| Elon Musk |
Musk in 2015
|
| Born |
Elon Reeve Musk
June 28, 1971 (age 46)
Pretoria, Transvaal (now Gauteng), South Africa |
| Residence |
Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, U.S.[1][2] |
| Citizenship |
- South African (1971–present)
- Canadian (1989–present)
- American (2002–present)
|
| Alma mater |
Queen's University
University of Pennsylvania[3][4] |
| Occupation |
Entrepreneur, Engineer, Inventor, and Investor |
| Known for |
SpaceX, PayPal, Tesla Inc., Hyperloop, SolarCity, OpenAI, The Boring Company, Neuralink, Zip2 |
| Net worth |
US$21.3 billion (August 2017)[5] |
| Title |
CEO and CTO of SpaceX
CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.
CEO of Neuralink
Chairman of SolarCity
Co-chairman of OpenAI |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children |
6 |
| Parent(s) |
Maye Musk (mother)
Errol Graham Musk (father) |
| Relatives |
Tosca Musk (sister)
Kimbal Musk (brother)
Lyndon Rive (cousin) |
| Signature |
 |
Elon Musk (; born as Elon Reeve Musk on June 28, 1971) is a South African-born Canadian American business magnate, investor, [8][9] engineer,[10] and inventor.[15]
Musk is the founder, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX; a co-founder,[16] a Series A investor, CEO, and product architect of Tesla Inc.; co-chairman of OpenAI; founder and CEO of Neuralink. He was previously co-founder and chairman of SolarCity; co-founder of Zip2; and founder of X.com, which merged with Confinity and took the name PayPal.[21] As of July 2017, he has an estimated net worth of $16.1 billion, making him the 80th-wealthiest person in the world.[22] In December 2016, Musk was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People.[23]
Musk has stated that the goals of SolarCity, Tesla, and SpaceX revolve around his vision to change the world and humanity.[24] His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the "risk of human extinction" by "making life multiplanetary"[25][26] by establishing a human colony on Mars.
In addition to his primary business pursuits, he has also envisioned a high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop, and has proposed a VTOL supersonic jet aircraft with electric fan propulsion, known as the Musk electric jet.[27][28]
Musk also proposed the concept of The Boring Company in 2017.
Early life
Early childhood
Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa,[29] the son of Maye Musk (née Haldeman), a model and dietician from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada;[30] and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot and sailor. He has a younger brother, Kimbal (born 1972), and a younger sister, Tosca (born 1974).[34] His paternal grandmother was British, and he also has Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.[35][36] His maternal grandfather was American, from Minnesota.[37] After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived mostly with his father in the suburbs of Pretoria.[35]
During his childhood he was an avid reader.[38]
At age 10, he developed an interest in computing with the Commodore VIC-20.[39] He taught himself computer programming at the age of 12, sold the code for a BASIC-based video game he created called Blastar, to a magazine called PC and Office Technology, for approximately $500.[40][41] A web version of the game is available online.[40][42]
Musk was severely bullied throughout his childhood, and was once hospitalized when a group of boys threw him down a flight of stairs and then beat him until he lost consciousness.[38]
Musk was initially educated at private schools, attending the English-speaking Waterkloof House Preparatory School. Musk later graduated from Pretoria Boys High School and moved to Canada in June 1989, just before his 18th birthday,[43] after obtaining Canadian citizenship through his Canadian-born mother.[44][45]`
Education
At the age of 17, Musk was accepted into Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, for undergraduate study. In 1992, after spending two years at Queen's University, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where in May 1997 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from its College of Arts and Sciences, and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from its Wharton School of Business. Musk had extended his studies for one year to finish the second bachelor's degree.[38][46] While at the University of Pennsylvania, Musk and fellow Penn student Adeo Ressi rented a 10-bedroom fraternity house, using it as an unofficial nightclub.[38]
In 1995, at age 24, Musk moved to California to begin a PhD in applied physics and materials science at Stanford University, but left the program after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations in the areas of the Internet, renewable energy and outer space.[41][47] In 2002, he became a U.S. citizen.[48][49]
Career
Zip2
In 1995, Musk and his brother, Kimbal, started Zip2, a web software company, with US$28,000 of their father's money.[38] The company developed and marketed an Internet "city guide" for the newspaper publishing industry.[50] Musk obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune[51] and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch.[52] While at Zip2, Musk wanted to become CEO; however, none of the board members would allow it.[38] Compaq acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options in February 1999.[53] Musk received US$22 million for his 7% share from the sale.[51]
X.com and PayPal
