How old is elon musk

Elon Musk

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Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971.

Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm PayPal and founded the spacecraft company SpaceX. He became chief executive officer of the electric-car maker Tesla.

Elon Musk went to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Elon Musk founded SpaceX, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars.

Elon Musk, (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm PayPal and formed SpaceX, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also one of the first significant investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electric car manufacturer Tesla.

Early life

Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he sought the greater economic opportunities available in the United States.

PayPal and SpaceX

Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humanity has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to make more affordable rockets. Its first two rockets were the Falcon 1 (first launched in 2006) and the larger Falcon 9 (first launched in 2010), which were designed to cost much less than competing rockets. A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company’s Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. SpaceX has announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy–Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for providing fast transportation between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars. SpaceX also developed the Dragon spacecraft, which carries supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). Dragon can carry as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. The first test flights of the Super Heavy–Starship system launched in 2020. In addition to being CEO of SpaceX, Musk was also chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Starship.

Tesla

Twitter

Elon Musk – Complete Biography, History, Inventions, and Nationality

October 7, 2021 / July 10, 2022 by Nate Williams

Each new day brings a new story about a man named Elon Musk. From his gargantuan net worth to his many business endeavors to his reputation on social media, the man always seems to be everywhere at once. But who is he really? Where did he start out, and how did he get to where he is today? What’s his personal life like, both in the past and the present? Let’s take a look at Elon Musk’s life story, starting with his early life and moving forward from there.

Who is Elon Musk?

Elon Musk — born Elon Reeve Musk on June 28th, 1971 — is a world-renowned businessman and investor who wears several different hats for several different companies. For instance: He’s founder and CEO of SpaceX, in addition to serving as their Chief Engineer. He’s also the CEO of Tesla, not to mention his role as Product Architect. Plus, he’s the Founder of The Boring Company and the Co-Founder of Neuralink and OpenAI.

Quick Facts

Beyond these business endeavors, Musk is also a prominent voice in the world of stocks as well as a connoisseur of internet culture. Given all the successful and highly lucrative endeavors he’s involved with and the sheer size of the following he has online, it’s no surprise that Musk is currently the richest man in the world by a significant margin.

Elon Musk is an innovator who co-founded PayPal, Tesla, and The Boring Company. He is also a co-founder of Neuralink, SpaceX.

Early Life

Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, a wealthy and segregated suburb during South Africa’s apartheid. His mother, Maye Musk, was a famous model and noted dietitian who hailed from Saskatchewan, Canada. His father, Errol Musk, boasts a résumé not unlike Musk’s today: a white South African electromechanical engineer, Errol also served as a pilot, sailor, business consultant, and property developer. Notoriously, Errol also served as a co-owner of a Zambian emerald mine that profited enormously off of slave labor.

Musk has two siblings: a younger brother named Kimbal, born in 1972, and a younger sister named Tosca, born in 1974. He, his siblings, and his parents were tremendously wealthy when he was a kid. During this time, Errol was serving on the Pretoria City Council and presented himself as an anti-apartheid representative of South Africa’s Progressive Party. Musk’s parents divorced in 1980. A couple of years after their divorce, Elon made the decision to begin spending most of his time with his father and his half-siblings (an interesting move, considering their present-day estrangement).

Career

Elon Musk’s career was more or less set in stone after he fell in love with his VIC-20 in the early ‘80s, but it was truly solidified when he locked down a pair of internships in Silicon Valley during the summer of 1994. The first was at Pinnacle Research Institute, an energy storage startup that existed to investigate electrolytic ultracapacitors for use as energy storage. The second was Rocket Science Games, the startup responsible for such games as Obsidian, Rocket Jockey, and Loadstar.

One year later, in 1995, Musk was accepted to Stanford University’s Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program. While there, he studied materials science. Concurrently, Musk tried to get a job at Netscape — however, as anyone who has hunted for internships can attest to, he never heard back. Musk actually dropped out of Stanford after just two days, opting to take advantage of the Internet boom and work on his own startup instead.

Musk’s Startups

From there, Musk went on to co-found the site that would become PayPal: X.com. An internet financier and e-mail payment service, X.com became one of the very first online banks to get federally insured. Over 200,000 customers joined the service in its first few months, but investors were concerned with Musk’s inexperience as the head of a company and subsequently swapped him out with Intuit’s CEO Bill Harris. X.com went on to merge with another online bank, Confinity. While the name might not ring a bell, the company’s own internet financier definitely will: PayPal. In an ironic turn of events, Musk was appointed CEO of this new merged company.

SpaceX, Tesla, and More: Musk Makes It Big

Concurrently, Musk had his eyes on a new startup called Tesla Motors. Incorporated by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003, Musk showed up for the burgeoning company’s Series A investing round and earned himself the role of chairman of the board of directors with his 6.5-million-dollar investment. While not heavily involved with the day-to-day, Musk was responsible for overseeing the design and production of the company’s Roadster sports car. These two endeavors — SpaceX and Tesla — would eventually go on to define Musk and his very successful career.

In the years since, both SpaceX and Tesla have become titans of their respective industries. Today, SpaceX is known for the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles in addition to a number of other rockets such as the Cargo Dragon. There’s also the company’s Starlink communications satellites, which — once fully operational — will provide internet services to those in remote or rural areas who previously couldn’t get online.

Tesla, on the other hand, is presently known for the design and manufacturing of electric cars, trucks, battery energy storage on both a residential and commercial scale, solar panels and roof tiles, and more. Currently, Tesla ranks as one of the most valuable companies in the world.

As to be expected from Musk, it’s not enough to simply dominate two different industries. There’s always more to accomplish. He’s also involved with businesses such as the Boring Company, Neuralink, SolarCity, and beyond.

The Future: Twitter Acquisition and Beyond

For over a decade now, Elon Musk has been a pretty popular Twitter user. With over 100 million followers, Musk’s posts — which include memes, business tips, and social commentary — often go viral and even occasionally land him in trouble with shareholders and the media alike. For this reason, it only makes sense that he’s been interested in acquiring the site for over five years now. However, it wasn’t until January of 2022 that Musk started to make that wish a reality.

Starting the year off by snatching up a huge number of Twitter shares, Elon eventually reached 5% stake in Twitter by the time March rolled around. Musk didn’t stop there, though. He kept gong, soon reaching nearly 75 million shares — effectively making him the largest shareholder in the company.

Whatever’s next for Musk, there’s no doubt it will hold the same sort of epic ups and colossal downs that have defined his decades as an entrepreneur thus far.

What is Elon Musk Known For?

Of all Elon Musk’s many business endeavors, these are the ones he’s most known for.

Started in 1995 with funds from his father, Musk and two associates launched Zip2, a provider of city guide software to local newspapers.

Started in 1999, X.com was an online banking site that Musk founded along with a few other business partners.

The Boring Company

The company behind both the Hyperloop and a proprietary flamethrower, the Boring Company started in 2016 as a way to solve problems with traffic by installing underground tunnels for traveling between cities.

Neuralink

First founded in 2016, Neuralink is a startup hoping to successfully create implants that can wirelessly connect a person’s brain to a computer.

Tesla

Started in 2003, Tesla designs and manufactures sleek electric vehicles.

SolarCity

A subsidiary of Tesla, SolarCity is the U.S.’s leading solar panel provider. It was acquired by Musk in 2016.

