Everything There is to Know About Tesla's Elon Musk

Born June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa, Elon Musk is the oldest child of Errol Musk and Maya Musk. Now in his late forties and with a net worth 19.2 billion USD, Elon Musk is one of the leaders in pursuit of an energy and transportation revolution. As a founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX; CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; co-founder, and CEO of Neuralink; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Zip2; founder of X.com; co-founder of OpenAI; and chairman of the SolarCity, Elon Musk plays a significant worldwide reaching role as an engineer, entrepreneur, investor, and an inventor. This is what you need to know about him.

Elon Musk Timeline

-* Born June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa

-* By the age of 12 he learned Basic, coded Video game Blastar, and sold it to a magazine called PC and Office Technology for $500

-* He moved to Canada in June 1989 before 18th birthday

-* He started studies at Queen's University at 17 years of age

-* Started studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and earned an undergraduate degree in economics

-* Ran a nightclub out in his house while at college

-* Formed Zip2 software company in 1995

-* Zip2 sold to Compaq in February 1999 for $307 million, $22 million of which belonged to Elon Musk

-* In March 1999 Musk funded the creation of the x.com for $10 million with the money acquired from the Zip2 sell

-* x.com renamed to Paypal after the merger with a company called Confinity

-* PayPal sold to eBay for $1.5 billion, $165 million of which ended up in Elon Musk's bank account as he was the biggest PayPal shareholder

-* In 2002 started SpaceX

-* In 2004 funded Tesla Motors

-* Co-funded SolarCity

-* Assumed leadership position in Tesla Motors In 2008

-* In 2015 founded a company called the OpenAL, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company

-* In 2016 co-founded Neuralink, a company that develops devices to implant in the human brain

-* In December 2016 started The Boring Company that focuses on creating better technology for boring tunnels

-* Announced liqueur Teslaquilla in 2018 after an April Fools Joke he made earlier that year

Elon Musk's Wealth

Some sources estimate Elon Musk's wealth at $19.2 billion, while others put it at $23.6 billion. Whatever the real number is, I can safely say that Elon Musk is seriously wealthy. He amassed his wealth thanks to smart business decisions in the nineties when he sold Zip2 to Compaq and was the biggest shareholder at PayPal when eBay bought the company. However, after a series of good deals, he went bankrupt sometime in 2008 just during his divorce. Since then he managed to strike deals, and create several successful companies that, in a reasonably short time, made him one of the wealthiest people on the planet. He owns more than $70 million worth of residential property in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles and regularly invests his own money in the companies he manages.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump

Right before the last presidential race, Elon Musk wasn't exactly in favor of Donald Trump, even publicly (on twitter of course) stating that he does not support his campaign. However, a bipartisan approach to politics is something Elon Musk does well. He has to if he is to run a successful company. Soon after Trump took over the Office, Musk joined presidential advisory councils. However, after U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, Elon Musk, as a proponent of renewable energy and CEO of companies that work on renewable energy solutions withdrew from the presidential councils. He said:

“ Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

While on the council, Musk lobbied for environmentally sustainable policies and on issues of immigration.

Elon Musk's Most Controversial Statements

Elon Musk is a goldmine for controversial statements that piss off a lot of people. It seems that he has commented on all sorts of things. This is just a short list of strange, bizarre, funny, and smart statements Elon Musk has made:

Elon Musk on dating women

"I would like to allocate more time to dating, though. I need to find a girlfriend. That’s why I need to carve out just a little more time. I think maybe even another five to 10 — how much time does a woman want a week? Maybe 10 hours? That’s kind of the minimum? I don’t know."

Elon Musk to his former employee and a whistleblower

"You're a horrible human being."

Elon Musk on stepping down as a Tesla CEO

"If you have anyone who can do a better job, please let me know. They can have the job. Is there someone who can do the job better? They can have the reins right now."

Elon Musk on people using smartphones at all times

"You're already a cyborg. Most people don't realize you're already a cyborg."

Elon Musk on aliens

"Seems like an opportune moment to bring up the Fermi Paradox, aka 'where are the aliens?' Really odd that we see no sign of them."

