Elon Musk Biography, Age, Education, Family, Personal Life, Companies, Charity work, Inventions and Innovations
American entrepreneur and businessman Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, created X.com in 1999 (which eventually evolved into PayPal), SpaceX in 2002, and Tesla Motors in 2003. When Musk sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers in his late 20s, he became a multimillionaire.
When SpaceX launched a rocket in May 2012 to deliver the first commercial vehicle to the International Space Station, Musk made headlines. By adding SolarCity to his portfolio in 2016 and accepting an advising position in the early months of President Donald Trump’s administration, he solidified his position as an industry leader.
According to reports, Musk will overtake Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world in January 2021.
Elon Musk Early Life
Get Instantly Update By: Joining Our Whatapps and Telegram Channel
Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, on June 28, 1971. When Musk was younger, his parents and physicians demanded a hearing test because he was so engrossed in his invention-related daydreams.
When Musk was 10 years old, just around the time of his parents’ divorce, he started to get interested in computers. He learned how to write on his own, and at the age of 12, he sold his first piece of software—a game he had made named Blastar.
Musk was a bookish, withdrawn, and short student in elementary school. He went through a growth spurt, was bullied until he was 15 years old, and learnt karate and wrestling as self-defense techniques.
Elon Musk Family
Maye Musk, Musk’s mother, is a Canadian model and the oldest person to appear in a Covergirl advertisement. She once held five jobs at once to support her family while Musk was growing up.
Errol Musk, Musk’s father, is a successful South African engineer.
With his sister Tosca and brother Kimbal, Musk spent his early years in South Africa. When he was 10 years old, his parents separated.
Elon Musk Education
Musk left South Africa at the age of 17 in 1989 to attend Queen’s University and avoid serving in the South African military’s conscription program. In part because he believed it would be simpler to get American citizenship through that route, Musk became a citizen of Canada that year.
Musk left Canada in 1992 to attend the University of Pennsylvania to study physics and business. He earned an economics undergraduate degree before staying on to earn a second bachelor’s in physics.
Musk moved to Stanford University in California to seek a PhD in energy physics after leaving Penn. He left Stanford after just two days to join the Internet boom, launching his first company, Zip2 Corporation, in 1995. However, his decision was made at the exact right time. In 2002, Musk acceded to citizenship.
Personal Life
Wife and Children
Two times, Musk has been married. In 2000, he married Justine Wilson, and the two went on to have six kids together. Their first child passed away from sudden infant death syndrome in 2002 at the age of 10 weeks (SIDS). Griffin and Xavier, twins, and Kai, Saxon, and Damian, triplets, were born in 2004. Musk and Wilson also had five additional sons together (born in 2006).
Wilson and Musk had a rocky divorce before Musk met Talulah Riley. In 2010, the couple were hitched. After divorcing in 2012, they remarried in 2013. In the end, their marriage ended in divorce in 2016.
Elon Musk Girlfriends
Musk allegedly started dating actress Amber Heard in 2016, following the finalization of both their divorces from Johnny Depp and Riley. The pair parted in August 2017 due to their busy schedules; they reconciled in January 2018 before breaking up once more a month later.
Musk started dating artist Grimes in May 2018. (born Claire Boucher). In that same month, Grimes said that she had changed her name to the letter “c,” which stands for the speed of light, allegedly with Musk’s support. Fans of the feminist musician attacked her for dating a millionaire whose business was dubbed a “predator zone” amid allegations of sexual harassment.
In a March 2019 feature in the Wall Street Journal Magazine, the couple talked about their love, with Grimes stating, “Look, I adore him, he’s fantastic… He’s a goddamn intriguing individual, that’s for sure. “I admire c’s crazy fairy creative inventiveness and hyper-intense work ethic,” Musk said in response to the Journal.
On May 4, 2020, Grimes gave birth to their son, who they called “X A-12,” as Musk announced. The couple announced they were renaming their kid “X A-Xii” later in the month after it was reported that the State of California wouldn’t allow a name containing a number.