SpaceX

Founded in 2002, SpaceX exists to develop spacecraft and rockets for the purpose of private space exploration.

Starlink

A subsidiary of SpaceX originated in 2019, Starlink is a planned low-orbit satellite internet service provider intended for use in rural areas with no access to the internet.

Twitter

Should the 2022 deal be successful, Musk will also be the owner of popular social media site Twitter. Whether or not the deal goes through remains to be seen.

Elon Musk: Marriage, Divorce, Children, and Personal Life

Looking beyond Elon Musk the businessman, let’s learn more about the man’s personal life. Unsurprisingly, it’s just as eventful as his professional life.

Net Worth

Marriage

Elon Musk has been married three times, but only has two ex-wives. This is because his second wife, Actress and Writer Talulah Riley, was married to Musk twice: Once between 2010 and 2012, then again from 2013 to 2016. Adding up both marriages to Riley, it’s still less time than he was married to his first wife, Author Justine Wilson. Musk and Wilson were married from 2000 to 2008. Between these marriages, Musk has been linked to several other romantic partners. This includes actress Amber Heard, singer Grimes (a.k.a. Claire Boucher), and even Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis.

Divorce

Musk has been divorced three times: Once in 2008, then again in 2012, and then a third time in 2016. This mirrors the divorce his parents went through during his childhood in 1979.

Family

Elon Musk has fathered ten children between the years of 2002 and 2021. The first six were with his first wife Justine Wilson, two were with his most recent partner Grimes (a.k.a. Claire Boucher), and the latest two were reportedly birthed by top Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis. What’s more, four are twins and three are triplets. Their names and ages are as follows.

While Musk has a solid relationship with many of his children, his relationship with one of his oldest, Vivian, has not been nearly as sturdy. Prior to legally transitioning and changing her name in April of 2022, Vivian stated to the court that she no longer wants to live with or even be related to Musk in any conceivable way, shape, or form. The court granted her wish, and she now sports her mother’s last name instead of her father’s. This is a notable development not only because of Musk’s own contentious relationship with his own father, but also because of Musk’s frequent insensitive comments on gender and identity.

Tragedy

Despite being well-off, Musk has still been through (and put others through) a fair share of tragedies. He and first wife Justine Wilson lost their first child, Nevada Alexander Musk, at just 10 weeks old. The cause of death was credited to SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, in 2002.

Beyond this, Musk almost died of malaria after a visit to South Africa in 2000. While he was hospitalized for quite some time and came close to succumbing to the illness, he of course came out on top in the end.

Conversely, Musk has also been named as the cause of tragedy in others’ lives. Take, for instance, the sexual misconduct allegations that arose against the man in 2022. There’s also the time Musk made heinous accusations against the leaders of the international rescue diving team that saved a group of children from a flooded cavern in Thailand in 2018.

The factory conditions of Musk’s Tesla facilities have come under fire in the past, as well. Speaking of which, many Tesla cars have literally caught on fire in recent years, which could be seen as a tragic blow to the brand’s image. (Also, while hardly severe enough to be considered a tragedy, Musk is notorious for lashing out against his detractors and others who hold opposing views online, often crossing lines many would consider inappropriate or over-the-line for someone in his position of authority.)

Elon Musk: Awards and Achievements

Environmentalist Awards

Space Travel Achievements

Professional Milestones

Elon Musk Quotes

Elon Musk – Complete Biography, History, Inventions, and Nationality FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Who is Elon Musk?

Elon Musk is a businessman and investor linked to SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, and more.

What did Elon Musk invent?

While Elon Musk is not necessarily an inventor, he is known for providing the necessary funding for companies such as Tesla and SpaceX to invent for themselves.

Where Did Elon Musk get his money?

At first, Elon Musk got his money from his father Errol, and his enormous wealth was acquired from his many business ventures (including an emerald mine operated by slave labor). Today, the bull of Musk’s tremendous wealth comes from Tesla and his other investments.

Why is Elon Musk famous?

Elon Musk is famous for his unique leadership methods, his controversial online activity, and his many lucrative investments in companies like Tesla and SpaceX.

How did Elon Musk start out?

The start of the Elon Musk we know today can be pinpointed to the founding of X.com.

Where is Elon Musk from?

Elon Musk is from Pretoria, a wealthy and segregated South African suburb.

How old is Elon Musk?

As of date (July 2022), Elon Musk is 51.

How much is Elon Musk worth?

How many kids does Elon Musk have?

Elon Musk has ten children (nine surviving).

Where does Elon Musk live?

Elon Musk is currently residing in Austin, Texas.

What is Elon Musk’s Nationality?

Elon Musk was born in South Africa, emigrated to Canada, and then the United States. He recently relocated from California, to Texas. Elon Musk is a US Citizen.

Who Is Elon Musk?

Entrepreneur Elon Musk has achieved global fame as the chief executive (CEO) of electric autos maker Tesla Inc. (TSLA) and CEO of the private space company SpaceX. Musk co-founded PayPal (PYPL), was an early investor in several tech companies, and in April 2022 he began negotiations for a deal to take Twitter Inc. (TWTR) private.

Let’s look briefly at the life of the man who has scaled the pinnacle of the business world.

Key Takeaways

Investopedia / Bailey Mariner

Early Life and Education

Elon Reeve Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, the oldest of three children. His father was a South African engineer, his mother a Canadian model and nutritionist. After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived primarily with his father. He would later dub his father «a terrible human being… almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done.»

“I had a terrible upbringing. I had a lot of adversity growing up. One thing I worry about with my kids is they don’t face enough adversity,” Musk would later say.

Bullied as a Child

Musk attended the private, English-speaking Waterkloof House Preparatory School—he started a year early—and later graduated from Pretoria Boys High School. A self-described bookworm, he made few friends in those places.

“They got my best (expletive) friend to lure me out of hiding so they could beat me up. And that (expletive) hurt,” Musk said. “For some reason, they decided that I was it, and they were going to go after me nonstop. That’s what made growing up difficult. For a number of years, there was no respite. You get chased around by gangs at school who tried to beat the (expletive) out of me, and then I’d come home, and it would just be awful there as well.”

Early Accomplishments

In one telling incident from his childhood, Musk and his brother, planned to open a video game arcade near their school. Their parents nixed the plan.

Musk’s College Years

At 17, Musk moved to Canada. He would later obtain Canadian citizenship through his mother.

After emigrating to Canada, Musk enrolled in Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. It was there that he met Justine Wilson, an aspiring writer. They would marry and have five sons together, twins and triplets, before divorcing in 2008.

Entering the U.S.

After two years at Queen’s University, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. He took on two majors, but his time there wasn’t all work and no play. With a fellow student, he bought a 10-bedroom fraternity house, which they used as an ad hoc nightclub.

Musk graduated with a bachelor of science degree in physics, in addition to a bachelor of arts in economics from the Wharton School. The two majors foreshadowed Musk’s career, but it was physics that left the deepest impression.

“(Physics is) a good framework for thinking,” he would say later. “Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.”

Notable Accomplishments

Musk was 24 years old when he moved to California to pursue a Ph.D. in applied physics at Stanford University. But, with the Internet exploding and Silicon Valley booming, Musk had entrepreneurial visions dancing in his head. He left the Ph.D. program after just two days.

In 2017, Musk purchased the X.com domain name back from PayPal, citing its sentimental value.

