Elon Musk: Innovations and Entrepreneurship

Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa.
He attended the University of Pretoria before moving to Canada at age 17 and acquiring citizenship through his Canadian-born mother.
Two years later, he matriculated at Queen's University and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania.
There, 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 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, he 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, he 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.
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 proposed a hyperloop high-speed vactrain transportation system, and is the president of the philanthropic Musk Foundation.

Musk has made a significant impact on the world through his various businesses. He has developed new technologies that have changed the way we live and work.

Musk was born in 1971 in the US to Canadian parents
He attended high school in Canada and then studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he obtained a B.S. in physics and an M.S. in economics
In 1995, he co-founded Zip2, a company that developed an Internet city guide with maps, directions, and yellow pages
The company was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999
In 2000, he rejoined the company as its CEO
His preference for Microsoft over Unix-based software caused a rift among the company, which led to his departure in 2001
He founded PayPal in 2002, and the company became one of the leading online payment providers
In 2015, he sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion

Musk's early career in technology involved founding Zip2, an online city guide company, and X.com, an online bank. After a disagreement with the board of directors, he left both companies in 2001. He founded PayPal, which became one of the leading online payment providers. In 2015, he sold the company to eBay for $1.5 billion.

In early 2001, Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars.
In October of the same year, he traveled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell and Adeo Ressi to buy refurbished intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the greenhouse payloads into space.
He met with the companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras; however, Musk was seen as a novice and the group returned to the United States empty-handed.
In February 2002, the group returned to Russia with Mike Griffin (president of In-Q-Tel) to look for three ICBMs. They had another meeting with Kosmotras and were offered one rocket for $8 million, which Musk rejected. He instead decided to start a company that could build affordable rockets.
With $100 million of his own money,[74] Musk founded SpaceX in May 2002 and became the company's CEO and Chief Engineer.
SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006.
Though the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit, it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA Administrator (and former SpaceX consultant) Mike Griffin later that year.
After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk and his companies to go bankrupt,[77] SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008.
Later that year, SpaceX received a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract from NASA for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement.
In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft.
Musk credited the NASA award, one of the last actions by Mike Griffin as NASA Administrator, for saving the company.
Working towards its goal of reusable rockets, in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 on an inland platform.
Later landings were achieved on autonomous spaceport drone ships, an ocean-based recovery platform.
In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy; the inaugural mission carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload.
Since 2019, SpaceX has been developing Starship, a fully-reusable, super-heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to replace the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy.
In 2020, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight, the Demo-2, becoming the first private company to place astronauts into orbit and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS.
Tesla, Inc. was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.
Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $6.5 million, became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman.
Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations.
Following a series of escalating conflicts in 2007, and the 2008 financial crisis, Eberhard was ousted from the firm.
Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008.
A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others.
As of 2019, Musk was the longest-tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally.
In 2021, Musk nominally changed his title to "Technoking" while retaining his position as CEO.
Tesla first built an electric sports car, the Roadster, in 2008.
Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan in 2012.
A cross-over, the Model X was launched in 2015.
A mass-market sedan, the Model 3, was released in 2017.
The Model 3 is the all-time bestselling plug-in electric car worldwide.
A fifth vehicle, the Model Y crossover, was launched in 2020.
The Cybertruck, an all-electric pickup truck, was unveiled in 2019.
Since its initial public offering in 2010, Tesla stock has risen significantly; it became the most valuable carmaker in summer 2020, and it entered the S&P 500 later that year.
In October 2021, it reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion, the sixth company in the world to reach that milestone.