About
Elon Musk is a Canadian-American entrepreneur known for co-founding the companies Zip2, PayPal and Tesla Motors and founding the aerospace manufacturer SpaceX.
Career
In 1995, Musk co-founded the web software company Zip2. In 1999, Musk co-founded the online financial services company X.com, serving as CEO of the company until October 2000. In 2001, the company merged with Confinity to become PayPal. In June 2002, Musk founded the aerospace manufacturing company SpaceX. In 2004, Musk became a co-founder of Tesla Motors, leading the automotive and energy storage company’s Series A round of investment. In July 2006, the energy service provider SolarCity was founded by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive, who were inspired to create the company based on a suggestion from Musk. In 2008, Musk became CEO of Tesla Motors. In 2015, Musk unveiled the not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company OpenAI,[3] which aims to create open-source friendly AI technology that is helpful for humanity.
Online History
In June 2009, Musk created the @elonmusk[2] Twitter account, garnering upwards of 3.14 million vollowers in the next seven years. In February 2013, TED released a video in which Musk discusses many of his projects (shown below).
On January 6th, Musk participated in an “ask me anything” (AMA) thread on the /r/IAmA[4] subreddit, where it accumulated more than 8,600 votes (97% upvoted) and 11,200 comments. On May 1st, YouTuber VideoMisery uploaded footage of Musk presenting the Tesla Powerwall rechargeable battery, which stores electricity for domestic use (shown below). In seven months, the video received upwards of three million views and 2,900 comments.
SpaceX Rocket Landing
On December 22nd, 2015, SpaceX successfully landed a rocket used for an orbital launch in history. A video of the landing was subsequently uploaded to YouTube, where it gained over 2.7 million views and 2,600 comments within one week (shown below).
Personal Life
Musk was born on June 28th, 1971, in Transvaal, South Africa. Musk received a degree in physics from the Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences and a degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2004, Musk attended the Burning Man festival in Nevada, where he originally thought up the idea for SolarCity. In 2008, Musk married Canadian author Justine Musk, with whom he had six sons before separated in 2008. In 2010, Musk married English actress Talulah Riley.