Who Is Elon Musk? [ Pros Complete Guide 2024]

Elon Musk, born in Pretoria, South Africa, is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time. Musk has achieved global fame as the chief executive officer (CEO) of electric automobile maker Tesla (TSLA) and the private space company SpaceX. Musk was an early investor in several tech companies, and in October 2022, he completed a deal to take X (formerly Twitter) private.

His success and personal style have given rise to comparisons to other colorful tycoons from U.S. history, including Steve Jobs, Howard Hughes, and Henry Ford. He was named the richest person in the world in 2021, surpassing Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos. Musk is the richest person in the world as of Feb. 15, 2024.12

Let’s look briefly at the life of the man who has scaled the pinnacle of the business world.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Elon Musk is the charismatic CEO of electric car maker Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX.
• Following a contested process, Musk completed a deal to buy the company behind X in October 2022, becoming the owner of the social media company.
• Born and raised in South Africa, Musk spent time in Canada before moving to the United States.
• Educated at the University of Pennsylvania in physics, Musk started getting his feet wet as a serial tech entrepreneur with early successes like Zip2 and X.com, which merged with a company that became PayPal.
• Musk has behaved eccentrically from time to time.

Early Life and Education

Elon Reeve Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, the oldest of three children. His father was a South African engineer, and his mother was a Canadian model and nutritionist. After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived primarily with his father. He would later dub his father “a terrible human being…almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done.”343

“I had a terrible upbringing. I had a lot of adversity growing up. One thing I worry about with my kids is they don’t face enough adversity,” Musk would later say.

Bullied as a Child

Musk attended the private, English-speaking Waterkloof House Preparatory School—he started a year early—and later graduated from Pretoria Boys High School. A self-described bookworm, he made few friends in those places.

“They got my best (expletive) friend to lure me out of hiding so they could beat me up. And that (expletive) hurt,” Musk said. “For some reason, they decided that I was it, and they were going to go after me nonstop. That’s what made growing up difficult. For a number of years, there was no respite. You get chased around by gangs at school who tried to beat the (expletive) out of me, and then I’d come home, and it would just be awful there as well.”5

Early Accomplishments

Technology became an escape for Musk. At 10, he became acquainted with programming using a Commodore VIC-20, an early and relatively inexpensive home computer. Before long, Musk had become proficient enough to create Blastar—a video game in the style of Space Invaders. He sold the BASIC code for the game to a PC magazine for $500.6

In one telling incident from his childhood, Musk and his brother planned to open a video game arcade near their school. Their parents nixed the plan.7

Musk’s College Years

At 17, Musk moved to Canada. He would later obtain Canadian citizenship through his mother.8

After emigrating to Canada, Musk enrolled at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. It was there that he met Justine Wilson, an aspiring writer. They would marry and have six sons together, a first son, twins, and then triplets, before divorcing in 2008.9

Entering the U.S.

After two years at Queen’s University, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. He took on two majors, but his time there wasn’t all work and no play. With a fellow student, he bought a 10-bedroom fraternity house, which they used as an ad hoc nightclub.10

Musk graduated with a bachelor of science degree in physics, in addition to a bachelor of arts in economics from the Wharton School. The two majors foreshadowed Musk’s career, but it was physics that left the deepest impression.11

“(Physics is) a good framework for thinking,” he would say later. “Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.”12

Notable Accomplishments

Musk was 24 years old when he moved to California to pursue a Ph.D. in applied physics at Stanford University. But, with the Internet exploding and Silicon Valley booming, Musk had entrepreneurial visions dancing in his head. He left the Ph.D. program after just two days.13

X.com

In 1995, with $15,000 and his younger brother Kimbal at his side, Musk started Zip2, a web software company that would help newspapers develop online city guides.1415

In 1999, Zip2 was acquired by Compaq Computer Corp. for $341 million. Elon Musk used his Zip2 buyout money to create X.com, a fintech venture before that term was in wide circulation.16

X.com merged with a money transfer firm called Confinity, and the resulting company came to be known as PayPal. Peter Thiel ousted Musk as PayPal CEO before eBay (EBAY) bought the payments company for $1.5 billion, but Musk still profited from the buyout via his 11.7% PayPal stake.171819

