Elon Musk

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Elon Musk

Born June 28, 1971 (1971-06-28) (age 36)
South Africa
Residence Bel-Air, California
Education B.A. in Economics and Physics from University of Pennsylvania
Occupation entrepreneur
Title CEO and CTO of SpaceX
Chairman of Tesla Motors and SolarCity
Net worth $328 million
Known for co-founder of PayPal
Spouse Justine Musk
Children five sons
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Elon Musk (born 28 June 1971) is an entrepreneur and a co-founder of PayPal and SpaceX. He is chairman of Tesla Motors and SolarCity.

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[edit] Early life

Musk was born and grew up in South Africa, the son of a South African engineer and a Canadian-born mother[1] who has worked as a New York City dietitian[2] and modeled for fun.[3] His father inspired his love of technology and Musk bought his first computer at age 10 and taught himself how to program;[1] by the age of 12 he sold his first commercial software, a space game called Blaster.[1]

He left home in 1988 at the age of 17, without his parents' support,[2] and in part because of the prospect of compulsory service in the South African military: "I don't have an issue with serving in the military per se, but serving in the South African army suppressing black people just didn't seem like a really good way to spend time,".[1] He headed toward the US, saying: "It is where great things are possible. I am nauseatingly pro-American."[3] Leaving South Africa he first went to Kingston, Ontario where he enrolled at Queen's University,[3] barely scraping by on as little as $1 a day[1] with part-time and summer jobs.[3] He then landed a prestigious scholarship to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "Tuition costs are outrageous ... Fortunately, they gave me a scholarship ... so I only had to cover living expenses, books, etc., by working."[3] From Wharton he received an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed on another year to finish a second bachelors degree in physics.[2][4] His undergraduate degrees behind him, Musk then considered three areas he wanted to get into that were "important problems", as he said later, "One was the Internet. One was clean energy and one was space."[1]

Musk lives in Bel-Air, California, with his wife, the author Justine Musk, their five sons and three dogs.

[edit] Entrepreneurial activities

In 1995, Musk went on to a graduate program in high energy physics at Stanford, in which he stayed exactly two days before dropping out to start Zip2,[2] which provided online content publishing software for news organizations. In 1999, Compaq's AltaVista division acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options.[5] Elon and his brother Kimbal held about 12 percent of Zip2 at the time.[citation needed]

In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and email payments company.[2] One year later, X.com acquired Confinity, originally a company formed to beam money between Palm Pilots,[6] and the combined entity focused on email payments through the PayPal domain, acquired as part of Confinity. In February 2001, X.com changed its legal name to PayPal. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock.[7] Before its sale, Musk, the company's largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal's shares.[8]

Elon Musk (left) at Tesla Motors. Photo by Erik Charlton
Elon Musk (left) at Tesla Motors. Photo by Erik Charlton

In June 2002, Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), of which he is currently the CEO and CTO. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles, with an emphasis on low cost and high reliability. The company's first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets.

In addition to his business activities in entrepreneurial space, Musk is the principal owner and Chairman of the Board of Tesla Motors, which aspires to build high-end luxury electric vehicles.[9] He is also the primary investor and Chairman of the Board of SolarCity, a photovoltaics products and services startup company.[10] The underlying motivation for funding both companies is to help combat global warming.[11]

Musk's fortune is estimated at US$328 million.[12]

[edit] Philanthropy

[edit] Non-space-related activities

Musk is Chairman of the Musk Foundation, which focuses its philanthropic efforts on science education, pediatric health, and clean energy.

[edit] Space-related activities

In 2001, Musk had plans for a "Mars Oasis" project, which would land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith.[13] He put this project on hold when he discovered that launch costs would dwarf the mission development and construction costs for the project, and decided to work on lowering launch costs by founding SpaceX. His long term goal is that SpaceX helps humanity become a true spacefaring civilization.

Musk is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, a Director of the Planetary Society and a Trustee of The X-Prize Foundation.

In 2005, Musk acquired a 10% share of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), a world leader in the design, manufacture and operation of high performance small satellites, majority owned by the University of Surrey, UK.

[edit] Interests

Musk owned a McLaren F1 sports car worth approximately $1 million, and a Czech-built Aero L-39 trainer worth approximately $250,000.[14] The 1994 model Dassault Falcon 900 aircraft used in the film, "Thank You for Smoking" (Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2006) is registered to Mr. Musk (N900SX). Mr. Musk is listed as an Executive Producer of the film.

Musk owns a Tesla Roadster car 0001 (the first one off the production line) from Tesla Motors, a company in which he is an early investor. The Roadster is a battery electric sportscar with a 220 mile range.[15]

[edit] Education

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Michael Belfiore. Rocketeers. HarperCollins, 2007. ISBN 978-0-06-114902-3 - see chapter 7 "Orbit on a Shoestring" pp. 166-195.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Fast Track", by Mark Gimein, Salon.com, August 17, 1999
  3. ^ a b c d e Todd Halvorson. "Elon Musk Unveiled" in Florida Today, January 29, 2005.
  4. ^ "Entrepreneur Tries His Midas Touch in Space", Los Angeles Times, 22 April, 2007. 
  5. ^ Compaq buys Zip2 by Sandeep Junnarkar, CNet News.com.com, February 16th, 1999
  6. ^ "PayPal Puts Dough in Your Palm", by Karlin Lillington, Wired News, July 27, 1999
  7. ^ EBay SEC 10-K (PDF format) December 31, 2002
  8. ^ Paypal SEC 10-K, December 31, 2001
  9. ^ Company Board, from Tesla Motors website.
  10. ^ SolarCity Management Team
  11. ^ "The unveiling of the Tesla Motors Electric Car", video from "Autoblog.com" via YouTube. Retrieved 2006-07-26
  12. ^ "Hondas in Space", FastCompany.com, Issue 91, February 2005, Page 74, By Jennifer Reingold
  13. ^ "Elon Musk, Life to Mars Foundation", from Mars Now, a weekly column by John Carter McKnight of the Space Frontier Foundation, September 25, 2001
  14. ^ "A Bold Plan to Go Where Men Have Gone Before", by Leslie Wayne, The New York Times, February 5, 2006
  15. ^ Tesla Motors - press room

[edit] External links