Elon Musk (nonfiction)
Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/; born June 28, 1971) is an engineer, industrial designer, technology entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
Biography
Musk is a citizen of South Africa, the United States (where he has lived most of his life and currently resides), and Canada. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer/designer of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018. In December 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People, and was ranked joint-first on the Forbes list of the Most Innovative Leaders of 2019. As of April 2020, he has a net worth of $38.9 billion and is listed by Forbes as the 23rd-richest person in the world. He is the longest tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally.
Born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk briefly attended the University of Pretoria before moving to Canada when he was 17 to attend Queen's University. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania two years later, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School and a bachelor's degree in physics from the College of Arts and Sciences. He began a Ph.D. in applied physics and material sciences at Stanford University in 1995 but dropped out after two days to pursue a business career. He subsequently co-founded (with his brother Kimbal) Zip2, a web software company, which was acquired by Compaq for $340 million in 1999. Musk then founded X.com, an online bank. It merged with Confinity in 2000, which had launched PayPal the previous year and was subsequently bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.
In May 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, of which he is CEO and lead designer. He joined Tesla Motors, Inc. (Now Tesla, Inc.), an electric vehicle manufacturer, in 2004, the year after it was founded,[7] and became its CEO and product architect. In 2006, he inspired the creation of SolarCity, a solar energy services company (now a subsidiary of Tesla). In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit research company that aims to promote friendly artificial intelligence. In July 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company focused on developing brain–computer interfaces. In December 2016, Musk founded The Boring Company, an infrastructure and tunnel construction company focused on tunnels optimized for electric vehicles.
Apart from Tesla, Musk is not an investor in the stock market.[20] In addition to his primary business pursuits, Musk has envisioned a high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop, and has proposed a vertical take-off and landing supersonic jet electric aircraft with electric fan propulsion, known as the Musk electric jet.[21] Musk has said the goals of SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity revolve around his vision to "change the world and help humanity".[22] His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the risk of human extinction by establishing a human colony on Mars.
Commentary
On the Boing Boing bulletin board, user LDoBe states:
His only real talent is memeing. He’s a rich kid who’s parents profiteered off of apartheid. He’s had everything he wanted handed to him and has never taken a personal risk in his entire life.
Super easy to become a multibillionaire with multimillionaire backing and nothing on the line. Just keep spending other people’s money on projects you like till you find one that takes off. Then you take credit for other people’s work.
- Comment @ Boing Boing
In the News
Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
External links
- Elon Musk @ Wikipedia
- Musk tells boycotting advertisers to ‘go f--- yourself’ @ YouTube
- Elon Musk’s brother says they were “illegal immigrants.” @ Twitter (30 March 2024)
- "We we're illegal immigrants" - Elon & Kimble Musk (Motivational Video) @ YouTube