Biography of Elon Musk: The Inventor, and Business Genius

The name Elon Musk may not be as popular as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. However, the figure of a man born in American-Canada who was born in South Africa is a figure who is famous as an inventor, innovator, and successful businessman.


Some people say that Elon Musk has the potential to equal Gates’ and Jobs’ achievements. Because he is the prominent character behind the most extensive online payment service system in the world, namely PayPal, he is also the CEO of a large company, Tesla Motors and SpaceX.

Biography of Elon Musk


Full name Elon Reeve Musk

Place of birth Pretoria, South Africa

Date of birth June 28, 1971

Wife Justine Musk (married 2000 –2008), Talulah Riley (married 2010–2012),                                             Talulah Riley (married 2013–2016)

Child         Nevada Alexander Musk, Damian Musk, Saxon Musk, Griffin Musk, Xavier                                    Musk, Kai Musk, X Æ A-12 Musk

Education Pennsylvania University

Company CEO and CTO of SpaceX; CEO and product architect of Tesla Motors; Chair                                 of SolarCity;Chairman of OpenAI

Net worth 36.1 billion USD (2020 )

On June 28, 1971, Elon Musk was born to his Canadian mother and his father, who was A South Africa. Musk has two younger siblings, namely Kimbal, born in 1972, and Tosca, who was born in 1974.   

At the age of 10, Elon Musk was able to operate a PC or computer with Commodore VIC-20. From here, Musk genius has begun to appear.   

 He then learned local PC programming and managed to sell a video game code titled Blaster in a computer magazine for $ 500.   

Elon Musk lives in Pretoria with his father after the divorce of his parents. After he graduated from Pretoria High School, he moved to Canada in 1989 to avoid compulsory military service in South Africa. He also gained Canadian citizenship through the lineage of the mother born there. 

Education of Elon Musk

Elon Musk is known as a short figure, introverts, and nerds while still in elementary school. He even became a victim of bullying at his school until he was 15 years old.  

Entering adolescence, its growth starts to look like a teenager of his age. He also learned karate and wrestling to protect himself from bullying.  

 At the age of 19, Musk was accepted at Queen’s University in Kingston. Two years later, he moved to the University of Pennsylvania to study business and physics. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics and stayed for his second degree in physics.   

 At the age of 24, Musk moved to Stanford University in California to pursue a Ph. D. in applied physics but dropped out after two days. At that time, Musk was thinking of pursuing his ambition as an entrepreneur in the internet, renewal of energy, and outer space.   

 Then he launched his first company Zip2 Corporation in 1995. In 2002, Musk gained United States citizenship.

 Career and Business Travel  

Technically, business Elon Musk started when he succeeded in making a commercially valued invention at the age of 12. He is interested in computer engineering and self-taught learning from the age of 10.   

This is where he then managed to learn programming techniques and make computer code for a game called Blastar. This game is then sold to a computer magazine, and Musk gets $ 500 from the transaction.   

 After leaving Stanford University in two days, Musk began working on his professional career seriously. He started his business adventure by establishing Zip2 Corporation in 1995.

Zip2 Corporation  

Elon Musk started his business by establishing a software website company with his brother, Kimbal Musk. This company is called Zip2 Corporation, which is an online city guide for the newspaper publishing industry.   

Elon Musk started this business with a capital of $ 28,000 from his father. Zip2 immediately provided content for the new website, The New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune. Musk gained huge profits from contracts with this popular newspaper.   

 In 1999, Compaq Computer Corporation purchased Zip2 for $ 307 million in cash and $ 34 million in stock options. Musk himself received a share of $ 22 million. 

 PayPal  

 In 1999, Elon and Kimbal Musk used money from their Zip2 sale to find X.com, which is an online payment service company. The acquisition of X.com in the following year was the reason for the creation of PayPal as we know it today.   

 In October 2002, Musk earned his first billion when PayPal was officially acquired by eBay, with shares worth $ 1.5 billion. From this agreement, Musk received $ 165 million, which he used to build renewable energy and space-based business. 

 SpaceX  

Musk then founded his third company in 2002, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation or accessible by the name of SpaceX. SpaceX has a mission to build spacecraft for commercial space travel. 

On May 22, 2012, Musk and SpaceX made history by launching the Falcon 9 rocket into space with an uncrewed capsule. This vehicle was sent to the international space station with 1000 pounds of supplies for the astronauts stationed.

This is history because a private company sent a spaceship to the International Space Station for the first time.

“I feel fortunate. … For us, this is like winning the Super Bowl, “Kusk said at the time.

In November 2017, SpaceX had experienced a problem where an explosion occurred during a test of the new Merlin Block 5 engine. SpaceX reported no injuries and promised that this problem would not hamper the next generation of rockets’ launch.

After this event, SpaceX enjoyed a revival after the launch of the successful trial of the Falcon Heavy rocket in February 2018. This rocket could carry a huge payload to orbit and potentially function as a ship for space missions.

At the end of March 2018, SpaceX obtained permission from the US government to launch a low orbit satellite fleet for internet service. This satellite network called Starlink will make broadband services more accessible in rural areas. Starlink will also increase competition in a densely populated market, which is usually dominated by 1-2 providers.

SpaceX launched the first 60 satellites in May 2019 and was followed by another 60 satellite loads the following November. SpaceX has many significant advances and is predicted to have an even more incredible future.

Tesla Motors  

Elon Musk is one of the founders, CEO, and product architect at Tesla Motor. Tesla Motors was formed in 2003 and is dedicated to producing electric cars and battery and solar roof products. Musk has the role of overseeing the company’s product development, engineering, and product design.   

Five years after it was founded, Tesla launched the Roadster in March 2008, a sports car that can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds and covered a distance of nearly 250 miles between charging its lithium-ion batteries. This car sold up to 2,500 units in 31 countries.   

With shares in the company taken by Daimler and strategic partnerships with Toyota, Tesla Motors successfully launched its initial public offering in June 2010 and raised $ 226 million. 

Solar City  

Solar City Corporation is a subsidiary of Tesla, Inc. specializing in solar energy services, headquartered in San Mateo, California. SolarCity markets manufacture and install residential and commercial solar panels and solar roofs in the United States. 

The Boring Company  

 In January 2017, Elon Musk launched The Boring Company. Namely an American infrastructure and tunnel construction service company. The inspiration of this company is when Musk is stuck with traffic problems in Los Angeles and limitations with a two-dimensional transportation network.   

To overcome this, The Boring Company will assist the tunnel in reducing traffic on the road. 

Conclusion 

 There are many cool things Elon Musk did in his career. The figure of the learner is never satisfied with only one business success. 

And interestingly, Musk used his business trip to build a career that was bigger and truly following his dreams—starting from Zip2 Corporation, Paypal, to SpaceX and Tesla Motors.

 Thus the biography of Elon Musk. Hopefully, useful and inspiring.

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