Tesla

In addition to producing electric vehicles, Tesla maintains a robust presence in the solar energy space, thanks to its acquisition of SolarCity. The company currently produces two rechargeable solar batteries. The smaller Powerwall was developed for home backup power and off-the-grid use, while the larger Powerpack is intended for commercial or electric utility grid use.

SpaceX

Under Musk’s leadership, SpaceX landed several high-profile contracts with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Air Force to design space launch rockets. Musk has publicized plans to send an astronaut to Mars by 2025 in a collaborative effort with NASA.

Twitter

Personal Eccentricities

On Sept. 7, 2018, Musk smoked cannabis during a filmed interview for a podcast.

In March 2022 Musk filed a court motion to overturn the consent decree stemming from that case. In April 2022 during a live TED Talk, Musk called the SEC regulators on the case «bastards.»

During his May 8, 2021, appearance on the TV show Saturday Night Live, Musk revealed that he has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. «I’m actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL. Or at least the first person to admit it,» he said. How does neurodevelopment condition manifest itself? «I don’t always have a lot of intonation or variation in how I speak, which I’m told makes for great comedy,» Musk explained.

Is Elon Musk Married?

Elon Musk has been divorced three times—twice from his second wife, Talulah Riley. From 2018 to 2022, he had been in a relationship with the Canadian singer/songwriter Claire Elise Boucher, professionally known as Grimes, with whom he has a son in 2020 and a daughter in 2022. They remain best friends. He also has five sons from his first marriage to Justine Musk.

How Rich Is Elon Musk?

Was Elon Musk Born Rich?

What Does Elon Musk Do at Tesla?

Elon Musk is officially listed as the co-founder and CEO of Tesla on the company’s website. In a 2021 securities filing, the company disclosed an additional Musk title as «Technoking of Tesla.»

What Companies Does Elon Musk Own?

Elon Musk is a large stakeholder in several companies including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and Twitter.

The Bottom Line

Musk’s early interests in philosophy, science fiction, and fantasy novels are reflected in his idealism and concern with human progress—and in his business career. He works in fields he has identified as crucial to humanity’s future, notably the transition to renewable energy sources, space exploration, and the Internet. Musk has defied critics, disrupted industries, and made the most money anyone ever has from PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX—game-changers all, despite the inevitable missteps.

Elon Musk: The Story of a Maverick

At times, Elon Musk may appear controversial. He may spike long-lasting discussions on social media right after one of his multiple Tweets. The truth is, Elon Musk is one-of-a-kind. You can like him or not, agree with him or not. The truth is, Elon Musk is a maverick.

Elon Reeve Musk founded his first company in 1995 when he was only 23 years old. Then he sold it for $307 million dollars when he was 28. He received $22 million dollars from the sale and became a millionaire.

Rather than sitting back, relaxing, and enjoying life, Elon Musk savored his accomplishment and used the experience as the first brick that would build the Musk empire.

«If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.»- Elon Musk

Quickly, a series of multiple companies emerged. From electric cars to solar energy, from underground tunnels on Earth to reusable space rockets and space tourism, from Artificial Intelligence and neural networks to a school for the Generation Alpha.

Elon Musk is not only changing this world as we know it with his vision into the future but he is about to create no less than a new world on Mars. Elon Musk will establish the first colony on the Red Planet, thus, making Earthlings a multi-planetary species.

Elon Musk: A maverick

Since a young age, Elon Musk’s personality has been shaped by curiosity, determination, strong will, perseverance, vision into the future, critical thinking, and a strong desire to disrupt as many industries as he possibly can.

An avid reader since his childhood, Musk’s reading included Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. He was severely bullied during his childhood to the point of being hospitalized after a group of boys threw him down a flight of stairs.

Raised in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk briefly attended the University of Pretoria before moving to Canada at the age of 17. In Canada, he attended Queen’s University and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania two years later. 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.

Elon Musk was accepted to a Ph.D. program in Energy Physics/Materials Science at Stanford University in California in 1995. However, he decided to launch his first company instead: Zip2 Corporation.

Musk had already held two internships in Silicon Valley in 1994, one at Pinnacle Research Institute, an energy storage start-up researching electrolytic capacitors for energy storage, and the second internship was at the Palo Alto-based start-up Rocket Science Games.

Elon Musk believes the world needs something different, and he has what it takes to provide the answers and materialize his ideas. Without a doubt, his hard work and strong will are going to take him to a place no human has gone before, his ultimate goal: Mars colonization.

Elon Musk has transformed several industries. As a serial entrepreneur, he has founded and co-founded several companies that are changing the world. Musk is the founder, CEO, CTO, and chief designer of SpaceX, early investor 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. Elon Musk has the longest-tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally.

His vision and the way he thinks about education are already changing the future of the younger Generation Alpha, the generation that one day will populate Mars. Each and every one of Elon Musk’s companies and initiatives have the same goal: To change the world. He is a successful technology entrepreneur, an inventor, innovator, explorer, an industrial designer, a philanthropist, and an engineer.

Reasons for Elon Musk’s success include his strong personality, unbreakable perseverance, curiosity, critical thinking, analysis, and risk-taking. He mixes everything with a high dose of hard work without which everything else would be futile.

Elon Musk is an engineer with a fascination for physics. His insatiable appetite for constantly and consistently reading and learning new things has helped him start and develop some of the world’s most ingenious and exciting enterprises.

With no formal training in aeronautical engineering, Elon Musk has been able to create and lead his rocket science team at SpaceX. He took his aerospace company to the level of NASA and international space associations. His SpaceX company has even partnered with NASA. Elon Musk has accomplished what no space association or government has accomplished before.

Here we look at what Elon Musk has accomplished in each and every one of his companies.

Elon Musk’s first company: Zip2

Elon Musk, together with his brother Kimbal, founded Zip2 in 1995. Zip2 was a Web software company developed to create an Internet city guide complete with maps, directions, and yellow pages for the newspaper publishing industry. At the time, this was an innovative idea which happened almost a decade before Google Maps was created.

PayPal and X.com

PayPal Headquarters in Silicon Valley, Source: Andrei Stanescu, iStock

Elon Musk was the largest shareholder of the company with 11.7 percent of PayPal’s shares. PayPal revolutionized e-Commerce and changed the way financial transactions work.

Elon Musk purchased the domain X.com from PayPal in July 2017. He said it had sentimental value for him, and the amount was not disclosed. The first name of his son with Grimes is X. Coincidence? Or perfect synchronization?

Tesla Inc.: Fighting climate change

Tesla Model S electric semi-autonomous car at Tesla Amsterdam showroom in The Netherlands, Source: Susan Fourtané

Only an extraordinary risk taker can envision and achieve as much as Elon Musk in the course of his life. Elon Musk co-founded Tesla in 2003, he was an early investor of Tesla.

Tesla Inc. is dedicated to producing affordable, mass-market electric cars as well as battery products, and solar roofs.

Elon Musk personally oversees all product development, engineering, and design of all the company’s products.

In February 2004, Musk led the Series A round of investment and joined Tesla’s board of directors as its chairman. He assumed leadership of the company as CEO, and product architect at Tesla Inc. in 2008.

His active role within the company let him oversee Roadster product design at a detailed level. His plan was to build sport cars, use the money from sales to build an affordable car, use the money to build an even more affordable car, and at the same time also provide zero-carbon emission electric power generation options.

