Elon Musk
Entrepreneur Elon Musk is the co-founder of PayPal. He is currently Chairman of Tesla Motors and Solar City, and CEO and CTO of SpaceX. Musk founded SpaceX, a developer and manufacturer of space launch vehicles, in 2002. On September 28, 2008, the Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately financed liquid powered vehicle to achieve earth orbit.1
Fast Facts
- Born: June 28, 1971 (age 37)2
- Residence: Bel-Air, California2
- Education: B.A. Economics and Physics from University of Pennsylvania2
- Net worth: $328 million2
- Spouse: Justine Musk2
- Children: 52
Background
The son of a South African engineer and a Canadian mother, Elon Musk was born and raised in South Africa. His father bought him his first computer at age 10 and he taught himself how to program. By the age of 12 he sold his first commercial software, a space game called Blaster. At the age of 17 Musk left South Africa in part because of compulsory service in the South African military and enrolled at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania after receiving a scholarship to the Wharton School of Business. There he received a bachelors degree in Economics and stayed an extra year to finish a degree in Physics.2
Entrepreneur
In 1995, Musk left a graduate program in physics at Stanford University to start the online content publishing software provider Zip2. The company was bought by Compaq's AltaVista division for $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options in 1999. In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and email payments company which later became PayPal. PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock in October 2002.2
Related Pages on Mahalo
Falcon 1 | X Prize | Virgin Galactic | SpaceShipTwo | Space Tourism | NASA | XCOR Aerospace | XCOR Lynx | SpaceX | Richard Branson | Tesla Motors | Tesla Whitestar | PayPal | Tesla Roadster | Tesla Whitestar
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