ELON MUSK: BIOGRAPHY OF THE MAN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD - ARTE - 2025

Elon Musk (1971 - present) is a physicist and technological entrepreneur who has stood out for his participation in the foundation and financing of companies aimed at caring for the environment, as well as the human colonization of space to preserve civilization.

The South African-born American businessman has co-founded companies such as SpaceX, Paypal, Neuralink, The Boring Company and OpenAi. He is also one of the faces of companies like Tesla and SolarCity.

Elon Musk, by NASA, via Wikimedia Commons.

In 2019, Forbes listed Elon Musk as the world's first most innovative leader, a position he shared with Jeff Bezos, the founder of the online sales company Amazon.

Musk's name also appeared in the 21st position of the world's most powerful people on the Forbes list in 2016.

Musk has expressed that he wants great changes to take place in the world and that is why his companies are oriented to renewable energy, artificial intelligence, neurotechnology and the creation of a multiplanetary civilization.

During 2019 Musk was mentioned in another of the Forbes magazine rankings, in the position number 40 of the richest people in the world. He became a millionaire after selling his first company, Zip2, to Compaq Computers for $ 22 million.

Comparisons have been made between Musk and great minds in industry and technological advancements such as Henry Ford, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. It has also been said that he is the Tony Stark (protagonist of Iron Man) in real life because of his profile and relationship with technology.

Biography

Early years

Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa. He is the son of Canadian model and nutritionist Maye Musk with South African electronics engineer Errol Musk, who is also a millionaire and served as a pilot and sailor.

He was the couple's first child, but he has two brothers, one named Kimbal and the other Tosca. Also, Elon has several stepbrothers on his father's side:

From the second marriage of Errol Musk were born Alexandra and Asha Rose (daughters of Heidi-Mary Musk) and a man named Elliot who is the son of his current partner, Jana Bezuidenhout, daughter of his previous wife, Heidi.

Elon Musk's parents divorced when he was 9 years old, in 1980. Then the little boy decided to stay in South Africa with his father, a choice he has said makes him regret in retrospect.

Musk has claimed that his father was a very tough-minded man who placed great pressure on both him and his brother during their youthful years and from whom he never found emotional support.

Recently he has come to assure that Errol Musk is a bad person and does not want to have relationships with him.

Childhood in South Africa

At age 10, Elon Musk obtained his first computer, technology and reading became the two great havens of the child who could not find other lasting connections. He was self-taught in the programming that he applied in his Commodore VIC-20.

At the age of 12, Musk designed a game that he named Blastar. This can be called his first foray into business, since he sold it for about $ 500 to PC and Office Technology magazine.

Education

Elon Musk entered college a year earlier than required. His first educational levels were received at Water Kloof House Preparatory School, then he attended Bryanston High School and, finally, he received a bachelor's degree at Pretoria Boys High School.

At that time the future businessman was a lonely child, he liked to read, especially science fiction books. Musk had few friends and has classified his childhood as a "hard and lonely" time.

He was a victim of bullying, even revealed that on one occasion they used his best friend as bait to find and beat him among several young people at school. That event left a deep impression on him throughout his childhood.

The situation of abuse continued for years, but inside the house Elon also did not find a supportive environment for what he lived at school. On another occasion he was hospitalized because his teammates threw him from the top of some stairs and after the fall he was left unconscious.

After that episode Musk had to undergo a nose job to repair the damage caused by the incident.

University and trip to Canada

Errol Musk wanted his son to be educated in South Africa and told him that if he did not accept that condition, he would not pay for his higher education.

However, Elon decided to leave the country at the age of 17, when he obtained a Canadian passport thanks to his mother. After that he went to the land of his ancestors secretly from his father, who would not have allowed him.

Two factors influenced the young Musk's decision. The first was that he did not want to do the compulsory military service required of South African citizens, especially since it was still the last days of apartheid in that nation.

The second element that attracted Musk to Canada was that from there it would be much easier to reach the destination he really aspired to: the United States of America, home to the great technological advances at the time.

In 1989 Elon Musk enrolled at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he began studying physics. In subsequent interviews, he has claimed that what really caught his eye on the Queen's campus were the beautiful girls everywhere.

There he met Justine Wilson, a young writer who years later became his first wife.

U.S

Elon Musk successfully obtained a transfer to the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. There he managed to achieve two degrees, one in Physics and the other in Economics, in 1995.

He requested the change because he considered that if his degrees were from an American institution, he would have better proposals when looking for a job in that nation. During his years in the United States, Musk became much more outspoken in personal terms.

He continued to maintain contact with Justine Wilson, but he also became friends with his colleagues, with whom he bought a frat house that they used as a nightclub, thus Musk's confidence was on the rise.

When he was 24, Musk decided to turn his life around by moving to California, originally with the intention of pursuing a PhD at Stanford University. That project only lasted a couple of days since he dropped out of classes almost immediately.

