even trying to launch his personal competitor, which he jokingly dubbed “Fact GPT” after the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
By the top of 2015, 24 SpaceX launches had been made on assignments like resupplying the Worldwide House Station, setting some data alongside the way in which.Â
That yr, Tesla additionally launched its first model of Autopilot, a driver-assist function for its EVs. Musk later went on to launch an enhanced model of Autopilot known as Full Self-Driving beta a number of years later.
He has since mentioned that Tesla FSD is the distinction between being “price some huge cash or price principally zero.” Nevertheless, Autopilot has generated its justifiable share of lawsuits, in addition to investigations from the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration through the years.
2016: SolarCity and The Boring Firm
In late 2016, Tesla purchased SolarCity in a $2.6 billion deal. That very same yr some Tesla shareholders filed a lawsuit accusing Musk of placing stress on Tesla’s board members to purchase SolarCity and bail it out. Musk later received the lawsuit in 2022.
In 2016, he additionally began The Boring Firm, which has a mission to dig a community of tunnels beneath and round cities for high-speed, no-traffic driving.
Boring’s first tunnel community for industrial use, situated in Las Vegas, opened in April 2021.
2017: Neuralink
Musk based one other firm: Neuralink, in 2017, which is making an attempt to construct units that may be implanted contained in the human mind. The billionaire has described the system as a “Fitbit in your cranium” and has mentioned it should enable individuals to carry out duties utilizing solely their minds. The corporate has experimented with placing the system in pigs and monkeys and received approval from the US Meals and Drug Administration to start human trials in 2023.
In 2017, Musk additionally joined President Trump’s enterprise advisory council — a transfer that prompted an enormous public backlash. He initially defended the transfer however then give up after Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Settlement on local weather change. Musk mentioned he tried to persuade Trump to not withdraw.
2018: Tesla Roadster in house
The Falcon Heavy, the successor to the Falcon 9 and essentially the most highly effective rocket SpaceX has constructed up to now, accomplished a profitable maiden launch in February 2018. The Falcon Heavy carried a novel payload: a dummy dubbed “Starman,” and Musk’s private cherry crimson Tesla Roadster, which have been launched towards Martian orbit.
SpaceX by way of Getty Photos
“We actually needed to get the general public right here to marvel, to get enthusiastic about the potential for one thing new occurring in house — of the house frontier getting pushed ahead,” Musk informed an viewers on the 2018 South by Southwest convention. “The aim of this was to encourage you and make you imagine once more, simply as individuals believed within the Apollo period, that something is feasible.”
SEC subpoenas Tesla
Musk bumped into some bother in 2018 when he despatched a tweet declaring he was contemplating taking Tesla personal at $420 per share and had already secured funding. Only a few days later, the SEC despatched Tesla subpoenas concerning the firm’s plans to go personal and Musk’s feedback.
By September, the SEC had formally filed a lawsuit in opposition to Musk, accusing him of constructing “false and deceptive statements.” Musk settled with the SEC, which resulted in each him and Tesla paying a $20 million superb and Musk stepping down as chairman of Tesla’s board. Moreover, Tesla was required to nominate a committee to supervise Musk’s communications.
One month later, Musk received a victory in courtroom when a jury dominated he was not responsible of defaming the British diver Vernon Unsworth. Unsworth had filed a defamation lawsuit in 2018 after Musk known as him a “pedo man” on Twitter.
2021: Musk turns into richest particular person on the earth
Musk’s web price has soared lately. The Tesla CEO grew to become the richest man on the earth in 2021 when his fortune surpassed $200 billion, passing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ web price.
Musk mentioned he commemorated the event by sending Bezos, his longtime rival, a silver medal. Musk’s standing because the richest man on the earth was eclipsed by LVMH proprietor Bernard Arnault in 2023. Since, he has remained close to the highest of the listing of wealthiest individuals on the earth.
He additionally received Time’s Individual of the Yr award in 2021.
2022: The ‘Technoking’ units his sights on TwitterÂ
In 2022, Musk began shopping for up shares of Twitter and later turned down a suggestion to hitch the board in favor of shopping for Twitter outright for $44 billion.
Getty Photos
Musk, who has turn into one of many most-followed accounts on the social media web site, tried to backtrack on his supply to purchase Twitter in July. Twitter sued Musk promptly, with a purpose to pressure him to undergo with the acquisition.Â
After months of forwards and backwards main as much as a trial within the Delaware Courtroom of Chancery, Musk agreed to purchase the corporate in October. The identical day he took over Twitter, he ousted a number of key executives together with then-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. Musk took over as “Chief Twit” and proceeded to chop the Twitter workforce in half within the chaotic months following the Musk acquisition.
He later introduced in a new CEO for Twitter in Could 2023 after the billionaire mentioned Twitter was now not “within the quick lane to chapter.”
The platform was additionally rebranded “X” in July 2023.
The billionaire has additionally expressed curiosity in launching his personal AI enterprise. In April 2023, Musk confirmed reviews that he is planning to create an AI startup to construct a ChatGPT rival.
Katie Canales, Matt Weinberger, and Mary Meisenzahl contributed to an earlier model of this story.Â
