The Hustler's Digest StaffElon Musk is known to be the richest man and is also well known for being the CEO of many companies like Tesla and SpaceEx. But, have you ever thought about his background? Read this article to know everything you need to know about Elon Musk, from his personal life to his business.
Elon Reeve Musk, an investor and businessman, was born on June 28th, 1971. He co-created Neuralink and OpenAI, launched “The Boring Company,” is the CEO and chief engineer of “SpaceX,” an angel investor in Tesla, Inc., and the founder of “The Boring Company.” With an estimated net worth of more than $238 billion as of September 26, 2022, Musk is the richest person in the world, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.
Musk was born and reared in Pretoria, a city in South Africa. He attended the University of Pretoria before moving to Canada at the age of 17, where he later became a citizen through his mother. Two years after enrolling, he transferred from Ontario’s Queen’s University to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in both economics and physics before graduating. He left for California in 1995 intending to enroll at Stanford University, but he later changed his mind and decided to pursue a career in business. The web software company Zip2 was started by him and his brother Kimbal. The company was purchased by Compaq in 1999 for $307 million. Musk was a co-founder of the online bank X.com, which combined with Confinity the following year to form PayPal. PayPal was purchased by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Business
Musk leads SpaceX, a company that produces aerospace goods and offers space transportation services, as well as serving as its CEO and chief engineer. In 2004, he made an early investment in the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (now Tesla, Inc.). Before becoming its CEO in 2008, he was appointed to the positions of chairman and product architect. He helped establish SolarCity in 2006, which Tesla eventually acquired and renamed Tesla Energy.
In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit research group that promotes beneficial artificial intelligence (AI). In 2016, he co-founded the neurotechnology company Neuralink, which focuses on building links between the brain and computers. He was also the creator of The Boring Company, a company that builds tunnels. Musk is the head of the Musk Foundation, which provides funding for scientific research and education.
Musk has come under fire for spreading incorrect information about the COVID-19 pandemic and promoting controversial perspectives on politics and other topics of technology, especially on Twitter. In 2018, Musk was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for making false and deceptive statements in a tweet about having funding in place for a private acquisition of Tesla. Without expressing contrition, he reached a settlement with the SEC and momentarily resigned as chairman of Tesla.
He won a defamation case filed against him by a British cave diver who offered guidance during the 2019 Tham Luang cave rescue. Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, but later sent a letter terminating the agreement, which caused the deal to fall through and have court cases involving both sides. Musk ultimately chose to go through with the purchase, though.
Where was Elon Musk born?
Since making his debut in Silicon Valley more than 20 years ago, the 50-year-old serial entrepreneur has won over the hearts of people all around the world with his entrepreneurial shenanigans.
Born in South Africa, Mr. Musk demonstrated his aptitude for business at a young age by going door to door with his brother to sell homemade easter eggs, and at the age of 12, he created his first video game.
He has described his youth as difficult due to his parent’s divorce, bullying at school, and his own Asperger’s Syndrome-related difficulty deciphering social signs. As soon as he got the opportunity, he travelled to Canada and then the US to attend the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution, to study economics and physics.In a 2010 story for Marie Claire, Justine Musk, a writer who first married Mr. Musk in 2000 after meeting him in college, claimed that Mr. Musk was “not a man who takes no for an answer” even before he became wealthy.
She recalled him telling her, “I am the alpha in this relationship,” as they danced at their wedding, and added that the competitive and aggressive attitude that had made him so successful in business had not “magically shut off” when he went home.
Childhood and family
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, one of South Africa’s largest cities, and was baptized into the Anglican church. Musk has British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His mother is Maye Musk, a model and nutritionist who was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, but raised in South Africa. Errol Musk, his father, is a joint owner of an emerald mine in Zambia near Lake Tanganyika.
He is an electromechanical engineer from South Africa who also works as a consultant, pilot, and sailor. A younger brother named Kimbal Musk was born in 1972, and a younger sister named Tosca Musk was born in 1974.
