Name: Elon Reeve Musk
Birth Place: Pretoria, South Africa
Date of Birth : June 28, 1971
Nationality: American
Mother: Maye Musk
Father: Errol Musk
Education Background :
Early Education: Briefly attended the University of Pretoria
Immigration to Canada: Immigrated at age 18, gained Canadian citizenship via his mother
University in Canada: Attended Queen’s University, Kingston
University Transfer: Transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, earned bachelor’s degrees in economics and physics
Early Ventures and PayPal
- 1999: Musk’s startup acquired by Compaq for $307 million.
- 1999: Co-founded X.com, an online bank.
- 2000: X.com merged with Confinity to form PayPal.
- 2002: Musk acquired U.S. citizenship.
- 2002: eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion.
Founding of SpaceX and Tesla Involvement
- 2002: Musk used $100 million from the PayPal sale to found SpaceX, a spaceflight services company.
- 2004: Became an early investor in Tesla Motors (later Tesla, Inc.), providing initial financing and becoming chairman.
- 2008: Musk became Tesla’s CEO and product architect.
SolarCity and Hyperloop Innovations
- 2006: Helped create SolarCity, a solar energy company later acquired by Tesla and rebranded as Tesla Energy in 2016.
- 2013: Proposed the Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system.
Expanding into AI, Neurotechnology, and Infrastructure
- 2015: Co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit AI research company.
- 2016: Co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company focusing on brain-computer interfaces.
- 2016: Founded The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company.
Tesla SEC Lawsuit and Acquisition of Twitter
- 2018: SEC sued Musk over a tweet about funding for a Tesla takeover; Musk paid a $20 million fine and stepped down as Tesla chairman.
- 2022: Acquired Twitter for $44 billion, rebranding it to X after merging it into X Corp.
Recent Developments in AI
- 2023: Founded xAI, an artificial intelligence company.
Political Involvement and Support for Donald Trump
- Early 2024: Musk became active in American politics, vocally and financially supporting Donald Trump.
- October 2024: Became Trump’s second-largest individual donor.
Leadership Role in the New DOGE Department
- November 2024: Trump announced Musk would co-lead the new DOGE department alongside Vivek Ramaswamy.
- Purpose of DOGE Department: Focused on improving government efficiency by reducing excess regulations and cutting wasteful expenditures.