“My proceeds from PayPal after tax were about $180 million,” Musk said in a 2018 interview. “$100 (million) of that went into SpaceX, $70 (million) into Tesla, and $10 (million) into SolarCity. And I literally had to borrow money for rent.”20

FAST FACT

In 2017, Musk purchased the X.com domain name back from PayPal, citing its sentimental value.21

Tesla

Elon Musk became involved with the electric cars venture as an early investor in 2004, ultimately contributing about $6.3 million, to begin with, and joined the team, including engineer Martin Eberhard, to help run a company then known as Tesla Motors. Following a series of disagreements, Eberhard was ousted in 2007, and an interim CEO was hired until Musk assumed control as CEO and product architect. Under his watch, Tesla has become the world’s most valuable automaker.22

In addition to producing electric vehicles, Tesla maintains a robust presence in the solar energy space, thanks to its acquisition of SolarCity. The company currently produces two rechargeable solar batteries. The smaller Powerwall was developed for home backup power and off-the-grid use, while the larger Powerpack is intended for commercial or electric utility grid use.232425

SpaceX

Elon Musk used most of the proceeds from his PayPal stake to found Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the rocket’s developer commonly known as SpaceX. By his own account, Musk spent $100 million to found SpaceX in 2002.20

Under Elon Musk’s leadership, SpaceX landed several high-profile contracts with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Air Force to design space launch rockets. Musk has publicized plans to send an astronaut to Mars by 2025 in a collaborative effort with NASA.2627

Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX is an American aerospace manufacturer with the ambitious goal of making space travel more affordable and colonizing Mars. Here’s a breakdown of SpaceX’s achievements:

Mission:

• Reduce space transportation costs.
• Develop technologies for a sustainable colony on Mars.

Products:

• Rockets: Falcon 9 (workhorse), Falcon Heavy (heavy lift), Starship (super heavy lift under development).
• Spacecraft: Dragon (cargo and crew versions), Starship (under development).
• Starlink: A mega constellation of internet satellites currently being deployed.

Milestones:

• First private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (Falcon 1 in 2008).
• First private company to deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station (Dragon in 2012).
• First private company to launch and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS (Crew Dragon in 2020).

Impact:

• Reduced launch costs significantly compared to traditional providers.
• Increased competition and innovation in the space industry.
• Paved the way for more commercial spaceflight opportunities.

SpaceX is constantly pushing boundaries and developing new technologies. They are a major player in the new era of space exploration, and their work is having a significant impact on the industry.

X

The company was founded in March 2006 as Twitter by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. Originally a private company, it went public in November 2013. It raised $1.8 billion through its initial public offering (IPO).28

Elon Musk joined the site in June 2009. A frequent poster on the messaging network, Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in X in April 2022. The company responded by offering Elon Musk a seat on the board, which he accepted before declining days later. Musk then sent a bear hug letter to the board proposing to buy the company at $54.20 per share.2930313233

The company’s board adopted a poison pill provision to discourage Musk from accumulating an even larger stake, but they ultimately accepted Musk’s offer after he disclosed $46.5 billion in committed financing for the deal in a securities filing.3435

In July 2022, Musk attempted to cancel the deal, arguing that X had failed to provide certain information regarding fake accounts. The company sued Musk to require him to complete the deal.

After months of legal wrangling, the billionaire’s plan to buy the social media platform came to fruition, and Musk took control of the company on Oct. 28, 2022. The company was renamed X the following year.3637

FAST FACT

During his May 8, 2021, appearance on the TV show Saturday Night Live, Musk revealed that he has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. “I’m actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL. Or at least the first to admit it,” he said. How does the neurodevelopment condition manifest itself? “I don’t always have a lot of intonation or variation in how I speak, which I’m told makes for great comedy,” Musk explained.38

Personal Eccentricities

On Sept. 7, 2018, Elon Musk smoked cannabis during a filmed interview for a podcast.39