Exa Dark Siderael Musk, the couple’s second child, was born to them in December 2021. The baby was born using a surrogate.
Elon Musk Companies
Zip2 Corporation
In 1995, Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk founded their first business, Zip2 Corporation. Zip2, an online city guide, quickly started contributing content to The New York Times and Chicago Tribune’s new websites. For $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options, a division of Compaq Computer Corporation acquired Zip2 in 1999.
PayPal
Elon and Kimbal Musk founded the online financial services and payments company X.com in 1999 with the proceeds from the sale of Zip2. The following year, X.com was acquired, which resulted in the birth of PayPal as we know it today.
When PayPal was purchased by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock in October 2002, Musk made his first billion dollars. Musk controlled 11% of PayPal equity before the deal.
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, was formed by Musk in 2002 with the goal of developing spaceships for private space travel. In an effort to replace NASA’s own space shuttle missions, NASA gave SpaceX a contract in 2008 to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station, with intentions to include crew transport in the future.
Falcon 9 Rockets
Musk and SpaceX created history on May 22, 2012 when they sent an unmanned capsule into space aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. It was the first time a commercial firm has flown a spacecraft to the International Space Station, and it carried 1,000 pounds of supplies for the astronauts who were stationed there. Musk was quoted as stating about the launch, “I feel extremely fortunate. It’s comparable to winning the Super Bowl for us.”
An orbital distance at which a satellite would lock into an orbital path that matched the rotation of the Earth was reached by a Falcon 9 rocket in December 2013 with success. A second Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite was launched by SpaceX in February 2015 with the purpose of observing the severe solar emissions that have an impact on the Earth’s electrical networks and communications infrastructure.
A reusable-parts-built Falcon 9 rocket successfully test-flew and landed in March 2017 at SpaceX, ushering in a new era of more reasonably priced space travel.
An explosion that happened in November 2017 when the company was testing its new Block 5 Merlin engine was a setback. No one was wounded, according to a statement from SpaceX, and the problem won’t prevent the company from launching a new generation of Falcon 9 rockets as scheduled.
With the successful test launch of the potent Falcon Heavy rocket in February 2018, the business celebrated yet another significant event. The Falcon Heavy was created to lift massive payloads into orbit and possibly act as a spacecraft for deep space missions. It is equipped with additional Falcon 9 boosters. Musk’s cherry-red Tesla Roadster, which included cameras to “offer some amazing vistas” for the spacecraft’s intended orbit around the sun, was loaded onto the Falcon Heavy for the test flight.
A new Block 5 Falcon rocket successfully landed on a drone ship in July 2018 for Space X less than nine minutes after takeoff.
BFR Mission to Mars
In September 2017, Musk unveiled an updated design for his BFR, a 31-engine behemoth topped by a spaceship able to accommodate at least 100 people. BFR is an acronym for either “Big F—-ing Rocket” or “Big Falcon Rocket.” As part of his overall plan to colonize the Red Planet, Elon disclosed that SpaceX intended to launch the first cargo flights to Mars with the craft in 2022.
The businessman gave a knowing gesture to his prior issues with meeting timelines when he said, in March 2018, to an audience at the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, that he intended to have the BFR ready for brief flights early the following year.
It was revealed the following month that SpaceX would build a facility in the Port of Los Angeles to create and house the BFR. SpaceX found the port property to be the perfect location because, once finished, its enormous rocket can only be moved by barge or ship.
Starlink Internet Satellites
The U.S. government gave SpaceX approval to launch a fleet of satellites into low orbit for the purpose of delivering Internet connectivity in late March 2018. The Starlink satellite network aims to increase competition in densely populated markets that are now controlled by one or two providers while simultaneously improving broadband service accessibility in remote areas.