Musk’s family was prosperous when he was a child. His father was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive party, and it is reported that his children share their father’s dislike of apartheid. His maternal grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, was a courageous American-born Canadian who took his family on record-breaking flights in a single-engine Bellanca to Australia and Africa. The majority of Musk’s time was spent with his father after his parents’ divorced in 1980. Musk eventually regretted his decision because of his developing estrangement from his father. On his parents’ side, he has a half-sister and a half-brother.
Musk is described as a gifted, reserved young man in Ashlee Vance’s biography. When he was ten years old, Musk initially developed an interest in computers and video games. He later purchased a Commodore VIC-20 and used the manual to teach himself how to program. He sold the $500 BASIC game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine when he was just 12 years old.
Education
He went to Bryanston High school, Waterkloof House Preparatory school, and Pretoria boys high school before graduating. Musk, born in Canada, applied for a Canadian passport through his mother, reasoning that it would be simpler to enter the country through this route. He spent five months studying at the University of Pretoria while he waited for the paperwork, which allowed him to escape being drafted into the South African Defence Force.
Musk entered Canada in June 1939 and spent a year in Saskatchewan living with a second cousin while working various jobs at a farm and a timber plant. He started at Kingston, Ontario’s Queen’s University in 1990. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania two years later. Musk finished his studies there, earning a Bachelor of science in economics from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in physics in 1995.
Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley in 1994: one at the energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which looked into electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage, and another at the Palo Alto-based startup Rocket Science Games. He was granted admission to Stanford University’s doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in materials science in 1995. Musk ultimately made the decision to join the internet boom and submitted an application for a position at Netscape, however, it is said that he never heard back.
Where does Elon Musk live?
Elon used to have a significantly larger real estate portfolio, similar to most wealthy individuals; one estimate pegged its 2020 value at $100 million. However, he declared a few years ago that he would sell all of his real estate and vowed to “own no house.” It was revealed that Elon resided in a home owned by Paypal co-founder Ken Howery in December 2021.
Elon reportedly resided in a three-bedroom home in Boca China, Texas, according to an interview he conducted in 2021 on Full Send. Elon claimed that the house’s proximity to his SpaceX facility was the main factor in his decision to buy it.
“It costs like $45,000 or something,” he said at the time. “It’s very small.” The home is within walking distance from the facility, and Elon also said at the time that he has a Boxable tiny home that he allows friends to stay in when they come to visit. “Friends of mine come and they can’t believe I’m staying in this house,” Elon said on the podcast, adding that if he was alone in the house, it worked “fine.”
His wives and girlfriends
Justine Musk
The tech whiz’s first wife, Justine Musk, formerly Justine Wilson, was married to Musk in 2000. Nevada, their first son, was born in 2002, but at 10 weeks old, he passed away from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
A total of five children were born to the couple: twins Griffin and Vivian in 2004 and triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damiana in 2006. Elon and Justine divorced in 2008, and Justine revealed to Marie Claire in 2010 that Elon viewed her as a “starter wife.”
Talulah Riley
Six weeks after Musk filed for divorce from Justine, actress Talulah Riley became engaged to him. She later wed the businessman in 2010. When they originally divorced at Elon’s request in 2014, the pair hit a tough stretch. 18 months after the couple’s reconciliation and remarriage, Riley filed for divorce.
Amber Heard
After Amber Heard’s divorce from Johnny Deep, the creator of SpaceX moved on to her and began seeing her in late 2016.
Due to their busy schedules, she and Musk ended their relationship after just one year.
The separation was difficult for Musk, he continued, adding that he was “truly in love, and it hurt tremendously,” in a November 2017 interview with Rolling Stone.
Grimes
Musk started dating musician Grimes in April of 2018, according to an exclusive story by Page Six. This was one month before the couple made their red carpet debut at the Met Gala. At the time, a source told us that they first connected online after Musk learned Grimes had tweeted the same joke he was going to.
Breakup rumours started in the fall of 2018 after Musk and Grimes unfollowed one another on Twitter after rapper Azealia Banks revealed that she had been waiting for Grimes to arrive at the billionaire’s Los Angeles compound so that they could collaborate on music in a tweet.
The rapper went on a days-long tirade in which she labelled Musk a “trash ass beta male pig,” Grimes a “dirty-sneaker-inbred-out of the woods-Pabst beer p-y meth head-junkie,” and the couple intended to have a threesome with her.
