FACTS ABOUT ELON MUSK You Should Know

Elon Musk is one of the most influential and visionary entrepreneurs of our time. He is the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, the owner and CEO of Twitter, and the founder of several other innovative companies. He has a net worth of over $200 billion, making him the richest person in the world as of 2023. But how much do you know about his life, achievements, and challenges? Here are some interesting facts about Elon Musk that you might not know.

Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa, to a Canadian mother and a South African father. His parents divorced when he was 10 years old, and he lived with his father in South Africa for most of his childhood. He was bullied at school and developed a passion for reading, science fiction, and technology.

   

Elon Musk taught himself how to code and created his own video game when he was 12 years old. He sold the game, called Blastar, to a computer magazine for $500. He also invented a space-themed PC game at the age of 12.

Elon Musk moved to Canada at the age of 17 to avoid mandatory military service in South Africa, which was under apartheid at the time1. He obtained a Canadian passport through his mother and later became a dual citizen of Canada and the United States.

Elon Musk attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he received bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics in 1997. He enrolled in a PhD program in physics at Stanford University in California,but dropped out after only two days to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions.

Elon Musk turned his house into a nightclub to pay for rent when he was studying at the University of Pennsylvania. He and his roommate rented a house off-campus and charged $5 per person to enter their parties. They made enough money to cover their rent and expenses.

 

Elon Musk co-founded Zip2, an online city guide software company, in 1995 with his brother Kimbal and a friend. He sold Zip2 to Compaq for $307 million in 1999 and became a millionaire at the age of 27.

Elon Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services company, in 1999 with another friend. X.com merged with PayPal, an online payment platform, in 2000 and became one of the most popular online payment methods. Elon Musk was the largest shareholder and CEO of PayPal until he was ousted by the board in 2000 over a dispute about the software architecture. He received $165 million when eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002.

Elon Musk founded SpaceX, a private aerospace company, in 2002 with the goal of making space travel affordable and eventually colonizing Mars. SpaceX has developed several reusable launch vehicles and spacecraft, such as the Falcon 9 rocket, the Dragon capsule, and the Starship system. SpaceX has also launched numerous satellites into orbit, including Starlink, a constellation of satellites that provide high-speed internet access worldwide.

Elon Musk joined Tesla Motors, an electric car company, as an investor and board member in 2004. He became the CEO and product architect of Tesla in 2008 and led the company through several challenges and innovations. Tesla has produced several models of electric vehicles, such as the Roadster, the Model S, the Model X, the Model 3, and the Model Y. Tesla has also developed other products related to clean energy, such as solar panels, batteries, and charging stations.

Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, a research organization dedicated to creating artificial intelligence that can benefit humanity without causing harm or being controlled by a few. OpenAI has developed several impressive AI systems, such as GPT-3, a natural language processing model that can generate coherent and diverse texts on any topic.

Elon Musk founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company, in 2016 with the aim of creating brain-computer interfaces that can enhance human capabilities and treat neurological disorders. Neuralink has developed a device called N1 Link that can be implanted into the brain and communicate wirelessly with external devices. Neuralink has tested its device on animals and plans to conduct human trials soon.

Elon Musk founded The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company in 2016 as a side project to solve the problem of traffic congestion in urban areas. The Boring Company has built several tunnels in various locations, such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Chicago, and plans to build more in the future. The Boring Company also sells flamethrowers and hats as merchandise.

Elon Musk acquired Twitter, a social media platform, in 2022 for $44 billion after a bidding war with Facebook. He became the owner and CEO of Twitter and introduced several changes to the platform, such as increasing the character limit to 280 characters per tweet, adding more features for users to customize their profiles, and banning hate speech and misinformation from the platform.

Elon Musk is the president of the Musk Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports causes such as renewable energy, space exploration, pediatric research, and education. He has donated millions of dollars to various charities and initiatives, such as the X Prize Foundation, the Sierra Club, the Wikimedia Foundation, and Khan Academy.

Elon Musk has nine children with three different mothers. He had his first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, with his first wife Justine Wilson in 2002, but he tragically died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) at 10 weeks old. He then had five more sons with Wilson via in vitro fertilization (IVF), namely Griffin and Vivian (twins born in 2004), and 

Kai, Saxon, and Damian (triplets born in 2006)23. Vivian came out as transgender in 2022 and changed her name from Xavier.

He divorced Wilson in 2008 and married actress Talulah Riley in 2010. 

They divorced in 2012, remarried in 2013, and divorced again in 2016. 

They did not have any children together.

He then had a son, X Æ A-XII Musk, with singer Grimes in 2020. His name is pronounced as “X Ash Archangel” and he goes by the nickname "X"23. He also had a daughter, Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, with Grimes in 2021 via surrogate. Her name is pronounced as “Exa Dark Sidereal” and she goes by the nickname “Y” or "?".
He also had twins with Shivon Zilis, a director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, one of his companies, in 2021. Their names and genders have not been publicly revealed.

Elon Musk inspired the character of Tony Stark in the Iron Man movies. Robert Downey Jr., who played the role of the billionaire superhero, met Musk for inspiration and visited SpaceX before filming the first movie. Musk also made a cameo appearance in Iron Man 2 as himself.

Elon Musk bought a James Bond submarine car for $997,000 in 2013. The car was used in the movie The Spy Who Loved Me and was auctioned off by RM Sotheby’s. Musk said he planned to upgrade the car with Tesla electric powertrain and make it transform into a real submarine.

Elon Musk started his own school in SpaceX for his children and some of his employees’ children. The school is called Ad Astra, which means “to the stars” in Latin. The school has no grades, no tests, no homework, and no formal curriculum. Instead, it focuses on problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity.

These are some of the facts about Elon Musk that show how remarkable and diverse his life and achievements are. He is a real-life Tony Stark who is constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation and exploration. He is an inspiration for many people who aspire to achieve great things.

Learn More:
Gregersen, E. (2023, July 27). Elon Musk. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elon-Musk

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