TRAILBLAZER
Elon Musk
The Visionary Behind Sustainable Luxury Sports Car Manufacturer , Tesla . CEO and Founder .
Believed by many to be the real life Tony Stark , Elon Musk is a South African-born , American entrepreneur , and self-made billionaire .
Musk ’ s inventive mindset began at an early age , teaching himself to code at the age of 10 , and selling his first computer game - Blastar - at 12 years old for US $ 500 .
Bullied until the age of 15 , Musk immigrated to Canada with his mother and brother in 1989 at the age of 17 where he studied at Queen ’ s University and gained his citizenship . Musk believed it would make it easier for him to gain American citizenship by taking this route .
In 1992 , Musk left Canada to study at the University of Pennsylvania . Musk gained an undergraduate degree in economics and a bachelor ’ s degree in physics .
Becoming a Multi-Millionaire After leaving the University of Pennsylvania , he went on to study a PhD in energy physics at Stanford
Estimated Net Worth :
US $ 151bn
Tesla Revenue :
US $ 31.54bn ( 2020 )
Tesla Goes Public :
2010 ( US $ 17 per share )
SpaceX Revenue :
US $ 2bn ( 2018 )
Age : 50
Current Residence :
Austin , Texas
Did you know ?
Elon Musk was an advisor in the early days of Donald Trump ’ s administration .
Elon Musk learnt to defend himself from bullies as a child by learning karate and wrestling .
Tesla received US $ 40mn in convertible debt financing in 2008 to avoid bankruptcy .
University . This degree was , however , short lived ; as the internet boom emerged , Musk dropped out of Stanford University to join the boom , launching his first company Zip2 Corporation - an online city travel guide - in 1995 .
After four years , Musk sold Zip2 Corporation to a division of Compaq Computers for US $ 307mn , of which he made US $ 22mn , making him a multi-millionaire .
Founding PayPal In 1999 , Musk used US $ 12mn from what he made from selling Zip2 to fund the founding of X . com , one of the world ’ s first online banks . The following year , the company merged with Confinity ; rebranding as PayPal . Musk became CEO of Paypal in the merger , but this was short-lived , with the multi-millionaire fired as CEO the same year .
Becoming a Billionaire and Founding SpaceX In 2002 , Musk became an official US Citizen . In the same year , he earned his first billion following a US $ 1.5bn acquisition of PayPal by eBay , of which Musk made US $ 165mn .
With this money , Musk used US $ 100mn to establish SpaceX to make colonising Mars affordable . In 2012 , the company made history by launching its Falcon 9 rocket into space with an unmanned capsule , marking the first time that a private company sent a spacecraft to the International Space Station .
In 2018 , the company marked another milestone , with its
16 October 2021