He considered that it was important for him to take advantage of the moment of breakthrough that internet entrepreneurships were having and since then he left the race to become one of the most innovative minds of his generation.

Entry into business

Elon Musk could not waste all the potential that the internet offered him at that time and together with his brother Kimbal decided to create Zip2 with a capital of 28,000 US dollars.

The company was responsible for creating online guides for newspapers and they landed clients such as The Chicago Tribune and the New York Times.

The first offer they received to buy their company was for $ 3.6 million, but Musk rejected it and shortly after they got a second offer from Compaq Computers, who wanted to use Zip2 to improve their search engine (Altavista).

In 1999 Elon Musk closed the deal with Compaq for $ 307 million. With that agreement he obtained his first 22 million dollars, that corresponded to the 7% of Zip2 shares that he controlled and that is how he entered the lists of North American millionaires.

Musk did not stop there, he began to see what his next step would be and during that same year he took 10 million dollars of his capital and used it for the creation of an internet bank that he christened X.com.

A short time later they joined another company called Confinity, in charge of online payments. This is how PayPal was born in 2001, which would gain ground in the world of the internet in an overwhelmingly accelerated way.

First marriage

In January 2000 Musk and his girlfriend Justine Wilson decided to take the walk down the aisle. She later described him as a person who had drastic mood swings, but was very sensitive and romantic.

Justine also said of Musk that he is not a man who lives to make money, as his motivations are more far-reaching and sincere. He wanted to start a family early and at that time his financial position allowed him to do so without worry.

However, Justine has said that the problems between Musk and her began from the same day of marriage, since he tried to dominate her and excessively highlighted the faults he found in his wife.

In 2002, the first child was born to the couple who they named Nevada Alexander Musk, but the child died at ten weeks as from sudden infant death syndrome.

Although both were deeply affected by the loss of the baby, Musk chose not to discuss the issue and was harshly criticizing Justine for doing so.

The couple had twins in 2004 whom they named Griffin and Xavier and two years later they welcomed their triplets named Kai, Damian and Saxon.

Way to the stars

In October 2003 Ebay bought PayPal for $ 1.5 billion, which they exchanged for shares in their company. Musk thus obtained 165 million dollars in shares of Ebay.com.

This was not the time to stop for Elon. There he decided to get to heaven and after failing to buy old Russian rockets, which he considered to be heavily overpriced, Musk thought he could make them himself for a fraction of the cost and secure huge profits.

This is how Elon Musk in May 2002 spent 100 million dollars in the creation of SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies) in charge of research and development of technologies in the area of ​​space travel and communications.

Some of the main projects SpaceX has had are reusable rockets, which no one saw as an option, but which the company led by Elon Musk has made a fact.

They also work on Starlink, a program that tries to put satellites in low orbit that are in charge of providing internet to everyone at low cost. Three launches have been made so far during 2019 to make it possible.

Renewable energy

On June 1, 2003, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning founded Tesla Motors, later joined by Ian Wright. His idea was to create cars that run on electricity to reduce the impact on the environment.

In early 2004 they were looking for an investor and had thought about Elon Musk, but they made up their minds when someone told them that the businessman was interested in electric vehicles.

When they met, Musk decided to put US $ 6.5 million into the project and thereby became the majority shareholder of the company. When they showed him the prototype in 2005, they got him an additional $ 9 million.

But Musk ended his commitment to the company's success when he was introduced to the Roadster EP1 in 2006. It was then that he added 12 million dollars to Tesla's budget and in the public presentation of the vehicle he stated: "Until today the electric cars sucked."

Hombre de Hierro

When Marvel studios were preparing everything to shoot the first installment of Iron Man, in 2007 the protagonist of the film, Robert Downey Jr., requested a tour of the SpaceX facilities.

It was Musk himself who guided him through the company's workshops and Tony Stark's interpreter claimed to have been impressed with what he witnessed. Additionally, he suggested that a Tesla Roadster be installed in his character's workshop.

Musk found all the attention and the image that was being projected of him in the media very funny and he quite enjoyed it. During that year, he and his family moved to a house in Bel-Air.

Although with the public, everything in the businessman's life seemed to go with the wind in his favor, the reality was different. Musk was going through severe marital and financial problems. In mid-2008 Elon Musk filed for divorce from his wife Justine Musk.

The agreement he reached with the mother of his children included two million US dollars, as well as a maintenance of 80,000 dollars a month, the house they had moved to the previous year and a Tesla Roadster.

New love and new challenges

Just weeks after their separation, Musk met actress Talulah Riley, a young English woman whose career was flourishing. After an affair that lasted only a few weeks, the businessman proposed to her and she accepted.

