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Elon Musk is an entrepreneur and investor who co-founded PayPal and Tesla Motors. He also founded SpaceX, and is now working on developing the Hyperloop.
Musk was born in South Africa in 1971. He showed an early interest in computers and technology, and by the age of 12 he had created his own video game. He went on to study economics and physics at the University of Pretoria, before moving to Canada to attend Queen’s University. He eventually transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he received dual bachelor’s degrees in economics and physics.
After college, Musk moved to California to pursue a career in technology. He worked for a number of startups, including Zip2 and X.com (which would later merge with PayPal). He also founded SpaceX in 2002, with the goal of making it possible for humans to colonize Mars.
In 2004, Musk joined forces with Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning to create Tesla Motors. The company’s first car, the Tesla Roadster, was launched in 2008. Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transportation by producing the best electric cars on the market.
In addition to his work with Tesla and SpaceX, Musk has also been involved with a number of other startups, including SolarCity, OpenAI, and Neuralink. He also serves as the chairman of the board of directors for The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company.
Musk is a passionate advocate for the development of sustainable energy sources, and has said that he hopes to one day see Tesla become the world’s largest provider of solar power. He is also a strong proponent of the Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system that could one day connect cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Musk is one of the most innovative and successful entrepreneurs of our time, and his work is sure to have a major impact on the world for years to come.Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate, industrial designer, and engineer. He 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. A centibillionaire, Musk is one of the richest people in the world.
Musk was born to a Canadian mother and South African father and raised in Pretoria, South Africa. He briefly attended the University of Pretoria before moving to Canada aged 17 to attend Queen’s University. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania two years later, where he received dual bachelor’s degrees in economics and physics. He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University but decided instead to pursue a business career, co-founding web software company Zip2 with his brother Kimbal. The start-up was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999. Musk co-founded online bank X.com that same year, which merged with Confinity in 2000 to form the company PayPal and was subsequently bought by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, of which he is CEO, CTO, and lead designer. In 2004, he joined electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (now Tesla, Inc.) as chairman and product architect, becoming its CEO in 2008. In 2006, he helped create SolarCity, a solar energy services company and current Tesla subsidiary. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit research company that promotes friendly artificial intelligence. In 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company focused on developing brain–computer interfaces, and founded The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company. Musk has also proposed the Hyperloop, a high-speed vactrain transportation system.
