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Elon Musk

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Elon Musk

FRS
Musk in 2023
Co-Commissioner of the Department of Government Efficiency[1]
Designate
Assumed office
TBD
Serving with Vivek Ramaswamy
PresidentDonald Trump (elect)
Preceded byPosition established
Business
Title
Personal details
Born
Elon Reeve Musk

(1971-06-28) June 28, 1971 (age 53)
Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa
Citizenship
  • South Africa
  • Canada
  • United States (from 2002)
Spouse(s)
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 2000; div. 2008)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 2010; div. 2012)​
    ​
    ​
    (m. 2013; div. 2016)​
Domestic partner
Relations
Children12
Parents
Education
AwardsFull list
Signature

Elon Reeve Musk FRS (born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born American businessman. He moved to Canada and later became a U.S. citizen. He became rich through several technology projects, including an online finance company which merged with PayPal in the year 2000.[2] Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes's real-time billionaires list.[3][4] In 2021, he was Time Person of the Year.

Musk is the current CEO & Chief Product Architect of Tesla, Inc., a company that makes electric vehicles. He is also the CEO of Solar City, a company that makes solar panels, and the CEO & CTO of SpaceX, an aerospace company. In 2022, he became the owner of the social media site Twitter which he later gave a new name known as X after buying it for USD $44 billion.[5]

In November 2024, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said that Musk would become a leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Early life and career

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Elon Musk was born to a Canadian mother and a South African-born father in Pretoria, South Africa on June 28, 1971.[6] His parents divorced in 1981 and he mainly lived with his father in different places in South Africa.[7] He went to Waterkloof House Preparatory School and graduated from Pretoria Boys High School. He then moved to Canada in 1988 when he was 17 after obtaining Canadian citizenship through his mother. He got it before his South African military service was to begin. He felt that it would be easier to emigrate to the United States from Canada than from South Africa. Musk and his brother started Zip2, a software company, in 1995. In 1999 he sold it and became a millionaire. He then started X.com, which merged with the company Confinity to make PayPal. X.com was then renamed to PayPal, and he focused on the growing part of the company.[8][9] He then started SpaceX and became the CEO of Tesla.

Education

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He spent two years at the Queen's School of Business in Kingston, Ontario. He moved to the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School. He stayed a year to finish his second bachelor's degree in physics. Then he moved to California to attempt to get a PhD in applied physics at Stanford but he left the program after only two days because he wanted to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations. These were to start businesses in the internet, renewable energy and outer space.[10] He became an American citizen in 2002.[11]

Projects

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At the end of 2017, Musk founded The Boring Company which focuses on tunneling and infrastructure. He mentioned Los Angeles traffic as the reason for starting this company. In March 2017 Elon Musk announced he had started another company that aimed to merge human brains with computers called Neuralink.

In April 2018 he was worth over $10 billion, making him the 37th most wealthy American.[12] Musk is also known for helping design and create the Falcon Heavy rocket, which successfully launched on February 6, 2019.

In 2022, Musk bought Twitter after complaining about Internet censorship and criticizing Twitter for suspending the Babylon Bee. During his first few weeks as CEO, he has attracted criticism from some people. Many of them criticize him for laying off many employees at once, as well as appearing to have no interest in moderating hate speech.[13]

Politics

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In November 2024, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced that Musk would become a leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a governmental advisory body, with Vivek Ramaswamy.[14]

References

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  1. ↑ Wen, Philip (November 13, 2024). "Trump selects Elon Musk to lead government efficiency department". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
  2. ↑ "Elon Musk's 5 Best Investments". Archived from the original on June 27, 2024. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on July 8, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Real Time Billionaires". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 14, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  5. ↑ Feiner, Lauren (April 25, 2022). "Twitter accepts Elon Musk's buyout deal". CNBC. Archived from the original on April 26, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Elon Musk Biography: Age, Net Worth, Wife, Family". Quick Pedia. Archived from the original on August 17, 2024. Retrieved August 17, 2024.
  7. ↑ "Rocket man: the otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk". San Jose Mercury News. April 10, 2014. Archived from the original on April 14, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Tesla Motors and PayPal co-founder Elon Musk buys $17 million Bel Air mansion". San Francisco Chronicle. January 4, 2013. Archived from the original on April 22, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Something New Under the Sun". Slate. November 5, 2013. Archived from the original on June 16, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Inspirations with Elon Musk". OnInnovation. Archived from the original on February 27, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Triumph of His Will". Esquire. November 15, 2012. Archived from the original on February 7, 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  12. ↑ "List of billionaires". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  13. ↑ Knight, Will (November 25, 2022). "Here's Proof Hate Speech Is More Viral on Elon Musk's Twitter". Wired. Archived from the original on December 13, 2022. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Trump selects Elon Musk to lead government efficiency department". Guardian. November 13, 2024. Retrieved November 13, 2024.

Other websites

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