In a March 2019 interview with WSJ. Magazine, Grimes, however, affirmed that she and the co-founder of PayPal were still dating. The singer of “Flesh Without Blood” made her pregnancy public in January 2020 by sharing a photo of her growing baby bulge on Instagram.
In May 2020, Grimes and Elon had baby X A-12. While the singer was recuperating from giving birth, the couple debated the pronunciation of the name on Twitter.
To comply with California law, the parents then changed their son’s name to X A-XII.
After three years of dating, the pair announced their separation on social media, with Musk stating that they are “semi-separated” but still on good terms and co-parenting their 1-year-old son.
Musk said, “We are semi-separated but still love each other, visit each other often, and are on fantastic terms.
After speculations surfaced that he was seeing Australian actress Natasha Bassett, Grimes confirmed the couple was back together in her Vanity Fair cover story published in March 2022. She also disclosed that in December 2021, she secretly had a baby girl from a surrogate named Exa Dark Sidereel Musk. She disclosed that they had broken up again a few hours after the story was published.
Shivon Zilis
The birth of the twins by Musk and Zillis, the director of operations and special projects at Musk’s Neuralink business, was quietly announced in July 2022. The couple requested that their newborn “have their father’s last name and their mother’s last name as part of their middle name,” according to court documents acquired by Business Insider. A judge reportedly granted the request in May 2022.
The names of the infants weren’t made public right away. One day later, Musk tweeted, “Doing my best to address the underpopulation situation,” appearing to confirm the allegation. The greatest threat to civilization is a collapse in the birth rate.”
His kids and their mothers
Nevada Alexander Musk
Musk and Canadian writer Justine Wilson delivered their son Nevada Alexander Musk in 2002 after being married in January 2000. Nevada, who was only 10 weeks old, passed away from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Griffin and Vivian Musk
Musk and Wilson used IVF to conceive a second child after losing their first. In April 2004, she gave birth to twins named Griffin and Vivian Musk. The age of Griffin and Vivian is currently 18. When Vivian asked to change her first name and adopt her mother’s last name in June 2022, she came out as transgender.
“Gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape, or form,” was the reason given in the application.
Kai, Saxon, and Damian Musk
Kai, Saxon, and Damian, the former couple’s triplet sons, were born in January 2006 thanks to IVF. The group is currently sixteen. In 2008, Musk and Wilson were divorced.
X AE A-XII Musk
Musk began dating singer Grimes in May 2018 after two marriages to “Westworld” actress Talulah Riley and a brief romance with actress Amber Heard. In May 2020, she gave birth to their son, X AE A-XII. Now X is two.
X’s parents had to change his name because “X” and “A-12” were illegal under California law. After all, they aren’t letters in the English alphabet. In September 2021, Page Six revealed the exclusive story that Musk and Grimes had split up.
Exa Dark Sideræl Musk
Exa Dark Siderael Musk, the SpaceX founder’s first daughter, was born through a surrogate in December 2021, according to a March 2022 statement from Grimes. Since their other child was named X, Exa was given the nickname Y.
In the shocking Vanity Fair interview, Grimes referred to Musk as her “boyfriend,” even though she described their relationship as “fluid.” However, she tweeted that they had broken up once more after the cover story was published.
Twins with Shivon Zilis
According to court documents obtained by Business Insider in July 2022, Musk secretly gave birth to twins in November 2021 with Shivon Zillis, director of operations and special projects at Neuralink.
A judge in Austin, Texas granted Musk and Zilis’ request to have the twins’ names changed in May 2022 so that they would “have their father’s last name and incorporate their mother’s last name as part of their middle name.” We don’t yet know the names of the newborns.
