Elon Musk Biography
FOUNDED X.COM (PAYPAL) IN 1999
SPACEX IN 2002
TESLA MOTORS IN 2003
BORN ON-JUNE 28,1971
NET WORTH- around 2370 CRORE USD
for detailed and brief information lets move to his life story.
He has been
called the real life Tony Stark. He runs a private space travel
corporation, the world's leading electric car company, and recently a
tunnel boring company that gained attention for manufacturing a
flamethrower. Its hard not to have heard about Elon Musk these days, so here is the story of Elon.Elon's birth and parents
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971 to Maye Musk and Errol Musk in Pretoria, South Africa. His mother, Maye was and is still a model originating from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His father, Errol was a South African born electro-mechanical engineer, sailor, and pilot. He also has a younger brother and sister.All about his childhood and studies
At the age of seventeen, Elon left South Africa to attend Queens University in Ontario, Canada. This was in part to avoid mandatory service in the South African military as required after high school.As a child, Elon accelerated quickly in learning and reading. By the age of 10, he was learning basic computing and at the age of 12 , he developed and sold a game for the Commodore VIC-20 called "Blastar" for 500 dollars.
Elon has also cited Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series of sci-fi novels as a strong childhood influence. In the novels, author Isaac Asimov illustrates the story of a scientist and a form of science called "Psychohistory" in which the researcher predicts future societal events and catastrophes by studying patterns of the past.
Had to face bullying
During this time and up until Musk reached the age of fifteen, he was bullied severely by many of his classmates and peers.He was quoted on the subject saying, "For the longest time, I was the youngest and the smallest kid in the class because my birthday just happens to fall on almost the last day of school acceptance you into school, June 28th. And "I was a late bloomer."
So he was the youngest and the smallest kid in class for years and years.Other students bullied him. Thats why he started to pursue Karate, wrestling and Judo in order to defend himself. Eventually, he was fighting back against his aggressors and they soon left him alone.
His relationship with his father was also in poor shape at this time. Elon has recalled his father verballing berating him in the time leading up to his departure from college to go to Canada. He would call him an idiot and telling him that he would never make it.
His parents divorced in 1980. When Elon did eventually move, however, it wasn't long before things started to look better for him.
He arrived in Canada in 1989 and began classes at Queens. After his time in Canada, Musk left to study Business and Physics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. After graduating with an undergraduate degree in Economics and staying for a second bachelor's in physics, he moved on for further education.
He enrolled in and began classes at Stanford University in California but after only two days, he decided to drop out.
Start-up as an Entrepreneur
His move to California had been timed perfectly with the internet boom of the mid to late 90s and in 1995, he and his brother Minbal Musk founded tech startup, "Zip2". This company created and sold city guides to newspaper publishers, including "The New York Times" and "The Chicago Tribune".In February of 1999, Zip2 was sold to "Compaq" for 307 million dollars and 34 million in stocks. At the age of 24 years, with 7% of the sale, Elon Musk had just made 22 million.
Later in 1999, Elon founded 'X.com'. The website offered an online money transfer service via email. Not long after, in 2000, 'X.com' merged with 'Confinity' another online money transfer service.
Under the 'Confinity' umbrella was a service they called 'PayPal' which the company was later renamed to. Elon was pushed out of his CEO position in 2000 due to internal disagreements.
This turned out not to be so bad for Elon as "Ebay" later acquired 'PayPal'.
Elon Musk was the company's largest shareholder with over 11 percent, allotting him roughly 165 million alone.
Following his dream by investing in Space-x
Utilizing his new found fortune, Elon proceeded to found another venture, this time closer to his heart. Space-X, or Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, was founded in 2002.By 2008, the company was awarded a contract for cargo transportation to the International Space Station by NASA. And in 2012 Space-X did just that.
Their fledgling rocket, "The Falcon Nine", was launched from Cape Canaveral early that year. The rocket contained half a ton of cargo for the astronauts on board, making history as the first ever private company to send a rocket to space. Since then, Space-X has launched over 60 more rockets privately and commercially. But we will get back to that soon.
Founded Tesla Motors
One year later in 2003, after founding Space-X, Elon set his sights on the motor industry and hopped on board with Tesla Motors during their series A financing round. The company was originally incorporated by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Martin was later pushed off of the board of directors following the 2008 financial crisis which lead to internal conflict at Tesla.He took the chair as the company's CEO after Martin's Departure.
He laid off 25% of Tesla's employees, and borrowed almost half a billion dollars from the US government in order to save the company from bankruptcy.
Tesla went public in 2010 when sales for their yet to be built 'Roadster' started. They were the first American car company to have gone public since the Ford Motor Company in 1956. But again, we will get back to this later.
Musk either personally or through these companies has been involved in a great deal more ventures as well. In 2006, he conceptualized and funded 'Solar City' which was then run by his cousins Peter and Lyndon Rive. In less than eight years,
"SolarCity" was the second largest provider of solar tech in the US. Tesla has since absorbed the company which operates as a subsidiary under them.
In 2013 , Elon announced that he intended to build a high-speed transportation system that he called "the Hyperloop". He wanted to have his first underground pressurized super train run from the Greater Los Angeles area to the San Francisco Bay area.
