3 Questions
What year did Elon Musk co-found Zip2?
1999
What company acquired PayPal in 2002?
eBay
What did Elon Musk pay as part of a settlement agreement with the SEC in 2018?
$20 million
Study Notes
- Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa.
- He attended the University of Pretoria before moving to Canada at age 17, acquiring citizenship through his Canadian-born mother.
- Two years later, he matriculated at Queen's University and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he received bachelor's degrees in economics and physics.
- He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University, but dropped out after two days to instead pursue a business career.
- He co-founded the web software company Zip2 with his brother Kimbal; the startup was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999.
- The same year, Musk co-founded the online bank X.com, which merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal.
- eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
- In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company.
- He is its CEO and chief engineer.
- In 2004, he was an early investor in the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (now Tesla, Inc.).
- He became its chairman and product architect, eventually assuming the position of CEO in 2008.
- In 2006, he helped create SolarCity, a solar energy company that was later acquired by Tesla and became Tesla Energy.
- In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company.
- The following year, he co-founded Neuralink—a neurotechnology company developing brain–computer interfaces—and The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company.
- In 2022, Musk purchased the social media platform Twitter for $44 billion.
- He has made controversial statements on politics and technology, particularly on Twitter.
- He has also been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, such as spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
- In 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Musk for falsely tweeting that he had secured funding for a private takeover of Tesla.
- Musk stepped down as chairman of Tesla and paid a $20 million fine as part of a settlement agreement with the SEC.
Test your knowledge about the entrepreneurial journey of Elon Musk, from co-founding PayPal to venturing into space exploration and electric vehicles. This quiz covers his career milestones, controversial statements, and significant contributions to various industries.
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