The coexistence of the new couple seemed to flow naturally. She was by his side in a very difficult period, since Musk was not only in the process of divorce, but his companies were facing a financial crisis.

It had come down to dividing his fortune between Tesla and SpaceX or witnessing the failure of both. SpaceX had received a contract from NASA to further investigate the Falcon 9 and the Dragon spacecraft.

But what saved SpaceX was a contract to supply the Space Station of the United States of America in 2008. At the same time some investors became interested in Tesla, this is how both projects and Musk were able to save themselves from bankruptcy.

Riley assured that he greatly admired the interest and strength of Musk, who despite all the adversities continued to work every day. Finally the link of the couple took place in 2010.

Save mankind

Elon Musk expressed in 2011 his wish that humanity could travel to Mars in 10 or 20 years and also affirmed that this was one of his great motivations, as well as his company SpaceX.

2012 was a roller coaster ride for Elon Musk, who divorced his partner of 4 years, who had been his wife of two, Talulah Riley. During that same year, the first successful return of a SpaceX capsule to its base occurred.

Similarly, production of the Tesla Model S took off in 2012, but they still made few vehicles.

The liquidity of the company declined when they showed the novelties they had designed and many clients canceled orders to wait for the most updated model.

Musk also announced that they would create six fast-charging stations in California, Nevada and Arizona, so that users can take long trips with their vehicles.

Likewise, the collaboration between Tesla and SolarCity, one of the main providers of solar energy in the United States of North America, was unveiled, reaching number two in 2013 in this sector.

SolarCity was a startup created by Musk's cousins ​​in 2006 and of which Musk was the main investor.

Recent activity

In 2014 Musk and Riley were definitively divorced. That year Tesla made public domain some technologies implemented by them to encourage development in electric cars.

Elon Musk had a couple of appearances on high-profile television shows during 2015. The first was on The Simpsons and by the end of the year he was on The Big Bang Theory, both times he appeared as himself.

In 2016 Musk created Neuralink, a company in charge of neurotechnology and conducting research on the marriage of artificial intelligence with the human brain. It was also learned that Tesla had acquired SolarCity.

During 2018 Elon Musk faced a great controversy for his participation in a podcast called The Road Experience, in which he appeared smoking a marijuana cigarette. Its stability at the time was criticized and that had repercussions on Tesla's stock.

The Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory, a large manufacturer of the electric car brand was announced during 2019.

Three missions have recently been deployed to locate the satellites of SpaceX's Starlink project.

Humanitarian work

Among Elon Musk's contributions to humanitarian causes, the foundation that bears his surname and is directed by him stands out. The Musk Foundation is focused on providing solar energy to isolated places or that have been victims of natural disasters.

Likewise, they address causes such as science and health education for children. In 2010 the Musk Foundation donated a solar power plant in Alabama and the following year they contributed to the project to build one in Japan.

He is on the Board of Directors for the X Prize Foundation. Musk has also helped build the Tesla Science Center and made donations of funds to the Institute for Future Life.

In 2019 he made a donation for an initiative undertaken by the YouTube community, together with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant trees.

Awards and honors

- He was designated Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 by IInc Magazine (2007).

- George Low Award 2007/2008 from the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics of America for the most outstanding contribution in the field of space transportation for the design of the Falcon 1.

- Von Braun National Special Society Trophy 2008/2009, for leadership in the most significant spatial achievement.

- One of the 100 people who have affected the world the most (Times Magazine, 2010).

- Space Gold Medal from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, for designing the first private rocket to enter orbit (2010).

- 75th most influential person of the 21st century (Esquire Magazine).

- Living legend of aviation by the Kitty Hawk Foundation (2010).

- One of the 20 most powerful CEOs in the United States aged 40 or younger (Forbes Magazine, 2011).

-Heinlein Award for Advances in Space Commercialization (2011).

- Gold medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society (2012).

- Position 21 on the list of the most influential people in the world (Forbes Magazine, 2016).

- Oslo Business Prize for Peace (2017).

- Member of the Royal Society (2018).

- Shares first place with Bezos (Amazon) as one of the world's most innovative leaders (Forbes Magazine, 2019).

In addition, Elon Musk has received two honorary doctorates the first is in design and was awarded by the Art Center School of Pasadena. The second is in aerospace engineering, this was comes from the University of Surrey.

First ventures

- Zip2

In 1995, Elon Musk, together with his brother Kimbal and investor Greg Kouri, founded Global Link Information Network in Palo Alto (state of California, USA).

In the mid-1990s, the public typically made use of printed directories, the Yellow Pages, where local businesses were listed and location information and phone numbers were given.

Musk linked that information with digital maps so that Internet users not only knew where the businesses were and how to contact them, but how to get there.

To accomplish his mission, he obtained a business database in Palo Alto and convinced Navteq, which was responsible for providing navigable digital maps, to hand over the software.