Musk has also been involved in the creation of two artificial intelligence based companies, 'OpenAI' in 2015 , and 'Neuralink' in 2016. The former of which is a not-for-profit.
Later on, in 2016, Elon announced "The Boring Company" . The intent of the company was to create new industrial tunnel boring technology because the current cost per mile of drilling made his HyperLoop tunnel economically unfeasible.
He tweeted on December 17th, 2016, that he was "going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging."
Vision of living on Mars
Elon Musk is many things: he's been called a genius, compared to Marvel's "Tony Stark", and has claimed to dream of living on Mars one day. But evidently, above all, he is someone who gets things done.Let's jump back to Space-X. Following their first government contract, Space-X continued to launch its rockets out of our atmosphere. They soon also successfully launched a satellite into Geosynchronous orbit. But this wasn't the only intent of Space-X.
Musk has a vision of colonizing Mars and part of his initial reasoning behind founding Space-X was to do just that.
In September of 2016, Space-X published a video of 3D renderings depicting their intended mission to Mars. Elon was quoted as saying, "I think that a future where we are a space bearing civilization and a multi-planet species is very exciting." He went on, "In order for that to happen, we've got to dramatically improve the cost of space flight."
The concept he envisioned required reusable rockets. And because Space-X is private, they do not have to adhere to the same level of red tape that government organizations generally have to follow. Space-X also manufactures around 90% of their parts by their own. Space-X can manufacture and launch a Falcon Nine rocket for under 300 thousand dollars. The fuel alone per launch costs Two hundred thousand dollars.
Space-X hasn't slowed down either. On February 6, 2018 they successfully launched the 'Falcon Heavy' rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. In a glamorous display streamed live on YouTube, Space-X showed off their larger than 140 thousand pound payload capability by unveiling a Tesla Roadster in earth orbit.
This stunt instantly bolstered the Falcon Heavy's status to that of the most powerful operational rocket on the planet.
They've also announced plans to build a new rocket, which they've called the 'BFR' for 'Big Falcon Rocket.' It's intended to stand at over 100 meters tall and carry over 550 thousand pounds. Today Space-X is the largest private producer of rocket engines in the world and holds the world record for thrust to weight ratio in a rocket.
Tesla's Success
Tesla meanwhile is also making great strides in the motor industry. Following their fledgling vehicle, the Roadster, Tesla released the 'Model S' sedan type car in 2012. The announcement of the 'Model X' SUV style vehicle came shortly after. However, its release was delayed until 2015.
Tesla revolutionized the entire world of electric cars, when they entered the market. Other companies in the past have tried and failed to do what Tesla has achieved in recent years.
One of the biggest hurdles to overcome that their predecessors hadn't been able to leap was the car's range on a charged battery. Tesla's offer a 250 mile range per charge which helped consumers begin to wrap their minds around the concept of electric cars.
On top of that, the Model S is a desirable sports car boasting an acceleration rate of zero to sixty in 2.5 seconds.
Its electric engine gives the car a torque advantage over most traditional engines allowing the Model-S to outperform many cars far beyond its price. Musk also has plans to create a car for the masses.
The 'Model 3' is intended to have a base price of 35 thousand dollars according to Tesla's blog. Even more interestingly, Elon stated in 2014 that Tesla would provide any of its technology patents in good faith to corporations with the intent of creating more affordable electric car solutions for the world
Elon Always like to be on top whether its News or Competition
Elon Musk has also derived a great deal of attention around himself as a person, both negative and positive. Many of the videos and posts about him that are abundant on the web herald him as a genius with a plan to save humanity, and in many ways it can seem that way.He has an obviously strong motivation to push for more green forms of transportation, both on the road and in space.
Combined with his home battery initiative, the future can feel greener. Interestingly, despite being involved in numerous AI based or related companies, Elon has been a strong opponent of developing hyper intelligent artificial intelligence.
He has been interviewed and has spoken about his fears of robotic uprising multiple times. He's not been free of controversy either.
In 2008, Musk appeared on the very popular 'Joe Rogan' podcast, which is streamed live on Youtube. During the two and a half hour long interview, Musk puffed on what was described as a combination of tobacco and marijuana offered to him by host, Joe Rogan.
Following the interview, Tesla stocks dropped and worries of a United States Air Force investigation in regards to his ties with Space-X started circulating the web.
Following that, on the 7th of August that year Elon allegedly tweeted while driving, "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420." This shocked many people, namely the company's shareholders. By August 24, Elon abandoned the plan.
He was also criticized in media for his attempted involvement in the crisis of the trapped children in a Thai cave system in June 28.
Musk tweeted about creating a submersible tube to assist in the evacuation of the children but when his plans were presented to the divers at the scene, they were quick to dismiss its viability. Musk's response was to personally attack the diver in question with an unwarranted accusation. The diver in question has since filed a lawsuit against Mr. Musk following further battery on twitter.
From a colony on Mars to mechanical implants in humans to interface with computers. The future of both Tesla and Space-X also both seem bright, not to mention the boring company. Only time will tell what is in store. From rocket ships in space to high performance electric sports cars, Elon Musk has gotten the world's attention. He seems to have an innate ability to do whatever he sets his mind to. What do you think about Musk and his plans for the future?
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