In May 2019, SpaceX launched the first batch of 60 satellites, then in November of the same year, it launched a second payload of 60 satellites. Although this was a significant step forward for the Starlink project, the appearance of these bright orbiters in the night sky, with the possibility of thousands more to follow, alarmed astronomers who believed that the proliferation of satellites would make it more challenging to observe far-off objects in space.
Tesla Motors
Musk is a co-founder, CEO, and product architect at Tesla Motors, a business founded in 2003 with a focus on mass-market, reasonably priced electric vehicles as well as battery goods and solar roofs. Musk is in charge of all aspects of product development, engineering, and design for the business.
Roadster
Five years after the company’s founding, in March 2008, Tesla launched the Roadster, a sports car with a lithium ion battery that allows it to go nearly 250 miles between charges and accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under 3.7 seconds.
Tesla Motors launched its first public offering in June 2010, generating $226 million thanks to a stake Daimler had purchased in the business and a strategic alliance with Toyota.
Model S
The Model S, Tesla’s first electric sedan that was apparently intended to compete with the BMW 5 series, was first introduced in August 2008. The Model S started out in production in 2012 with a starting price of $58,570. It was recognized by Motor Trend magazine as the 2013 Car of the Year due to its 265-mile range between charges.
Tesla declared in April 2017 that it had surpassed General Motors to become the most valued American automaker. Tesla, which planned to increase production and introduce its Model 3 vehicle later that year, benefited greatly from the news.
At Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey County, California, in September 2019, a Model S achieved a speed record for a four-door sedan using what Musk referred to as a “Plaid powertrain.”
Model 3
Early in 2019, the Model 3 was finally introduced after lengthy production delays. The car’s starting price of $35,000 made it far more affordable than Tesla’s Model S and X electric cars, which start at $69,500 and go up from there.
Musk had originally planned to create 5,000 brand-new Model 3 vehicles per week by the end of 2017, but he later shifted that target out to March 2018 and then to June when the new year began. Industry analysts were not surprised by the stated delay because they were aware of the company’s manufacturing issues; nonetheless, some questioned how long investors would be willing to wait. It also didn’t stop Musk from obtaining an innovative new remuneration arrangement as CEO, in which he would be rewarded upon the achievement of increasing valuation goals based on $50 billion increments.
By April 2018, it was reported that Musk had fired the engineering division’s director in order to personally direct efforts there as Tesla was anticipated to fall short of first-quarter production forecasts. Musk remarked in a Twitter conversation with a reporter that it was crucial to “divide and conquer” in order to achieve production targets and that he was “back to sleeping at the factory.”
Musk hinted that the firm might restructure its management structure before announcing in June that Tesla was firing 9% of its workers while keeping its production division intact. Musk acknowledged that it was time to start making real efforts toward turning a profit in an email to employees, explaining his intention to eliminate some “duplicate of responsibilities” in order to save expenses.
Tesla said that it had achieved its objective of producing 5,000 Model 3 vehicles per week by the end of June 2018 while also generating an additional 2,000 Model S sedans and Model X SUVs, indicating that the restructuring had paid off. Musk exclaimed, “We did it!” in a joyful email to the business. What a fantastic job, done by a fantastic crew.
Musk revealed that the business was finally releasing its regular Model 3 in February of the following year. Musk also said that Tesla was switching to entirely online sales and giving buyers the option to return their vehicles for a full refund within seven days or 1,000 miles.
Semi Truck
When the new Tesla Semi and Roadster were unveiled in the company’s design studio in November 2017, Musk made another splash. The semi-truck claims a 500-mile range, a battery and motors made to last a million miles, and was originally scheduled to go into production in 2019 before being postponed.
Model Y and Roadster
Musk introduced Tesla’s eagerly anticipated Model Y in March 2019. The 300-mile driving range and 3.5-second 0 to 60 mph pace of the tiny crossover, which started shipping to consumers in March 2020.
With a 0 to 60 duration of 1.9 seconds, the 2020 Roadster will surpass all other production vehicles in terms of speed.