Wealth
In 2002, Musk pocketed $175.8 million from the sale of PayPal to eBay, propelling his net worth to $2 billion, earning him a spot on Forbes’ Billionaires List in 2012. His financial trajectory soared in 2020, starting the year at $27 billion and surging by $150 billion by year-end, largely due to his substantial stake in Tesla, accounting for about 20% of the company’s shares. Musk’s wealth roller-coastered throughout the year, experiencing a staggering $16.3 billion drop in September, marking the largest single-day decrease recorded on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In November of the same year, Musk surpassed Microsoft’s Bill Gates to claim the second-richest position globally, shortly after overtaking Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg for the third spot. His net worth peaked at $185 billion in January 2021, only for Jeff Bezos to reclaim the top spot the following month. However, Tesla’s soaring stock propelled Musk’s fortune beyond $200 billion by September 27, 2021, making him the world’s wealthiest individual. By November 2021, he became the first person to surpass the $300 billion mark.
Tesla remains the cornerstone of Musk’s wealth, with about three-quarters of his fortune tied to the company. In 2018, he inked a groundbreaking compensation deal with Tesla’s board, linking his earnings directly to the firm’s valuation and sales, forgoing a traditional salary. This deal granted him the opportunity to purchase 1.69 million Tesla shares, valued at around $800 million, as part of his initial incentive in May 2020.
Between 2014 and 2018, Musk paid $455 million in taxes on $1.52 billion in earnings. However, in 2018, he reportedly didn’t pay any federal income taxes, according to ProPublica. His recent sale of $14 billion worth of Tesla stock translated to a significant $12 billion tax liability for 2021.
Despite his immense wealth, Musk has claimed to be “cash poor” and has expressed disinterest in material possessions, vowing to sell off most of his belongings in May 2020. He has defended his wealth by positioning it as a means to support humanity’s endeavors in space exploration.
Philanthropy
Musk is the president of the Musk Foundation, whose stated goals are to support science and engineering education initiatives, support research, development, and advocacy efforts (for areas such as human space exploration, paediatrics, renewable energy, and “safe artificial intelligence”), and provide solar-powered energy systems in disaster areas. From 2002 to 2018, it donated $25 million directly to non-profits, with Musk’s OpenAI receiving close to half of that amount at the time.
The foundation has given more than 350 times since 2022. About half went to NGOs that support scientific research or education. The Wikimedia Foundation, his alma mater the University of Pennsylvania, and his brother Kimbal’s Big Green are notable recipients. Musk pledged to donate the majority of his wealth to philanthropic organisations either during his lifetime or in his estate when he signed the Giving Pledge in 2012. He has endowed prizes at the X prize foundation, including one for $100 million for more advanced carbon capture technologies. Vox noted that the Musk Foundation’s website contained only 33 words of plain text and that it was “nearly entertaining in its simplicity and yet also stunning opaque.”
The comparatively tiny amount of wealth provided has drawn criticism for the charity. Because Musk donated less than 1% of his net assets, Forbes gave him a philanthropy score of 1 in 2020. Musk contributed $5.7 billion worth of Tesla shares to charity in November 2021; nevertheless, Fortune magazine observed that no NGOs later announced receiving any money from Musk, despite his regulatory filing from November 2021 indicating earmarking 5.7 billion worth of his Tesla shares for charity.
Recognition
In 2018, Musk was chosen as a fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). In addition to honorary membership in IEEE, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering and technology from Yale University in 2015. He received the George Low Transportation Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2008, the Gold Space Medal from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in 2010, and the Gold Medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society in 2012. In 2010, 2013, 2108, and 20121, he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.
Msuk was chosen as 2021’s “Person of the Year” by Time magazine. Few people have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and possibly life off Earth as well, according to Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal, who said that “Person of the Year is a market of influence.” Musk was chosen to join the National Academy of Engineering in 2022.
Conclusion
launch of SpaceX, a pioneering company in space technology. Born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk embarked on his entrepreneurial journey alongside his brother Kimbal, establishing Zip2, a web software startup. Their venture saw a successful acquisition by Compaq for $307 million within four years.
Subsequently, Musk ventured into the financial sector, co-founding the online bank X.com, later merged with Confinity to form PayPal.
As of August 2022, Bloomberg estimates Musk’s net worth at $254 billion, positioning him as the world’s wealthiest individual. Surpassing Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, by approximately $90 billion, Musk’s diverse portfolio includes Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company.
Elon Musk, serving as CEO of Tesla and reigning as the world’s richest individual according to both Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, attributes his success to his significant ownership stake in a company that soared in value, stating, “I own 20% of a company that became incredibly valuable.”
