Who is Elon Musk?

Elon Musk is an eccentric billionaire, entrepreneur, business leader, and investor. He's also the world's highest paid CEO and the world's richest person -- thanks to a net worth that exceeds $240 billion.

Musk's early years

Musk's early years

Musk was born in 1971 in South Africa. His father was an engineer and his mom, a model and dietitian.

As a child, Musk gravitated towards computers and programming -- teaching himself to code by reading a book. At 12 years old, he created a video game and sold it to a computing magazine for $500.

His interest in books, learning, and computers helped him escape from a troubled social life. Musk has Asperger's syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. Difficulty reading social cues and the inability to relate to others' feelings are common symptoms. He has said his childhood was lonely and unhappy, and has said he was bullied.

How did Elon Musk make his money?

How did Elon Musk make his money?

Musk moved to Canada at 17, then later headed south to attend the University of Pennsylvania. While a student at Penn, Musk and his brother launched Zip2, an internet company that began as an online directory of local businesses. The company came to life when Musk wrote code that merged a database of businesses into an electronic mapping application.

Zip2 began charging local businesses for inclusion and, later, licensed its local online directories to newspapers including The New York Times.

In 1999, Compaq Computer bought Zip2 for $307 million. Musk was no longer a majority shareholder or CEO at that point, but he reportedly received $22 million from the sale.

Elon Musk companies

Elon Musk companies

Zip2 was Musk's first major business venture and investment. It would be followed by many more, including:

• Paypal (PYPL -0.14%). Musk and three co-founders launched internet bank X.com in 1999. X.com later merged with Confinity to form Paypal.
• SpaceX. Musk reportedly spent $100 million to launch SpaceX, a private space exploration company. Today, SpaceX partners with NASA on missions to the International Space Station. SpaceX also runs Starlink, a satellite-powered internet service.
• Tesla (TSLA 1.97%). Musk got involved in Tesla in 2004 as a major investor. He became CEO in 2008.
• Solarcity. Musk's relatives founded Solarcity and Musk funded it. The company became a major installer of residential solar energy systems. Tesla purchased Solarcity in 2016.
• OpenAI. Musk was one of the original founders and funders of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. He ended his personal and financial involvement in the company in 2018, citing conflicts with Tesla's AI initiatives. OpenAI was originally a nonprofit but switched to for-profit status after Musk left.
• Neuralink. Musk founded Neuralink in 2016 to develop "brain-computer interfaces." The biotechnology is still in development, but Neuralink believes it can help quadriplegics improve their quality of life. The top priority is empowering people with paralysis to use a point-and-click computer cursor.
• The Boring Company. The Boring Company digs tunnels. It began as a subsidiary of SpaceX but was spun off in 2018. Today, the company primarily works on tunnel projects in Las Vegas.
• Twitter. Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022. As explained in more detail below, his leadership of the social media company has been controversial.

Elon Musk and Paypal

Elon Musk and Paypal

Paypal would make Musk a fortune, even though his involvement in the company was relatively short-lived. He launched the online bank -- a revolutionary idea at the time -- with a chunk of his take from the Zip2 deal.

Musk initially recruited former Intuit CEO Bill Harris as X.com's first president and CEO. Unfortunately for Harris, X.com merged with competitor Confinity just a few months later. In March 2000, Musk became CEO of the new combined entity.

His post as chief executive ended about six months later. Musk was away on his honeymoon when the board replaced him with Confinity cofounder Peter Thiel. Business Insider reports that Musk had created friction among the leadership team by insisting the company move its servers from a free Unix system to a Microsoft (MSFT 1.69%) setup.

In 2001, X.com changed its name to Paypal. The company went public in 2002 and was purchased by eBay later that year. Musk reportedly made $250 million from the transaction.

Elon Musk and Tesla

Elon Musk and Tesla

Contrary to popular belief (and Musk's own bio at Tesla.com), Musk is not technically a cofounder of Tesla. The company was the brainchild of serial entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.

Musk did get involved early on, leading Tesla's Series A funding round and putting in more than $6 million of his own cash. He also assumed the role of chairman. At that time, Eberhard was the company's chief executive and Tarpenning was the CFO.