Following the plan, in 2008, Tesla built the Tesla Roadster. The company sold about 2.500 vehicles to 31 countries. This was the first serial production of all-electric cars to use lithium-ion battery cells. The sports car was capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds travelling nearly 250 miles between charges.

Tesla sold electric powertrain systems to Daimler for the Smart EV, Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive and Mercedes A Class, and also to Toyota for the RAV4 EV.

The four-door Model S, the company’s first electric sedan capable of covering 265 miles between charges, was delivered on June 22, 2012. The Model S was honored as the 2013 Car of the Year by Motor Trend magazine .

On February 9, 2012, Tesla unveiled its Model X, which was aimed at the SUV/minivan market. But the launch of the Model X was delayed until September 2015.

2016 was a busy year for Musk and Tesla. As of January 29, 2016, Elon Musk owned around 28.9 million Tesla shares, meaning he owned about 22 percent of the company by then.

Also at the beginning of 2016, Elon Musk acquired Tesla.com domain name. The domain had been owned by Stu Grossman since 1992. Tesla’s homepage was changed to that domain.

Also in July 2016, Elon Musk announced his plan to create solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage. He wanted to expand the vehicle product line to address major segments including small SUV and pickup trucks, and develop a self-driving capability 10 times safer than manual via massive fleet learning.

In July 2016, too, Tesla ended the partnership with Mobileye, and began developing their autopilot hardware and software in-house.

In April 2017, Tesla Inc. became the most valuable American car manufacturer after announcing that it had surpassed General Motors in sales. The news ramped up production.

A great accomplishment for Tesla Energy was when in September 2017 Elon Musk signed a contract with the government of South Australia to install what at the time became the world’s largest lithium-ion battery pack to help alleviate the state’s energy blackouts.

The battery exceeded expectations in terms of both performance and return of investment (ROI). The installation was successfully completed in 100 days within the set schedule; otherwise, according to the arrangement, the installation would have been free.

In the beginning, Tesla aimed to produce 5,000 new Model 3 cars per week by December 2017. However, Elon Musk pushed that goal back to March 2018. Finally, a new date was set to June 2019.

Tesla’s delay was due to some production problems that the company was experiencing. Some industry experts questioned how long investors would remain patient with the process.

Those who know Elon Musk’s modus operandi and infinite capacity to come up with last-minute solutions trusted that this was just a small stone on the road.

“You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that’s wrong with it and fix it.”- Elon Musk

The news announced that Tesla was expected to fall short of first-quarter production forecasts.

It was also known that Elon Musk had pushed aside the head of engineering and had decided to personally oversee efforts in that division. Just as he had done many times before when his companies experience times of trouble. He was back to sleeping at the factory.

In June, Elon Musk announced that Tesla was laying-off nine percent of its workforce. However, the production department would remain intact.

In an email to employees, Elon Musk explained his decision to eliminate some duplication of roles as an understandable way to cut costs. He admitted it was time to take serious steps toward turning a profit.

After the restructuring, Tesla announced that the company had met its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 cars per week by the end of June and another 2,000 Model S sedans and Model X SUVs.

As of 2019, Elon Musk has been the longest tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer in the world.

Tesla charger, free to use for life by all Tesla car owners, at Tesla Amsterdam Showroom in The Netherlands, Source: Susan Fourtané

Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory, or Gigafactory 1

In 2014, Tesla announced that Nevada had been officially selected to build the first Tesla battery Gigafactory. The first phase of the diamond-shaped solar powered Gigafactory 1, a lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle sub-assembly factory was officially opened near Reno, Nevada on July 29, 2016. This was a Tesla-Panasonic partnership.

The Gigafactory 1 houses approximately 5.3 million square feet of operational space across several floors. Elon Musk envisioned the Gigafactory to be the biggest building in the world. It is entirely powered by renewable energy sources and designed to be a net zero energy factory. The facility is primarily powered by solar energy.

Tesla’s Buffalo, New York Gigafactory, or Gigafactory 2

In 2017, Tesla began production of solar cells and modules at Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York – a 1.2 million square-foot facility. In 2019, Tesla added new production lines in order to support electrical components for Supercharger and energy storage products. Tesla created nearly 800 jobs at Gigafactory 2. The company continues to ramp operations and production at the facility.

The 88-acre property located along the Buffalo River was originally a steel manufacturing site. It was transformed to produce solar panels and solar cells. Tesla secured Gigafactory 2 through its acquisition of SolarCity in 2016.

In line with agreements with the State of New York, Tesla will create 5,000 clean energy jobs in the state over the course of 10 years, many of those in Buffalo, making the city a hub for sustainable innovation and advanced manufacturing.

Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, or Gigafactory 3

The Shanghai Gigafactory is Tesla’s first large-scale factory outside The United States. In January 2019, Tesla CEO attended the incredible ceremony of the Shanghai Gigafactory. During the ceremony, Musk revealed new possibilities and strategies for the future of Tesla’s first Chinese manufacturing plant.

The construction of the factory took place in the Lingang Industrial Zone of Shanghai. According to the Chinese government, this has been the most massive foreign investment Shanghai has seen in the field of manufacturing.

Elon Musk’s aim was to build affordable cars for the city. However, Tesla planned to continue manufacturing pricier versions for global markets. “Shanghai Giga output is just for greater China, not North America. Affordable cars must be made on the same continent as customers,” he said.

The production of the first cars at the Shanghai Gigafactory was achieved in under one year since the initial ground-breaking.

During his visit to China in January 2019, Elon Musk met the Chinese premier Li Keqiang. As Musk expressed his profound admiration for China and his wishes to visit China on a regular basis, the Chinese premier said «We can issue you a Chinese green card if that helps.»

Tesla’s Berlin-Brandenburg Gigafactory, or Gigafactory 4

Berlin was the city chosen for the first European Gigafactory. Tesla has an assembly facility for the Model S and Model X in The Netherlands. The construction of the Gigafactory 4 began in 2020. Tesla Model Y production was set to begin in Berlin, Germany by 2021. Brexit prevented Tesla from building this Gigafactory in The United Kingdom. Elon Musk found that «Brexit made it too risky to put a Gigafactory in The U.K.

Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory, or Gigafactory 5

Austin, Texas, and Tulsa were the two main contenders for the new Gigafactory in The United States. Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck is going to be built in this factory as well as being a second site to build the Model Y small SUV, and Model 3, with the first vehicles coming out by the end of 2020.

Immediately after the opening, the manufacturing of the Cybertruck begins production.

Cybertruck

All-electric Tesla Cybertruck/Source: Tesla

The Tesla Cybertruck is an all-electric, battery-powered, light commercial vehicle launched by Tesla, Inc.

In November 2019, Elon Musk claimed that 200,000 people had placed a deposit for the Tesla’s Cybertruck, that was less than a week after the futuristic vehicle was revealed.

After revealing the Cybertruck, Musk said that the Cybertruck, which comes in three powertrain versions: with one, two, or three electric motors, would be the «last product unveiled for a while, but there will be some unexpected technology announcements next year.»

In 2021, Tesla first is releasing the single-motor RWD version. The dual-motor all-wheel and the tri-motor versions will be released a year later, in late 2022.

Elon Musk, renewable energy, and SolarCity

Solar power plant in modern sustainable Solar City, Source: kynny/iStock

In 2012, Elon Musk made an announcement saying that SolarCity and Tesla Inc. would collaborate. The goal was to use electric vehicle batteries to smooth the impact of rooftop solar panels on the power grid. The program went live in 2013. By then, SolarCity was a top company in The United States.