SolarCity
In August 2016, a $2.6 billion deal was finalized to combine Musk’s electric car and solar energy businesses. This was part of Musk’s ongoing efforts to advance sustainable energy and products for a wider consumer base. In an all-stock agreement, Musk’s Tesla Motors Inc. purchased SolarCity Corp., a business his cousins and he co-founded in 2006. He holds the bulk of the stock in each company.
“When used together, solar and storage perform optimally. A statement on Tesla’s website about the partnership read, “As one company, Tesla (storage) and SolarCity (solar) can develop fully integrated residential, commercial, and grid-scale products that improve the way energy is generated, stored, and consumed.
The Boring Company
Musk established The Boring Company in January 2017, a business focused to drilling and constructing tunnels to lessen traffic on the streets. On the SpaceX facility near Los Angeles, he started by digging a test hole.
Musk published the first image of his company’s development to his Instagram feed in late October of that year. He stated that it would take about four months for the 500-foot tunnel, which would typically run parallel to Interstate 405, to reach a length of two miles.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority awarded the business, now known as TBC, a $48.7 million contract in May 2019 for the construction of an underground Loop system to transport visitors around the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Elon Musk Inventions and innovations
Hyperloop
The “Hyperloop,” an innovation by Elon Musk that would promote commuting between major cities while drastically reducing travel time, was unveiled in August 2013. The Hyperloop would move passengers in pods through a system of low-pressure tubes at speeds of up to 700 mph while being weatherproof and powered by renewable energy. Musk stated that the construction and operational readiness of the Hyperloop could take seven to ten years.
Despite Musk’s promises that the Hyperloop will be safer than an aircraft or train and have an estimated cost of $6 billion (about one-tenth the cost of the rail system planned by the state of California), his idea has been met with skepticism. However, the businessperson has made an effort to promote the advancement of this concept.
The first Hyperloop Pod Competition took place at the SpaceX facility in January 2017 after he launched a competition for teams to submit their designs for a Hyperloop pod prototype. A German student engineering team established a speed record of 284 mph at competition No. 3 in 2018, then the same team increased the record to 287 mph the following year.
AI and Neuralink
Musk has continued to explore his interest in artificial intelligence and has joined the nonprofit OpenAI as co-chair. The research firm was established in late 2015, and its declared goal is to advance digital intelligence for the good of humanity.
Musk was also said to be supporting a company named Neuralink in 2017, which aims to develop implants for the human brain that will allow people to integrate with software. During a conversation in July 2019, he went into more detail about the business’s development and disclosed that its products will include a tiny chip that communicates to a smartphone through Bluetooth.
High-Speed Train
Musk tweeted that he was all-in on the competition with The Boring Company in late November 2017, after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel requested proposals for the construction and operation of a high-speed rail line that would transport passengers from O’Hare Airport to downtown Chicago in 20 minutes or less. The comparatively short course of the Chicago loop, he claimed, would make it distinct from his Hyperloop in that it would not necessitate drawing a vacuum to remove air friction.
Musk declared in the summer of 2018 that he will pay the $1 billion projected cost of building the 17-mile tunnel from the airport to downtown Chicago. But in late 2019, he said in a tweet that TBC will put its attention first on finishing the commercial tunnel in Las Vegas, leaving plans for Chicago in doubt for the time being.
Flamethrower
Musk has discovered a market for the flamethrowers produced by The Boring Company. He asserted that he sold 10,000 of them in a single day after making the announcement that they will be available for $500 each in late January 2018.
Elon Musk Charity Work
Musk established the Musk Foundation, which is committed to space exploration and the search for renewable and sustainable energy sources, in order to further his long-standing interests in the limitless potential of space exploration and the protection of the future of the human race.
Musk announced in October 2019 that he would donate $1 million to the #TeamTrees initiative, which seeks to plant 20 million trees worldwide by the year 2020. For the occasion, he even changed his Twitter handle to Treelon.