Elon Musk's Career and Ventures Quiz

• Elon Reeve Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa on June 28, 1971.
• 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, 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 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.
• In 2002, he founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, and 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 proposed a hyperloop high-speed vactrain transportation system, and is the president of the philanthropic Musk Foundation.

Musk's early life was marked by a love of science and technology. He attended the University of Pretoria, where he studied economics and physics. After two days of study, he dropped out to start Zip2, a web software company that was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999. He also co-founded X.com, an online bank, in 1999. The following year, he co-founded PayPal, an online payment system, which was acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.

In 2004, he founded Tesla Motors, an electric vehicle manufacturer. 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, he purchased the social media platform Twitter for $44 billion.

Musk is highly polarizing, with some praising his innovative ideas and others criticizing his unscientific and misleading statements. He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, such as spreading

• Musk was born on July 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa.
• He moved to Canada with his mother when he was ten and attended high school in Pretoria.
• He dropped out of Stanford University's PhD program in materials science to join the Internet boom.
• He co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company, in 1999.
• The company merged with online bank Confinity in 2000 to avoid competition.
• He returned as CEO of the merged company.
• His preference for Microsoft over Unix-based software caused a rift among the company's employees.
• In 2002, he sold X.com to Amazon.com for $1.6 billion.
• He also founded Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and SolarCity.

Musk's early career involved co-founding two internet companies, Zip2 and X.com. Zip2 was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999, and X.com merged with Confinity in 2000 to avoid competition. After the merger, Musk became CEO of the combined company. His preference for Microsoft over Unix-based software caused a rift among the company's employees, and he was replaced as CEO by Bill Harris in 2002. In 2002, he also founded Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and SolarCity.

• In 2000, Peter Thiel, Confinity's founder, replaced Elon Musk as CEO of PayPal.

• Under Thiel, the company focused on the money-transfer service and was renamed PayPal.

• In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk—the largest shareholder with 11.72% of shares—received $175.8 million.

• In 2017, more than one and a half decades later, Musk purchased the X.com domain from PayPal for its sentimental value.

• In 2002, SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk with $100 million of his own money.

• SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006, but the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit.

• In 2008, SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit.

• In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft.

• In 2015, SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites.

• In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy; the inaugural mission carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload.

• In 2019, SpaceX began 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. is a car manufacturer founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.

• Elon Musk is the CEO and product architect of Tesla.

• Tesla's first car, the Roadster, was an electric sports car.

• Tesla began deliveries of its Model S sedan in 2012.

• Tesla's Model X crossover was launched in 2015.

• The Model 3 is the all-time bestselling plug-in electric car worldwide.

• Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019.

• Tesla's stock has been increasing significantly, and it became the most valuable carmaker in summer 2020.

• In October 2021, Tesla reached a market capitalization of $1 billion.