In 2014, SolarCity advanced production facility began to be built in Buffalo, New York, in coordination with the SUNY Polytechnic Institute after acquiring Silevo, a maker of high-efficiency solar modules. Elon Musk said that this facility would triple the size of the largest solar plant existing in The United States. He went on saying that it would be «one of the single largest solar panel production plants in the world.»

In August 2016, Elon Musk closed a $2.6 billion dollar deal that solidified the combination of his Tesla electric car company and the solar energy company. By November 2016, Tesla Inc. acquired SolarCity; in December, SolarCity started hiring for the facility.

According to a statement on Tesla’s Website, solar and storage are at their best when they are combined. By merging Tesla (storage) and SolarCity (solar) the company created fully integrated residential, commercial, and grid-scale products that improve the way that energy is generated, stored, and consumed. The motivation behind creating both Tesla and SolarCity has been Elon Musk’s desire to help fight global warming through renewable energy.

The Buffalo facility employed about 800 workers by the end of 2018. However, the state of New York required SolarCity to employ a minimum of 1,450 workers at the facility by the end of April 2020, or face a $41.2 million penalty. In February 2020, SolarCity reported having over 1,500 workers in the facility.

SolarCity is one of the founding members of The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC), a rooftop photovoltaic power station solar trade organization.

Elon Musk and SpaceX: There is no limit in the sky

SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) Headquarters; Falcon 9 rocket displayed in the front of the building, Source: Andrei Stanescu/iStock

Elon Musk is the founder, lead designer, CTO, and CEO of SpaceX. Repeatedly, Musk has said the goals of SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity are based on his vision to change the world and help humanity.

Those goals include fighting global warming by generating and using sustainable energy, and lessening the risk of human extinction by establishing a human colony on Mars, thus, making humanity multiplanetary.

In May 2002, Elon Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX as the company was traded, in Hawthorne, California. His goal was to make rockets for space travel more affordable, with the ultimate goal of creating a colony on Mars.

In 2012, the Dragon spacecraft became the world’s first commercial spacecraft with a mission to shuttle cargo between the International Space Station (ISS) and planet Earth.

One of Elon Musk’s greatest ambitions was to use the Dragon capsule to send humans to space. After succeeding in this, his goal is to send humans to Mars to colonize the Red Planet.

In April 2016, Musk historically launched and re-landed a Falcon 9 rocket.

In 2017, SpaceX unveiled the design of the company’s next-generation launch vehicle and spacecraft system: The Big Falcon Rocket (BFR). The BFR would support all SpaceX launch service provider capabilities with a single set of very large vehicles, including Earth-orbit, Lunar-orbit, interplanetary missions, and intercontinental passenger transport on Earth, with most long-distance journeys anywhere on Earth in under one hour.

In March 2018, at the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Elon Musk announced that he hoped to have the BFR ready for short flights in early 2019. In April 2018, the company announced that SpaceX would construct a facility at the Port of Los Angeles.

The facility is going to be used to build and house the BFR. The port property presented an ideal location for SpaceX due to the size of the rocket. The spacecraft will only be movable by a large barge or ship when completed.

In 2020, SpaceX is talking to government officials about building a major manufacturing facility in the Port of Los Angeles. The new rocket factory would build SpaceX’s massive, next-generation rocket called Starship.

SpaceX plans on flying a Japanese billionaire around the Moon in 2023.

Elon Musk and The Boring Company: Underground tunnels to reduce traffic congestion born from being stuck in traffic

Underground tunnel potentially reduce traffi, Source: Magu Directors/iStock

The Boring Company had a test dig in February 2017 on the SpaceX property in Los Angeles since such construction requires no permits.

By the end of 2018, The Boring Company (TBC) had approved plans for construction of operational tunnels in Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Chicago.

Musk initially tweeted that his digging and tunnel company The Boring Company would not just transport cars from one end of town to another. The cars would travel into residential areas as well, «all the way into your garage,» Musk said.

In February 2020, The Boring Company released images of a working Prufrock, a tunnel boring machine (TBM).

Neuralink and Artificial Intelligence (AI): Downloading directly to your brain

Neuralink Corporation is a neurotechnology company founded in 2016 by Elon Musk and others. The firm was first publicly reported in 2017. Neuralink, headquartered in San Francisco, develops implantable brain-machine interfaces (BMIs).

Neuralink has been working on a sewing-machine-like device capable of implanting very thin threads of 4 to 6 μm in width into the brain.

At the time of the launch in July 2019, Neuralink announced that the company would start experiments with humans in 2020.

Elon Musk’s experimental schools for his children and other children: Ad Astra School and Astra Nova School

Image taken from page 274 of ‘Finland in the Nineteenth Century» by Finnish authors. Illustrated by Finnish artists in 1894, Source: Flickr/British Library

Ad Astra School

In Latin, Ad Astra means to the stars. In 2014, Elon Musk’s non-profit, private, experimental Ad Astra School opened quietly on the SpaceX campus in California. Musk opened the private Ad Astra School shortly after he pulled his five sons from Los Angeles’ Mirman School, a K-8 school for gifted children. Musk thought the school was not teaching the skills he believes children will need in their future.

Elon Musk hired former Mirman’s teacher, Joshua Dahn, (video) to run Ad Astra. Dahn was one of his sons’ teachers. Dahn’s own thinking on how education today should be was in line with that of Musk’s.

According to an unreported document filed with The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Musk founded Ad Astra to «exceed traditional school metrics on all relevant subject matter through unique project-based learning experiences.»

In the school’s first year, the five Musk children (twins born in 2004 and triplets born in 2006) made up the student body together with a few children of SpaceX employees.

By 2018, the Ad Astra School was made up of over 30 children aged 7 to 14. The curriculum was heavy on science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), ethics and roboethics, problem solving, and critical thinking.

At Ad Astra, students discussed the ethical and political implications of Artificial Intelligence. They also worked with and built technologies such as robots and weather balloons.

Spots were limited to the children of SpaceX employees, and they were by invitation only. The admission process was kept secret. The unconventional, future-oriented school differed from traditional schools in many ways; one of them was that there were no grades. Students discuss the ethical and political implications of artificial intelligence. They also work with and build technologies such as robots and weather balloons.

Ad Astra School was free for all the selected children, with Elon Musk picking up the whole tab which included whiteboard walls, a MacBook laptop for every student, and food trucks for after-school sessions, and of course tuition,

Astra Nova School

While Ad Astra School started as an in-person private school in SpaceX’s premises for Elon Musk’s children and children from SpaceX’s employees, Astra Nova School is based on online learning, classes take place on Thursdays only, and the virtual school is open to global students.

The virtual institution’s principal is Joshua Dahn. The application for admission to the 2020-2021 online classes includes a short video response to a critical-thinking problem titled The Lake Conundrum (video). The situation deals with manufacturing, pollution, and corruption.

Astra Nova School was incorporated as a traditional for-profit business filed with the California Secretary of State’s office. Principal Joshua Dahn, who is also co-founder of Astra Nova School, has said that Elon Musk, who helped with the initial funding, is no longer involved.