In early 1996, Mohr David Ventures gave the project $ 3 million and it was renamed Zip2.

With the new business strategy, Zip2's reach spanned the entire country and specialized in selling its platform to newspapers to show their digital readers the location of events.

By 1998 Zip2 had joined some 160 publications. The following year, Compaq Computer acquired the company for $ 305 million, of which Elon Musk received $ 22 million.

- X.com and PayPal

In November 1999, with part of the money obtained from the sale of Zip2, Musk and Kouri founded the company X.com, one of the first digital banks.

In early 2000, the company merged with Confinity, whose Paypal product allowed electronic payments to be made by email and through a website. This merger had Musk as CEO and they decided to keep the X.com name.

But by September of the same year, Musk was replaced by the founder of Confinity and so it was decided in June 2001 that the company would be renamed Paypal.

In 2002, a public stock offering was made, and with the popularity of the service, the online sales company eBay bought the company for $ 1.5 billion, of which Musk received $ 165 million.

By then, the digital payments platform had more than 6 million registered accounts and accepted transactions in dollars, pounds sterling and euros.

Spacex

The businessman came up with a project to place a small greenhouse on the surface of Mars. Along with this, he planned an aggressive advertising campaign designed to revive public interest in the space.

Between 2001 and 2002, Musk made two trips to Russia in order to acquire refurbished intercontinental missiles that could carry the cargo. The Kosmotras company offered him a rocket for $ 8 million, a price that Musk found exorbitant.

Space Exploration Technologies, SpaceX, was founded with $ 100 million from Elon Musk's personal fortune. He established the company in El Segundo, California, United States. The company decided to manufacture the rockets and take care of the entire process up to the placement of the charge.

New focus

The innovative reuse technology of the early stages of the rockets meant that launch costs were very low compared to the competition. The Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 cargo rockets have been a commercial success for the company.

Their Dragon ship also allowed them to make deliveries to the International Space Station. In 2018, the successful launch of the Falcon Heavy put SpaceX at the forefront of heavy transport to Earth orbit.

In 2019, the first launches of the Starlink project were made, with which Musk wishes to be able to provide satellite internet access to the entire planet for a minimal cost.

Tesla

In February 2004, Elon Musk acquired $ 14 million in shares of the automotive company Tesla, Inc. Then he was elected chairman of the shareholders' meeting of the company in charge of making electric cars.

The success of its Model S, allowed the company to allocate resources to innovate in other markets and technologies. The 2020 Sports Roadster and the Semi Cargo Trailer are two of its most anticipated vehicles.

Similarly, Tesla diversified as a manufacturer of solar panels thanks to the merger with SolarCity for which it paid 2.6 billion dollars. In addition, they are providers of energy storage solutions, both for homes and on a large scale.

Under the leadership of the South African, Tesla has become one of the leading electric car manufacturer. Companies such as Mercedes and Toyota have formed alliances with the company to develop their own models.

SolarCity

This company was founded in 2006 by Lyndon and Peter Rive as an alternative to traditional energies that was more environmentally friendly.

Most of the capital was contributed by Elon Musk, although he was not intimately involved with the project at first. Starting in 2012 Tesla and SolarCity began to collaborate more closely.

In 2016, finally, the second largest solar power supplier in the United States, SolarCity, became a subsidiary of the electric car brand led by Musk.

Other companies

- Hyperloop

Musk presented the idea of ​​a train in which cargo and passengers are transported at high speeds thanks to a system of sealed tubes through which the carriages can circulate with minimal aerodynamic drag.

This project has been jointly addressed by Tesla and SpaceX, in 2017 Musk obtained permission to make a tunnel between New York and Washington.

- OpenAI

This non-profit initiative was announced in 2015 and aims to develop research in a friendly artificial intelligence that is in contrast to the systems that some companies or governments have developed.

However, when Tesla began working hard on the creation of artificial intelligence, Elon Musk stepped aside so that an internal conflict would not occur due to his simultaneous participation in both investigations.

- Neuralink

This company is oriented to research in neurotechnology, as well as the possibility of linking the human brain with artificial intelligence. What this project is trying to achieve is to protect humans from being displaced by technological advances.

- The Boring Company

It is a company in charge of creating infrastructure, specifically tunnels, to facilitate vehicular circulation. Musk has claimed that this may be a feasible solution for traffic in heavily congested cities.

References

1. En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Elon Musk. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
2. Gregersen, E. (2019). Elon Musk - Biography & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: britannica.com.
3. Vance, A. (2018). Elon Musk. Barcelona: Peninsula.
4. Keats, R. (2013). Rocket man. Queen's Gazette - Queen's University. Available at: queensu.ca.
5. Kosoff, M. (2015). Elon Musk's childhood was 'excruciating' and he got beaten up a lot. Business Insider. Available at: businessinsider.com.