Elon Musk's Car Collection

-* His first car was a 1978 BMW 320i

-* He bought a Jaguar E-Type when he sold the Zip2 company

-* He bought a McLaren F1 when he got the money from the PayPal

-* He owns a Ford Model T

-* Owned a Porsche 911

-* Owned a Hamann BMW M5

-* Owns an Audi Q7 SUV (it inspired him to create Falcon doors on the Model X because it is hard to get into)

-* He bought the Lotus Esprit submarine car, Wet Nellie, from the James Bond film in 2013 for approximately 1 million

Cool Facts About Elon Musk

-* Elon Musk is the wealthiest South African billionaire

-* Built rockets when he was a kid

-* Musk holds South African, Canadian, and U.S. citizenship

-* Smoked Weed On Live TV

-* Made a cameo In The Tony Stark Movie

-* Went to Russia to buy Russian rockets

-* Named his Falcon rocket after Star Wars' Millennium Falcon

-* Made a guest appearance on The Simpsons

-* Elon Musk reached out to Larry Page and Google to sell Tesla for $11 billion in 2013

-* Elon and his brother Kimbal sold homemade Easter Eggs for $10 when they were kids

-* Musk ran a nightclub out of his house in college with his roommate Andeo Ressi

-* Elon was bullied as a child

-* Elon was master at Dungeons & Dragons

Elon Musk's Parents

Well, this is where it gets crazy!

Elon Musk parents are Errol Musk, an engineer and a millionaire and Maye Musk, a model and a dietician. They divorced when Elon was 10, and while he stayed living with his father after the divorce, he later moved to his mothers' relatives home in Canada for his studies.

The relationship between Elon and his father Errol is especially troublesome. Errol, as an avid engineer and entrepreneur himself, was a sort of a playboy and did not pay much attention to the kids. After divorcing Maye, he married a widow Heide who already had three children, and had two kids with her. However, Errol had a child with his stepdaughter of thirty as well. She was only 4 when he married her mother. When this become public knowledge a few years ago, it created a massive rift between Elon and his father, who, supposedly, haven't spoken since.

Nevertheless, Errol, in one of many interviews he gave to the press said that he always supported Elon.

Furthermore, Errol allegedly killed three men that broke into his house, but he comes out clean as he killed them in self-defense.

On the other hand, Elon Musk mother, Maye Musk, was a finalist in the 1969 Miss South Africa beauty competition. She did continue her modeling career even after she came to the U.S., and she also starred in a Beyonce music video, appeared nude on the cover of Time magazine, and became CoverGirl's oldest spokesmodel at the age of 69.

Elon Musk's Siblings

Elon Musk has a younger brother Kimbal, and a younger sister Tosca.

Kimbal, born September 20, 1972, actually was a partner with Elon in many ventures, including the company Zip2, and the x.com venture that evolved into PayPal. Later, he ventured into the restaurant business after attending French Culinary Institute in New York City. He is a restauranteur to this day — a philanthropist, and an environmentalist too. He has three children.

Tosca Musk, born in 1974, is the youngest of the three. She has a good relationship with her brothers, and she focused on filmmaking and streaming service. After directing several movies (some of which Elon Musk directed), she co-founded the streaming service Passionflix. She has two children.

Elon Musk's Childhood

Elon Musk once said, "I was raised by books. Books, and then my parents."

Such a comment tells a lot about his childhood. Nevertheless, he was an avid reader, daydreamer, and a curious kid. Once, he said that he liked to fiddle a lot with homemade rockets and that he is amazed at how he grew up with all of his fingers.

More importantly than that, he felt lonely during childhood and, as he revealed later, he was ruthlessly bullied in school ending up hospitalized after bullies shoved him down a staircase. Later on, he joined a karate club and learned to defend himself.

Science fiction books were his obsession - especially from Isac Asimov - and I would say that these books largely shaped Elon Musk's future.

Actually, this is the list of books Elon Musk thinks everyone should read:

-* "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien

-* "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

-* "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" by Walter Isaacson

-* "Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down" by J.E. Gordon

-* "Ignition: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants" by John D. Clark

-* "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies" by Nick Bostrom

-* "Our Final Invention" by James Barrat

-* The "Foundation" trilogy by Isaac Asimov

-* "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein

-* "Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" by Max Tegmark

-* "Merchants of Doubt" by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

-* 'Einstein: His Life and Universe' by Walter Isaacson

Elon Musk's Relationships

"If I'm not in love, if I'm not with a long-term companion, I cannot be happy," he told Rolling Stone in 2017.

Elon Musk met his first wife Justine Wilson in Canada. They married in 2000 and had six sons. Unfortunately, one died to SIDS only ten weeks after birth. The marriage lasted until 2008, when Elon and Justine split, but, it seems, that they are still on good terms. Justine even said that she has a good relationship with his second wife Talulah Riley who he began dating in 2008. Riley and Musk married in 2010, but filed for divorce two years later. Interestingly enough, the couple remarried in 2013, but divorced again in 2016. Riley and Musk are still good friends and "take care of each other," as Riley said after the divorce.

He also dated actress Amber Heard for a year or so, and now dates Canadian singer Claire Elise Boucher (aka Grimes).