Elon Musk Biography

Elon Musk (born June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal and launched SpaceX. Tesla is another electric car manufacturer that he invested in and led as CEO. Also in 2022, Musk acquired Twitter (later X).

Early life

In South Africa, he was born to a Canadian mother and a South African father. Early on, he displayed a talent for computers and entrepreneurship. When he was 12 years old, he sold a video game to a computer magazine. He left South Africa in 1988 after obtaining a Canadian passport because he refused to support apartheid through compulsory military service, and he wanted to take advantage of the greater economic prospects in the United States.

PayPal and SpaceX

Musk attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics in 1997. After only two days at Stanford University, he left because he felt that the Internet had more potential to change society than work in physics. He founded Zip2 in 1995, which provided maps and directories for online newspapers. After Zip2 was purchased by Compaq for $307 million in 1999, Musk founded an online financial services company called X.com, which later became PayPal, which specializes in transferring money online. In 2002, eBay purchased PayPal for $1.5 billion.

It has been Musk’s belief for a long time that humanity must become a multiplanet species in order to survive. While he was satisfied with the rocket launcher’s performance, he was unhappy with its cost. To make rockets more affordable, he founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in 2002. Two of its first rockets, the Falcon 1 (launched in 2006) and the Falcon 9 (launched in 2010), were designed to be considerably cheaper than competing rockets. The Falcon Heavy rocket (first launched in 2018) was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its closest competitor, the Boeing Delta IV Heavy. Super Heavy–Starship is SpaceX’s successor to the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. A Super Heavy first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) into low Earth orbit. Payloads would include quick transportation between Earth’s cities and bases on the Moon and Mars. Also developed by SpaceX is the Dragon spacecraft, which carries supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). During a crewed flight to the ISS in 2020, Dragon carried astronauts, Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken. In 2020, the Super Heavy Starship system launched its first test flights. Musk served as CEO of SpaceX as well as head designer of the Falcon rocket, Dragon, and Starship. As part of NASA’s Artemis program, SpaceX has been contracted to build the lander for astronauts returning to the Moon by 2025.

Tesla

Musk has long been interested in electric cars, and in 2004 he became a major investor in Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), a company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. It was in 2006 that Tesla introduced its first car, the Roadster, which could travel 245 miles (394 km) on a single charge. It was a sports car that could go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than four seconds, which was unlike previous electric vehicles Musk considered stodgy and uninteresting. About $226 million was raised in the company’s initial public offering in 2010. Tesla introduced the Model S sedan two years later, which was hailed by automotive critics for its performance and design. Model X, the company’s luxury SUV that went on sale in 2015, received further praise. Tesla’s Model 3 became the world’s best-selling electric car in 2017 when the less-expensive vehicle went into production.

A high-speed rail system in California was projected to cost $68 billion, so Musk proposed a faster alternative in 2013, the Hyperloop, which is a pneumatic tube through which 28 passengers would travel 350 miles (560 kilometers) between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 35 minutes at 760 miles (1,220 km) per hour, nearly at the speed of sound. According to Musk, the Hyperloop would cost only $6 billion, and, with pods departing every two minutes, it could accommodate the six million people who travel that route every year. However, he claimed that he could not devote enough time to Hyperloop development between SpaceX and Tesla.

X (formerly Twitter)

Twitter was Elon Musk’s first social media platform; as of 2022, he had 85 million followers using the handle @elonmusk.He expressed reservations about Tesla’s being publicly traded, and in August 2018 he made a series of tweets about taking the company private at a value of $420 per share, noting that he had “secured funding.” (The value of $420 was seen as a joking reference to April 20, a day celebrated by cannabis enthusiasts.) The following month the U.S. Musk was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for securities fraud, alleging his tweets were false and misleading. Tesla’s board rejected Musk’s proposed settlement shortly thereafter, reportedly because Musk threatened to resign. Tesla stock plummeted after the news, and a harsher deal was eventually reached. Tesla lawyers were to preapprove Musk’s tweets, and $20 million fines for both Tesla and Musk were imposed. Musk stepped down as chairman for three years, but continued as CEO; his tweets were to be preapproved by Tesla lawyers; and Tesla’s tweets were to be preapproved by Tesla lawyers.

Musk criticized Twitter’s content-moderation policies for violating the principles of free speech. Musk bought more than 9 percent of Twitter’s stock in April 2022, according to Twitter’s SEC filings. A few days later, Twitter announced that Musk would be joining its board, but Musk decided to buy the entire company for $44 billion at $54.20 a share. The Twitter board approved the deal, which would make him the only owner of the company. As Musk stated, he plans to “improve the product with new features, open source the algorithms to increase trust, defeat spam bots, and authenticate all humans.” Musk announced in July 2022 that he was withdrawing his bid, claiming Twitter had not provided enough information about bot accounts and was in “material breach” of multiple terms of the purchase agreement. Twitter’s executive chair, Bret Taylor, said the company was “committed to closing the transaction at a price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk.” The company sued Musk to compel him to buy Twitter. Musk’s offer was accepted by Twitter’s shareholders in September 2022. Musk eventually proceeded with the deal, and it was completed in October despite a legal battle.

Musk’s first acts as Twitter’s owner included layoffs of half the company and the inclusion of an $8 monthly fee for blue check-mark verification, which was previously reserved for notable figures. Additionally, he disbanded Twitter’s content-moderation body and reinstated many banned accounts, including that of former U.S. president Donald Trump, which had been suspended following the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. A number of companies pulled their ads from the platform, resulting in a sharp drop in advertising revenue. In July 2023, Musk changed the name of Twitter to X. With the change, tweets became posts.

Arshad Chandio