Elon Musk
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born entrepreneur and business magnate. He is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of SpaceX; CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and owner of X Corp. (formerly Twitter). Musk is one of the wealthiest individuals in the world and has been a central figure in the development of electric cars, reusable launch vehicles, and neural interface technology.
Early life and education
Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to a Canadian mother and a South African father. He taught himself computer programming at an early age and sold his first software, a space-based game called Blastar, at age 12. He moved to Canada at 17 and later studied at Queen's University in Ontario before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned degrees in physics and economics. He briefly pursued a PhD in Stanford University but left after two days to pursue entrepreneurial ventures during the dot-com boom.
Business career
Musk co-founded the web software company Zip2 in 1996, which was sold to Compaq for $307 million in 1999. He then co-founded X.com, an online payment company, which later became PayPal and was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. With the proceeds, he founded SpaceX in 2002, aiming to reduce space transportation costs and enable the colonization of Mars. In 2004, he led the Series A investment round in Tesla Motors, becoming its chairman and later CEO, guiding the company to mass-produce electric vehicles.
In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit research company promoting friendly artificial intelligence. He founded Neuralink in 2016 to develop brain–computer interfaces, and The Boring Company in 2016 to pursue tunnel boring as a solution for urban traffic. In 2022, he acquired Twitter, Inc. for $44 billion and renamed it X.
Controversies
Musk has been involved in several controversies, including public disputes with regulators, labor unions, and government agencies. His statements on social media, notably regarding COVID-19 and free speech, have drawn criticism. He faced a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit in 2018 for tweets about taking Tesla private, resulting in a settlement that required him to step down as chairman for three years. His management of X has led to layoffs, advertiser exits, and changes to content moderation policies.