Elon Musk and Mars colonization: Making humanity multiplanetary by 2040

Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster and Starman wearing a SpaceX suit, Source: Wikimedia Commons/image donated by SpaceX

Due to the lack of oxygen in Mars’ atmosphere, all transportation would have to be electric including electric aircraft, electric cars, electric trains, Hyperloop.

In June 2016, Elon Musk said that the first uncrewed flight of the larger Interplanetary Starship was planned for departure to Mars in 2022. The first crewed ITS Mars flight would follow in 2024.

Elon Musk started the SpaceX Mars Program in order to develop and facilitate the colonization of Mars. The central piece of the program is the SpaceX Starship, a fully reusable space vehicle under development since 2018.

The tentative timeline from November 2016 onwards included three missions to Mars prior to the first possible flight to Mars in 2022 was as follows:

2018: Initial SpaceX Mars mission

2020: Second preparatory mission

2022: Third uncrewed preparatory mission

2024: First crewed flight to Mars with about a dozen humans, according to Elon Musk’s optimistic planning

In June 2020, Elon Musk shared a photo of SpaceX’s Starship rocket tanks, which are the tanks that will assist in sending the Starship rocket to the Moon.

As of August 2020, none of the planned Mars missions have started yet. One of the rockets that could be used for a Mars mission will be first used and tested for a Moon mission. According to Musk, this might happen in 2021 when NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 is scheduled to launch in 2021 with four astronauts for the mission.

Elon Musk: Family, relationships, and children

Elon Reeve Musk was born to a Canadian mother and a South African father on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. Elon holds citizenship from South Africa, Canada (1989), and The United States (2002).

His mother, Maye Musk, is a Canadian actress, model, and dietician. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African engineer. His parents divorced when he was 10 years old.

Elon has a younger brother, Kimbal Musk, born in 1972. Kimbal is an entrepreneur, restaurateur, chef, venture capitalist, and environmentalist. He owns The Kitchen Restaurant Group, a family of community restaurant concepts.

A younger sister born in 1974, Tosca Musk, is a filmmaker and founder of Musk Entertainment. She has produced and directed several movies, and is CEO and co-founder of the OTT streaming platform Passionflix, focusing on bringing best-selling romance novels to the screen.

Elon Musk first married Canadian author Justine Wilson in 2000. They were both students at Ontario’s Queen’s University. They separated in 2008.

With ex-wife Justine Wilson, Elon Musk has five sons: Twins Griffin and Xavier born in 2004, and triplets Damian, Kai, and Saxon born in 2006. Their five sons were conceived through in-vitro fertilization. Musk and Wilson share custody of all their five sons. Elon Musk and Justine Wilson’s first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in 2002, when he was only 10 weeks old.

In 2008, Elon Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley. They married in 2010, split in 2012, and married each other again in 2013. They finally got divorced in late 2016.

In 2017, Elon Musk got involved with American actress Amber Heard in an on-off relationship. They split-up after one year.

Elon Musk began dating Canadian musician, singer, composer, and visual artist Claire Elise Boucher (born on March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes. The couple revealed they were dating in May 2018, at the annual Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

On January 8, 2020, Grimes announced she was pregnant and gave birth to their son on May 4, 2020. Musk and Grimes initially named their son X Æ A-12 (pronounced / ˈɛks.æʃˌeɪ.twɛlv/ EKS-ash-AY-twelv or / ˈɛks.æʃˌaɪ/ EKS-ash-EYE ). Since then, a series of changes followed to comply with some imposed societal rules about how they should name their own child.

The name was deemed illegal under California law, because it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet. The couple then changed it to X Æ A-XII.

Æ (æ) is not a letter in the modern English alphabet (minuscule: æ) It is a character formed from the letters a and e. It was originally a ligature representing the Latin diphthong ae before having been promoted to the full status of a letter in languages including Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. It was also used in Old Swedish before being changed to ä.

So, the child was eventually named X AE A-XII Musk, with X as a first name and AE A-XII as a middle name. Perhaps, Musk also envisions a future where children are all given names which they can later on decide if they want to keep, or change it to something else they choose, following a right to individual and personal choice.

Æ (minuscule: æ) is a character formed from the letters a and e, originally a ligature representing the Latin diphthong ae. It has been promoted to the full status of a letter in some languages, including Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. It was also used in Old Swedish before being changed to ä.

Elon Musk’s Non-profit: The Elon Musk Foundation

In 2010, The Musk Foundation in collaboration with SolarCity donated a 25 kW solar power system to the South Bay Community Alliance’s hurricane response center in Coden, Alabama.

In 2020, Elon Musk donated ventilators built by Tesla to third-world countries in need to help those suffering during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Elon Musk Biography: Success Story of The 21st Century Innovator

In this success story, we are going to share Elon Musk biography, the CEO and CTO of SpaceX CEO, chief product architect of Tesla Motors, chairman of SolarCity, and co-founder of PayPal. Musk is also involved in developing a high-speed transportation system known as Hyperloop. Elon Musk invests in the projects that can change our world. He is not only an entrepreneur but also an inventor, innovator, and engineer: Musk personally participates in designing electric cars and spaceships.

He plays by some different rules and does that quite successfully. The distinctive personality traits of Elon Musk are perseverance, critical thinking, accurate self-analysis, and hard work (he works 80-100 hours per week).

Early Life

Elon Musk Childhood

Biographies of famous people usually contain key episodes, which then lead them to an overwhelming success. In Elon Musk biography, there were, at least, two of such episodes. The first one was the decision that Musk made when he was only 17. After graduating from a secondary school in Pretoria, he decided to leave his home, and, without the support of his parents, to immigrate to the United States. However, he did not get into the United States right away.

In 1989, Elon Musk moved to Canada to the relatives of his mother. Having obtained Canadian citizenship, Elon went to Montreal. At first, he worked in low paid jobs, and almost a year was teetering on the brink of poverty. At the age of 19, he entered Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. In 2000, he met his future wife Justine Musk, who later gave birth to his five sons: Damian, Griffin, Xavier, Saxon, and Kai. However, he broke up with Justine after eight years and in 2010, got married a second time on a British actress by the name of Talulah Riley, with whom he has lived for 4 years and got divorced in 2014.

Elon Musk had been studying in Ontario for two years, and then, finally, his dream came true – in 1992, he relocated to the United States. He was able to move to the US after receiving a scholarship from The University of Pennsylvania: Penn. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics Bachelor the next year, but decided to continue his studying at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for one more year and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics as well.

Elon Musk graduates from The University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in physics and from The Wharton School with a B.S. in economics.

When Elon Musk started to struggle with adolescent depression, he began to absorb philosophical and religious literature actively. Yet the most valuable lessons, he eventually learned from Douglas Adams’ book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Elon Musk learned that the most difficult thing was to be able to come up with the right questions, and when he began to do that, the rest was obtained very simply. An episode that guided him to this conclusion was in which a giant supercomputer after several million years of thinking on the main purpose of life responded with a meaningless number 42.

Musk figured out that humanity had to expand the limits of its consciousness to learn to ask the right questions; and he had found his question: what things would have a significant impact on the future of humanity’s destiny? Elon Musk decided that those would be the internet, the transition to renewable energy sources, and space colonization. He wanted to try to contribute to all three of them. To do that, he needed funds.

Zip2 and PayPal

Kimbal Musk, the brother of Elon Musk, with whom he created Zip2.