In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company, with US$10 million from the sale of Zip2.[43][50][52] One year later, the company merged with Confinity,[51][54] which had a money transfer service called PayPal. The merged company focused on the PayPal service and was renamed PayPal in 2001. PayPal's early growth was driven mainly by a viral marketing campaign where new customers were recruited when they received money through the service.[55] Musk was ousted in October 2000 from his role as CEO (although he remained on the board) due to disagreements with other company leadership, notably over his desire to move PayPal's Unix-based infrastructure to Microsoft Windows.[56] In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk received US$165 million.[57] Before its sale, Musk, who was the company's largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal's shares.[58]
SpaceX
In 2001, Musk conceptualized "Mars Oasis"; a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith, in an attempt to regain public interest in space exploration.[59][60] In October 2001, Musk travelled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell (an aerospace supplies fixer), and Adeo Ressi (his best friend from college), to buy refurbished Dnepr Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the envisioned payloads into space. The group met with companies such as NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras; however, according to Cantrell, Musk was seen as a novice and was consequently spat on by one of the Russian chief designers,[61] and the group returned to the United States empty-handed. In February 2002, the group returned to Russia to look for three ICBMs, bringing along Mike Griffin, who had worked for the CIA's venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and was just leaving Orbital Sciences, a maker of satellites and spacecraft. The group met again with Kosmotras, and were offered one rocket for US$8 million, however, this was seen by Musk as too expensive; Musk consequently stormed out of the meeting. On the flight back from Moscow, Musk realized that he could start a company that could build the affordable rockets he needed.[61]According to early Tesla and SpaceX investor Steve Jurvetson,[62] Musk calculated that the raw materials for building a rocket actually were only 3 percent of the sales price of a rocket at the time. It was concluded that theoretically, by applying vertical integration and the modular approach from software engineering, SpaceX could cut launch price by a factor of ten and still enjoy a 70-percent gross margin.[63] Ultimately, Musk ended up founding SpaceX with the long-term goal of creating a "true spacefaring civilization".[64]
Musk and President
Barack Obama at the Falcon 9 launch site in 2010
With US$100 million of his early fortune,[65] Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, in May 2002.[66] Musk is chief executive officer (CEO) and chief technology officer (CTO) of the Hawthorne, California-based company. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of rocket technology. The company's first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets (a nod to Star Wars' Millennium Falcon), and its first spacecraft is the Dragon (a nod to Puff the Magic Dragon).[67] In seven years, SpaceX designed the family of Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon multipurpose spacecraft. In September 2008, SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately funded liquid-fueled vehicle to put a satellite into Earth orbit.[38] On May 25, 2012, the SpaceX Dragon vehicle berthed with the ISS, making history as the first commercial company to launch and berth a vehicle to the International Space Station.[68]
In 2006, SpaceX was awarded a contract from NASA to continue the development and test of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicleand Dragon spacecraft in order to transport cargo to the International Space Station,[69][not in citation given] followed by a US$1.6 billion NASA Commercial Resupply Services program contract on December 23, 2008, for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the Space Station, replacing the US Space Shuttle after it retired in 2011.[70] Astronaut transport to the ISS is currently handled solely by the Soyuz, but SpaceX is one of two companies awarded a contract by NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Development program, which is intended to develop a US astronaut transport capability by 2018.[71] On 22 December 2015, SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon rocket back at the launch pad. This was the first time in history such a feat had been achieved by an orbital rocket and is a significant step towards rocket reusability lowering the costs of access to space.[72] This first stage recovery was replicated several times in 2016 by landing on an Autonomous spaceport drone ship, an ocean based recovery platform.[73]
SpaceX is both the largest private producer of rocket engines in the world, and holder of the record for highest thrust-to-weight ratio for a rocket engine.[74] SpaceX has produced more than 100 operational Merlin 1D engines, currently the world's most powerful engine for its weight.[75] The relatively immense power to weight ratio allows each Merlin 1D engine to vertically lift the weight of 40 average family cars. In combination, the 9 Merlin engines in the Falcon 9 first stage produce anywhere from 5.8 to 6.7 MN (1.3 to 1.5 million pounds) of thrust, depending on altitude.[76]
Musk was influenced by Isaac Asimov's Foundation series[77] and views space exploration as an important step in preserving and expanding the consciousness of human life.[78] Musk said that multiplanetary life may serve as a hedge against threats to the survival of the human species.