Just a month earlier, Musk posted an infamous tweet claiming he was considering taking Tesla private and had secured the needed funding. Musk subsequently settled a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaint alleging he knowingly misled investors with the tweet by paying a $20 million fine along with the same penalty for Tesla and agreeing to let Tesla’s lawyers approve tweets with material corporate information before posting.4041

In March 2022, Elon Musk filed a court motion to overturn the consent decree stemming from that case. In April 2022 during a live TED Talk, Musk called the SEC regulators on the case “bastards.”4243

Elon Musk is known for being a brilliant entrepreneur and innovator, but he also has a reputation for some eccentricities. Here are a few examples:

• Social Media: He’s a very active and sometimes unpredictable user of Twitter, engaging in memes, responding to fans directly, and even making controversial pronouncements that have gotten him into trouble with the SEC.
• Ambitious Goals: Colonizing Mars and building a hyperloop transportation system are just a couple of his audacious goals that some consider unrealistic, yet he passionately pursues them.
• Work Ethic: He’s known for demanding work hours from himself and his employees, often working late nights and weekends.
• Publicity Stunts: From smoking cannabis on a podcast to naming his child X Æ A-Xii, he doesn’t shy away from attention-grabbing moments.
• Science Fiction Inspiration: He’s a big science fiction fan and often references it in his work and ideas. Some say this is a source of his inspiration, while others see it as blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.

Is Elon Musk Married?

Elon Musk has been divorced three times—twice from his second wife, Talulah Riley. From 2018 to 2022, he was in a relationship with Canadian singer/songwriter Claire Elise Boucher, professionally known as Grimes, with whom he had a son in 2020, a daughter in 2022, and a third child revealed in 2023. They remain best friends. He also has six boys from his first marriage to Justine Musk. He also shares twins with Shivon Zilis. Musk has a total of 11 children.444546479

How Rich Is Elon Musk?

Elon Musk’s net worth was estimated at $205 billion as of Feb. 15, 2024, making him the wealthiest person on the planet.2

Elon Musk is still the richest person in the world, but his net worth has fluctuated in 2estimates say his wealth is around $221 billion while others say it’s closer to $191 billion [3]. This difference is likely due to how his ownership in companies like Tesla and SpaceX is valued.

Here’s a breakdown:

• Forbes: Estimates his net worth at $182.6 billion as of April 2024.
• Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Estimates his net worth at $191 billion as of April 2024.

Was Elon Musk Born Rich?

No, Elon Musk was born into a middle-class family. In 1995, when he founded X.com, he reportedly had more than $100,000 in student debt and struggled to pay rent.48

Elon Musk did not come from a background of immense wealth. While his family was comfortable, his success wasn’t نتيجة (natijah, result) of inherited riches. Here’s what we know about his early life:

• His father was an engineer and his mother a model.
• The family wasn’t poor, but they weren’t exceptionally wealthy either.
• Elon showed entrepreneurial drive at a young age, even selling his own video game at 12.

So, while his upbringing wasn’t hardship, his current financial status is a result of his own ventures and innovations.

What Does Elon Musk Do at Tesla?

Elon Musk is officially listed as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla on the company’s website. In a 2021 securities filing, the company disclosed an additional Musk title as “Technoking of Tesla.”4950

Elon Musk holds two key positions at Tesla:

• CEO (Chief Executive Officer): Since October 2008, Elon Musk has been the leader responsible for the overall operations and direction of Tesla. This means he oversees everything from product design and engineering to manufacturing and global sales of Tesla’s electric vehicles, battery products, and solar energy products.
• Technoking: This is a more symbolic title, but it indicates Elon Musk’s deep involvement in the technological aspects of Tesla. He likely has a significant influence on the company’s technological direction and product development.

What Companies Does Elon Musk Own?

Elon Musk is a large stakeholder in several companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Co., Neuralink, and X Corp.

The Bottom Line

Musk’s early interests in philosophy, science fiction, and fantasy novels are reflected in his idealism and concern with human progress—and in his business career. He works in fields he has identified as crucial to humanity’s future, notably the transition to renewable energy sources, space exploration, and the Internet.

Musk has defied critics, disrupted industries, and made the most money anyone ever has from PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX—game changers all, despite the inevitable missteps.

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