In the summer of 1995, Elon Musk made the second and the most crucial decision in his life. Having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, he enrolled in the graduate school at Stanford University to pursue studies in the field of applied physics and materials science. However, after 2 days, he left graduate school and together with his brother, Kimbal Musk, he created his first IT company Zip2. He worked from early morning until late evening. He lived in the same warehouse where he rent the office, and when he needed to take a shower, he had to go to locker rooms of a local stadium. In return, he accumulated savings and kept the company afloat during the most difficult first two years.

At that moment, the Internet was experiencing a period of rapid growth and development; however, nobody had ever earned a considerable fortune on it. Musk’s company was one of the first ones to do this: he created a platform where newspapers – including credible ones as the New York Times – could offer their customers some additional commercial services.

Max Levchin, Co-founder and former CTO of PayPal

In 1999, Musk started to work on electronic payment systems that were gaining popularity. The X.com startup became his new business. In March 2000, X.com merged with a rival company Confinity that was running by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. Confinity developed software to allow owners of PalmPilots and other PDAs to store encrypted information on their devices, creating the first digital wallet. In 2001, after the merger, X.com was renamed to PayPal, and Elon Musk became the chairman and chief executive of PayPal.

Peter Thiel (left) and Elon Musk (right).

Tesla Motors

In 2003, engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning founded Tesla Motors. From the very beginning, the company positioned itself as the first serial manufacturer of electric vehicles and its founders dreamed of freeing the customers from oil burden. Musk significantly supported such aspirations.

Marc Tarpenning (left) and Martin Eberhard (right).

Tesla Roadster, 2008.

During this crisis, Elon showed his incredible critical management skill: he fired everyone who stalled the project’s development, including Eberhard and a few other key players. After the cleanup, he headed the company by himself. Eberhard appealed to the court after being replaced by an interim CEO, Michael Marks, but the problem has been solved peacefully and so effectively that no details of the conflict were leaked to the public. In December 2007, Ze’ev Drori was assigned as the CEO and President of Tesla Motors. Elon Musk was much better CEO and succeeded Ze’ev Drori. Drori became Vice Chairman and left the company in December 2008.

The expression “electric vehicle” often evokes associations with something slow and clumsy, but in the case of Tesla Motors, it is not really so. Tesla’s electric vehicles are fast and similar in appearance to luxury sports cars. However, there are also plans to create more simple and affordable models. Tesla Motors’ engineers cooperate with Daimler and Toyota.

So-called “hybrid” cars of these companies, equipped as with an electric motor and an internal combustion engine, use Tesla Motors’ technology. In 2007, the Vice Chairman of General Motors, Bob Lutz called Tesla the main reason for the decision to begin development of the electric car Chevy Volt. “If some Silicon Valley startup can solve this equation, no one is going to tell me anymore that it’s unfeasible,” Lutz said.

CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk poses during a television interview after his company’s initial public offering at the NASDAQ market in New York. (© Reuters)

Model S

At the presentation of Model S, Musk categorically stated that in twenty years, more than half of produced vehicles would be electric ones. He was even ready to bet on that as well as many others. Yet even the most optimistic analysts’ estimates state that Musk’s forecast cannot be realized. However, that does not scare Tesla’s CEO: by embellishing reality, he changes it.

Elon Musk believes that the world has become dependent on oil. This dependence leads to climate change and permanent geopolitical tensions. A refusal of internal combustion engines in favor of electric motors can make a difference. Therefore, Tesla Motors is not a small business for Musk.

Musk continued to keep publicity interested in the company by starting a media argument with The New York Times columnist John M. Broder about one of the test drives of the Model S. It is worth mentioning that these publicity stunts gave their results and during the first half of 2013, there were 10,500 Model S sold.

There is an upcoming cross-over Tesla Model X, which is planned to be delivered for new reservations in the latter half of 2016. On September 29, 2015, the first six deliveries of the Tesla X model started at a market launch event in the Fremont factory. The Tesla Motors team has designed the Model X P90D and 90D. Model X P90D has 259 hp front, 503 hp rear motor power and a 0-60 mph (0-97 kmh) run of 3.2 seconds with Ludicrous Speed Upgrade. Additionally, Tesla X has a panoramic windshield, ample seating for seven adults and all of their gear. The car equipped with the first true HEPA filter with “Bioweapon Defense Mode” button in a vehicle. Musk stated that when the HEPA filter operates at maximum performance, no pollen, bacteria or viruses could be detected in the cabin. Model X equipped with Falcon Wing doors that are automatically adjusted to the optimal opening arc.

Model 3

Elon Musk is planning to cover the US, Europe, and Asia with the network of Supercharger stations. As of April 04, 2016, there are 613 Supercharger stations with 3,628 Superchargers in the world.

Semi Truck

In November 2017, Musk unveiled the new Tesla Semi Truck and Roadster. Tesla Motors started producing Semi Truck in 2019. The truck can drive 500 miles (804km), and its battery capacity designed to last 1 million miles (1,60 million km).

Roadster and Model Y

In March 2019, Musk revealed to the world the long-awaited Tesla Model Y. The compact crossover will be available in four powertrains, such as Standard Range, Long Range or Long Range with Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive, and Performance. It is expected to be released in 2020. The Tesla Model Y’s range is at approximately 300 miles (482 km) can do a 0-60 mph (0-97 kmh) run for 3.5 seconds. The Roadster is planned to be available in 2020 with a 0-60 mph (0-97 kmh) time of 1.9 seconds.

Powerwall

For more demanding consumers of energy, Tesla Motors provides a solution, called Powerpack. It can be used in offices, industrial facilities, and utilities. In this case, it is possible to store much more energy. Moreover, 100 kWh batteries can be combined into arrays from 500 kWh to 10 MWh. According to Elon Musk, 160 million Powerpack units would be enough to provide energy to all consumers in the United States; and 2 billion of Powerpack units would be sufficient for the whole world.

Powerwall. Multiple batteries can be installed together.

SolarCity

SolarCity provides solar power systems for homes, businesses, and governments. The company offers several programs for homeowners: “MyPower” loan program, solar lease, and solar power purchase agreement (PPA).

In May 2008, the company built solar-powered electric systems for British Motors and eBay to power their headquarters and servers.

SolarCity Panels at eBay’s Headquarter

SolarCity’s concepts are cost-efficient, environmentally friendly, and entirely coincides with Elon Musk’s principles. The company, in particular, provides solar energy systems for Supercharger stations of Tesla Motors.

Analysts consider his assurance in the company’s prospects to be the primary reason for the phenomenal success. If the creator of SpaceX and Tesla Motors bets on that technology, then it means that there is genuinely something to it. The Wall Street society even came up with a term for this phenomenon and called it The Musk Effect.

SpaceX

Elon Musk started thinking of creating a space exploration technologies corporation (SpaceX) at the turn of the century. He was inspired by an ambitious idea of reducing space transportation costs to enable people to colonize Mars. SpaceX was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Hawthorne, California, USA.

Elon Musk was fascinated by the opportunity of colonizing Mars and created Mars Oasis. The goal of the project was to create automated greenhouses, which, in the future, could have become a basis for a self-sustaining ecosystem. The main problem was the enormous delivery cost of greenhouses to Mars. Musk even tried to order launch vehicles from the Russian Federation and discussed that with Russian officials, but he decided not to make a deal with them. Later Musk came up with an idea to design his own reusable launch vehicles and spaceships.