An asteroid or a super volcano could destroy us, and we face risks the dinosaurs never saw: an engineered virus, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, catastrophic global warming or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us. Humankind evolved over millions of years, but in the last sixty years atomic weaponry created the potential to extinguish ourselves. Sooner or later, we must expand life beyond this green and blue ball—or go extinct.
Musk's goal is to reduce the cost of human spaceflight by a factor of 10.[79] In a 2011 interview, he said he hopes to send humans to Mars' surface within 10–20 years.[80] In Ashlee Vance's biography, Musk stated that he wants to establish a Mars colony by 2040, with a population of 80,000.[39] Musk stated that, since Mars' atmosphere lacks oxygen, all transportation would have to be electric (electric cars, electric trains, Hyperloop, electric aircraft).[81] Space X intends to launch a Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon Heavy in 2018 to soft-land on Mars - this is intended to be the first of a regular cargo mission supply-run to Mars building up to later crewed flights.[82] Musk stated in June 2016 that the first unmanned flight of the larger Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) spacecraft is aimed for departure to the red planet in 2022, to be followed by the first manned MCT Mars flight departing in 2024.[83] In September 2016, Musk revealed details of his plan to explore and colonize Mars.[84] By 2016, Musk's private trust holds 54% of SpaceX stock, equivalent to 78% of voting shares.[85]
Tesla
Tesla, Inc. (originally Tesla Motors) was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who financed the company until the Series A round of funding.[86]
Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Elon Musk's involvement.[87] Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004, joining Tesla's board of directors as its chairman.[88] Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design at a detailed level, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations.[89]
Following the financial crisis in 2008,[90] Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect, positions he still holds today. Tesla Motors first built an electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster in 2008, with sales of about 2,500 vehicles to 31 countries. Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan on June 22, 2012. It unveiled its third product, the Model X, aimed at the SUV/minivan market, on February 9, 2012; the Model X launch was however delayed until September 2015.[91][92][93] In addition to its own cars, Tesla sells electric powertrain systems to Daimler for the Smart EV, Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive and Mercedes A Class and to Toyota for the RAV4 EV. Musk was able to bring in both companies as long-term investors in Tesla.[94]
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Musk standing in front of a Tesla Model S in 2011
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Musk has favored building a sub-US$30,000 compact Tesla model and building and selling electric vehicle powertrain components so that other automakers can produce electric vehicles at affordable prices without having to develop the products in-house; this led to the Model 3 that is planned to have a base price of US$35,000.[95] Several mainstream publications have compared him with Henry Ford for his work on advanced vehicle powertrains.[96]
In a May 2013 interview with All Things Digital, Musk said that to overcome the range limitations of electric cars, Tesla is "dramatically accelerating" its network of supercharger stations, tripling the number on the East and West coasts of the U.S. that June, with plans for more expansion across North America, including Canada, throughout the year.[97] As of January 29, 2016, Musk owns about 28.9 million Tesla shares, which equates to about 22% of the company.[98][99]
As of 2014, Musk's annual salary is one dollar, similar to that of Steve Jobs and other CEOs; the remainder of his compensation is in the form of stock and performance-based bonuses.[100][101]
In 2014, Musk announced that Tesla would allow its technology patents to be used by anyone in good faith in a bid to entice automobile manufacturers to speed up development of electric cars. "The unfortunate reality is electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn't burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales", Musk said.[102]
In February 2016, Musk announced that he had acquired the Tesla.com domain name from Stu Grossman, who had owned it since 1992, and changed Tesla's homepage to that domain.[103]
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