In 2006, Musk was the lead investor in Tesla's second round of funding, which brought in money from Alphabet (GOOG 0.5%) founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

In the same year, Musk published his "secret" master plan for the carmaker. The immediate elements of that plan were to build a sports car that makes money and reinvest those funds into more affordable electric cars. He also alluded to Tesla playing a larger role in the world's energy use, saying the company would provide "zero-emission electric power generation options."

Cofounders Eberhard and Tarpenning left Tesla in early 2008. By the end of the year, Musk had stepped in as CEO. One of his first actions was laying off 25% of the workforce.

Eberhard would later sue Musk for libel, claiming Musk unfairly blamed Eberhard for Tesla's troubles. Eberhard did not stick to his guns, though, and dropped the suit within months.

Under Musk's leadership, Tesla would:

• Get a $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2009.
• Go public and raise $226 million in 2010.
• Launch the Models S, X, and 3.
• Set up a network of free charging stations for Tesla owners.
• Introduce semi-autonomous driving.
• Develop solar battery packs for home and business use and purchase Solarcity.
• Install a grid-scale battery pack in Australia.
• Launch electric semi trucks.
• Design an all-electric, light-duty pickup truck, to begin production in 2023.

Musk stepped down as chairman of Tesla in 2018 after the SEC sued him for tweeting misleading statements about company.

Today, Tesla is an S&P 500 stock with a market capitalization topping $500 billion. And although the stock has struggled in the past year, the company's 10-year trailing return is still a jaw-dropping 46%.

Elon Musk and Twitter

Elon Musk and Twitter

Twitter is Musk's most recent transaction and the most contentious.

Musk began investing in Twitter in January 2022. By mid-March, he owned more than 9% of the social media giant. Twitter then announced Musk would join the board, before quickly changing course and saying he wouldn't be a board member, after all.

Musk's offer to buy Twitter became public in April. His bid of $54.20 per share was generous, given the stock had been trading mostly in the $30s since January. In an SEC filing, Musk explained why he wanted to buy Twitter:

Within weeks, Musk had secured commitments to finance the deal and Twitter had accepted his buyout offer. An SEC filing revealed Musk's investor list, which included cryptocurrency exchange Binance, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, and private equity growth fund DFJ Growth IV Partners, LLC.

And then, things got interesting. Musk, concerned about fake Twitter accounts, tweeted that his acquisition bid was on hold. Twitter shareholders responded with a class action lawsuit, alleging stock price manipulation. Musk then attempted to terminate the deal with an official notice in July.

In response, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk, arguing he was obligated to complete the deal. The court granted the case an expedited timeline, scheduling it to proceed in October. Before the case went anywhere, Musk reversed course again, and moved to finalize the transaction. His Twitter acquisition closed on Oct. 28.

Twitter's uncertain future

Twitter's uncertain future

Musk stepped in as Twitter CEO and immediately shook things up by laying off half the company's workforce. He followed that move with several unpopular strategies, including the creation of Twitter Blue and elimination of free access to Twitter's API.

Twitter Blue is a subscription service. It comes with a few features, but the most significant is a blue checkmark on the user's profile indicating identity verification. Twitter has also said its algorithm will favor Blue subscribers in conversations and searches.

Twitter formerly offered the blue checkmark and verification for free -- to prevent bad actors from impersonating celebrities and public figures.

The elimination of free access to Twitter's API potentially limits Twitter's usefulness and ecosystem. Developers use the access to build and maintain applications that connect to Twitter. Those applications include social media publishing tools and analytics tools for researchers. Many of the tools subsequently shut down.

In March 2023, Musk valued Twitter at $20 billion -- less than half of what he paid for it. Twitter Blue has not gained traction, and top advertisers are taking their ad budgets elsewhere. Twitter is now also facing lawsuits from vendors for unpaid bills.

A controversial business leader

Musk has amassed incredible wealth and fame through his investments. He's also earned and lost his reputation several times over. Only time will tell what his most memorable accomplishment will be -- privatizing space travel, overhauling the world's energy infrastructure, destroying (or saving) Twitter, giving quadriplegics greater freedom to engage with their world, or something bigger that's yet to come.