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| Elon Musk | |
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| Born | June 28, 1971 South Africa |
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| 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 SolarCity CEO of Tesla Motors |
| Net worth | $328 million |
| Known for | co-founder of PayPal |
| Spouse(s) | Justine Musk (separated) |
| Children | five sons |
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This article's introduction section may not adequately summarize its contents. To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. |
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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Early life
Musk was born and grew up in South Africa, the son of a South African engineer and a Canadian-born mother1 who has worked as a New York City dietitian2 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
After matriculating at Pretoria Boys High School 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 day1 with part-time and summer jobs.3 He then was given financial aid to attend 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.24 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
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
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
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 CEO of Tesla Motors, which builds a high-end luxury electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, and plans to produce a more economical four door electric sedan.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 was estimated at US$328 million in 2005.12
Philanthropy
Non-space-related activities
Musk is Chairman of the Musk Foundation, which focuses its philanthropic efforts on science education, pediatric health, and clean energy.
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. That share will be sold as part of the EADS acquisition of SSTL.
Interests
Musk owned a McLaren F1 sports car that he purchased for approximately $1 million and sold in 2007 for $1.5 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.15
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 claimed 220 mile range.16
Education
- Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, B.S., Economics
- University of Pennsylvania, B.A., Physics
- Excelled at mathematics and science at Pretoria Boys High School.
Family
Musk lives in Bel-Air, California, with his wife, the author Justine Musk, their five sons and three dogs. On September 13, 2008 Justine posted a notice on her blog that the couple is divorcing. The blog, moschus.livejournal.com, partially read, "I am getting divorced. We had a good run. We married young, took it as far as we could and now it is over. That's about all I can say for now, other than that it was a very sad and very necessary decision."
He is engaged to British actress Talulah Riley.17
Elon Musk's sister Tosca Musk is the founder of Musk Entertainment and producer of various movies.1819 Elon himself was the executive producer of her first movie, called Puzzled.20
Notes
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c d e "Fast Track", by Mark Gimein, Salon.com, August 17, 1999
- ^ a b c d e Halvorson, Todd (2005-01-29). "Elon Musk Unveiled", Florida Today. Retrieved on 20 December 2008.
- ^ "Entrepreneur Tries His Midas Touch in Space", Los Angeles Times (2007-04-22).
- ^ Compaq buys Zip2 by Sandeep Junnarkar, CNet News.com.com, February 16th, 1999
- ^ "PayPal Puts Dough in Your Palm", by Karlin Lillington, Wired News, July 27, 1999
- ^ EBay SEC 10-K (PDF format) December 31, 2002
- ^ Paypal SEC 10-K, December 31, 2001
- ^ Musk steps in as CEO, from the New York Times.
- ^ SolarCity Management Team
- ^ "The unveiling of the Tesla Motors Electric Car", video from "Autoblog.com" via YouTube. Retrieved 2006-07-26
- ^ "Hondas in Space", FastCompany.com, Issue 91, February 2005, Page 74, By Jennifer Reingold
- ^ "Elon Musk, Life to Mars Foundation", from Mars Now, a weekly column by John Carter McKnight of the Space Frontier Foundation, September 25, 2001
- ^ "A Bold Plan to Go Where Men Have Gone Before", by Leslie Wayne, The New York Times, February 5, 2006
- ^ "Thank You For Smoking (2005) - Full cast and crew", IMDB
- ^ Tesla Motors - press room
- ^ [1]
- ^ Musk entertainment
- ^ Tosca Musk on IMDb
- ^ Elon Musk on IMDb
External links
- An interview with Elon Musk, HobbySpace
- The Musk Foundation web site
- Elon's wife Justine Musk
- Viral Marketing, MBAs and pesky governments, Elon talks at Stanford (October 8, 2003)
- Statement of Elon Musk at House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Hearings on the Future Market for Commercial Space (April 20, 2005)
- 1999 Salon.com article on Musk
- Interview with Carte Blanche (September 4, 2005)
- Interview with nasaspaceflight.com (January 20, 2006)
- Interview at pbs.org (January 3, 2007)
- Elon Musk Is Betting His Fortune on a Mission Beyond Earth's Orbit, Wired Magazine June 2007
- [2], Elon Musk test drives his personal Tesla for Robert Scoble and Jason Calacanis
- Elon Musk on rockets, sports cars, and solar power, CNET News.com (February 15, 2008)
- Video interview of Elon Musk by Zadi Diaz of EPIC FU, weekly web show that covers online pop culture (June 17, 2008)
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk: 'Never had a failure, and I'm not going to add one now' - Interview with Elon Musk
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 29 December 2008, at 21:10.
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