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Elon Musk (born: 1971, South Africa) is an Internet and space launch entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurial activities
Musk grew up in South Africa, the son of a South African engineer and a Canadian model. He left home at 17 for Kingston, Ontario where he enrolled at Queen's University. He left South Africa without his parents' support, in part because he wished to avoid compulsory service in the South African military. He got a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, where he received an undergraduate business degree from Wharton, staying on another year to finish a second degree in physics. He went on to a graduate program in energy physics at Stanford, in which he stayed exactly two days before dropping out to start Zip2 in 1995, which provided online content publishing software for news organizations. In 1999, Compaq's AltaVista division acquired Zip2 for US$341 million in cash and stock options. Elon and his brother Kimbal held about 12 percent of Zip2 at the time.
In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online banking company. X.com discontinued its banking service, but the company's PayPal online payment service, which it had acquired in March 2000 as part of its purchase of Confinity, proved highly successful. In February 2001, X.com changed its name to PayPal. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock. Before its sale, Musk owned 11.7% of PayPal.
In June 2002, Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), of which he is currently the CEO and CTO. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles, with an emphasis on low cost and high reliability. The company's first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets.
Musk's fortune is estimated at US$328 million.
Philanthropy
Non-space-related activities
Musk is Chairman of the Musk Foundation, which focuses its philanthropic efforts on science education, pediatric health, and clean energy.
Space-related activities
In 2001, Musk had plans for a "Mars Oasis" project , which would land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith. He put this project on hold when he discovered that launch costs would dwarf the mission development and construction costs for the project, and decided to work on lowering launch costs by founding SpaceX.
Musk is a member of the Board of Directors of the Planetary Society and the Board of Trustees of The X-Prize Foundation.
Interests
Musk owns a US$1.2M McLaren F1 sports car and a Czech-built Aero L-39 trainer, worth approximately US$250K. The 1994 model Falcon 900 aircraft used in the film, "Thank You For Smoking" (Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2006) is registered to Mr. Musk (N900SX). The only Falcon 900 listed on a popular aviation sales site with a published price, a 1989 model, sports a $16.9 million ask. Mr. Musk is listed as an Executive Producer of the film.
Education
- Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, B.S., Economics
- University of Pennsylvania, B.A., Physics
- Excelled at mathematics and science at Pretoria Boys High School.
External links
- An interview with Elon Musk, HobbySpace
- The Musk Foundation web site
- Statement of Elon Musk at House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Hearings on the Future Market for Commercial Space (April 20, 2005)
- 1999 Salon.com article on Elon
- Interview with nasaspaceflight.com (January 20, 2006)