SpaceX Logo (© SpaceX)

SpaceX started working on the Falcon 1 launch system yet in 2002. It has taken 4 years and hundreds of millions of private investments to design it. In the period of 2006 through 2015 such companies as DARPA, NASA, ORS, Celestis, ATSB, SpaceDev, Orbcomm, NSPO, Astrium got interested in SpaceX and ran several test launches of Falcon 1 rocket.

The Falcon 1 rocket during its fourth successful launch.

As of October 2012, SpaceX developed several types of rocket engines: Kestrel, Merlin 1, Draco and Super Draco without any support from the government. The last one was developed for the use in the Falcon family of launch vehicles, which are Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy, and for the use in the Dragon spacecraft.

However, Elon Musk does not want to rush with IPO this time. According to Elon Musk, all the achievements of SpaceX is a background for his biggest dream – an expedition to Mars. SpaceX is in designing process of Mars Colonial Transporter. Also, Musk’s engineers work on innovative rocket engines (Grasshopper and the Falcon 9 rockets) and Red Dragon spacecraft that using Falcon Heavy rockets (modified version of Dragon capsule) to transport people from Earth to Mars. He once said, “I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact.”

Falcon Heavy rocket flight animation:

Grasshopper and Falcon 9 are experimental launch vehicles that are able to make vertical landings and vertical takeoffs. On January 10, 2015, the first attempt to land the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Earth after the launch failed – it landed too roughly. Nevertheless, the SpaceX team managed to make a difficult maneuver and landed a rocket on a floating platform off the coast of Florida.

Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.

On February 12, 2015, Falcon 9 rocket successfully delivered the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite to deep space orbit from SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40 located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. DSCOVR satellite was developed by a mutual partnership of NOAA, NASA, and the United States Air Force. The satellite was developed to detect and inform on extreme emissions from the sun, which can affect communications infrastructures, satellites close to the Earth and power grids.

Falcon 9 during its successful launch on February 11, 2015.

CEO Elon Musk reported through Twitter about the soft vertical landing of the rocket in the ocean within 10 meters. That gives hope for a successful landing next time at sea in non-stormy weather. According to the entrepreneur, in 10-20 years from now, science fiction can become a reality.

Rocket soft landed in the ocean within 10m of target & nicely vertical! High probability of good droneship landing in non-stormy weather. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2015

On April 08, 2016, after four unsuccessful attempts, SpaceX made history by landing the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship at sea.

Elon Musk demonstrated that SpaceX can potentially reuse rockets in the future, which means cost savings for the company.

The incredible life of Elon Musk is a great example of a man who has accomplished his childhood dream: he conquers space. Colonization of Mars will soon become a reality thanks to SpaceX’s innovations in the space industry.

Interplanetary Transport System

On September 27, 2016, at the International Astronautical Conference in Mexico, Elon Musk gave a keynote speech called Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species and announced that SpaceX was working on Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). ITS will be equipped with at least 42 Raptor rocket engines capable of 128 meganewtons of thrust. Raptor is the first type of cryogenic methane-fueled rocket engines developed by SpaceX that was successfully test-fired at a McGregor, Texas testing facility in September 2016.

The spaceship is capable of carrying around 100 passengers in the pressured cabin, cargo, plus luggage and materials to construct foundries and factories.

Elon Musk plans to achieve 1 million population for a Mars colony; that means 100 people per trip is 10,000 trips. Musk thinks to implement this plan can take from 40 to 100 years.

The initial trip time from Earth to Mars can take 80 days. However, Musk is intended to reduce the journey time to as little as 30 days in the distant future.

Elon Musk anticipates that if things go well, the first crew flight may happen within the next ten years.

Hyperloop

Elon Musk is a demanding perfectionist and innovator in the high-tech industry. His education in the field of physics and economics helps him to see the objective truth and separate it from the emotional and speculative forecasts. He just thinks big. A bright example would be his concept of the fifth mode of transport called Hyperloop.

On August 12, 2013, Musk published a blog post about Hyperloop and a 58-page Alpha Hyperloop presentation, which shed some light on its structure and function. Hyperloop is a solar-power high-speed transportation system driven by linear induction motors and air compressors should deliver people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes covering the distance of 381.8 miles (614.44 km). Hyperloop is based on the similar technology of magnetic levitation trains. An electromagnetic impulse is used to move the “pods” or “capsules”, and a low air pressure makes it possible to achieve higher speeds than any other ground transportation.

A rough sketches of Hyperloop.

The transportation system would be composed of steel tubes. These tubes would be mounted on columns 50 to 100 yards apart (45.72 to 91.44 meters), and the capsules inside would speed up to 800 mph (1287 kmh).

How Musk’s Hyperloop Could Work. (© Hejorama)

The Hyperloop transportation system would be powered by solar panels mounted all the way along the track. In addition, the heritage of other Musk’s companies comes handy here: the motors and electronics of the capsules can be inherited from Tesla Motors, the engineers from SolarCity can help with the solar panels, and SpaceX can share the materials that have been tested in space.

The first Hyperloop transportation system is planned to be built along the California highway Interstate 5. Musk promises passengers an unprecedented level of security. Project engineers took into account the possibility of emergency braking at depressurization of the capsule and even offered solutions bridge building anti-seismic design of columns for leveling the risk of destruction by an earthquake.

Hyperloop is going to be a great way of transportation for large cities located at a distance of not more than 900 miles (1500 km) from each other. For longer distances, aircraft is more suitable, the inventor believes.

Even though Musk is not ready to devote sufficient time to the Hyperloop concept, he is still willing to finance the development of the prototype. He also made Hyperloop design as an open source, allowing everyone to improve the current version of it, guaranteeing all possible support. As Elon Musk said he was not afraid of losing something on Hyperloop financially, but it would be great to make a new mode of transport.

On January 15, 2015, Elon Musk, during his speech at the 10th Annual Texas Transportation Forum, announced the creation of Hyperloop beta test track somewhere in Texas with a total length of 5 miles (8 km). In the future, this track is planned to be used by different companies and a group of talented students of engineers to test capsules of their own design. Musk also plans to organize an annual student Hyperloop capsule racer competition, like Formula SAE.

Hyperloop, Conceptual Vision of HTT

The Boring Company

In January 2017, Musk unveiled The Boring Company, an enterprise dedicated to boring and building tunnels for vehicles to reduce street traffic in cities. Musk started with a test tunnel on the SpaceX facilities in Los Angeles. In October 2017, he uploaded the first photo of the tunnel on his Instagram account. The length of the test tunnel was supposed to be 2 miles (3.31km) and Musk planned to reach such length in approximately four months.

The first photo of the tunnel

Elon Musk Book List

In one of his interviews, Elon Musk said that he liked to read fiction books and biographies of famous people, namely “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life” by Walter Isaacson, “Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age” by B. Carlson, “Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down” by J.E. Gordon, etc.

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams is the most favorite book of Elon Musk.

In addition, he loves Dale Carnegie’s books and, of course, a lot of literature on engineering, design, business, and physics. Favobooks collected Elon Musk book list, and his most favorite one is “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams.

Elon Musk is the 21st-century industrialist, who brings the most fantastic ideas into life. Elon Musk life story shows that all his success he achieved thanks to his perseverance, hard work and, of course, thanks to his absolute faith in his projects. We hope you have enjoyed exploring Elon Musk biography and success story of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, SolarCity and they have inspired you to new discoveries.