Elon Musk Biography

Elon Musk (born in South Africa, 28 June 1971) is an American investor and inventor. He is the founder and CEO of SpaceX. After studying commerce at the Queen's School of Business for two years, Musk obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania. He founded SpaceX, Tesla Motors and co-founded PayPal.

Early life

Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa to a Canadian mother, and a South African father. Elon taught himself computer programming and at age 12 sold the computer code for a video game called Blastar for $500.

Musk graduated from Pretoria Boys High School and moved to Canada in 1988 at the age of 17 to avoid service in the South African military. In 1992, after spending two years at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Musk transferred to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and received an undergraduate degree in business and a second degree in physics. He moved to California to pursue a Ph.D. in applied physics at Stanford but left the program after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations in the areas of the Internet, renewable energy and outer space.

Career

Musk started Zip2, a web software company, with his brother, Kimbal Musk. The company developed and marketed an Internet "city guide" for the newspaper publishing industry. Musk obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with a company called CitySearch. Compaq acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options in 1999. Musk received 7% or $22 million from the sale.

X.com and PayPal

In March 1999,. Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company. One year later, the company acquired Confinity, which operated a subsidiary called PayPal. Musk developed the person-to-person payment platform and renamed his company PayPal.

PayPal's early growth was due in large part to a successful viral growth campaign created by Musk. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock. Before its sale, Musk, the company's largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal's shares.

SpaceX

Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), in June 2002 and is the CEO and CTO. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of rocket technology. The company's first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets and its first spacecraft is Dragon.

SpaceX was awarded a $1.6 billion NASA contract on 23 December 2008, for 12 flights of their Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, replacing the Space Shuttle after it retired in 2011. Initially, Falcon 9/Dragon will replace the cargo transport function of the Shuttle and astronaut transport will be handled by the Soyuz. However, SpaceX has designed Falcon 9/Dragon with astronaut transport in mind and the Augustine commission has recommended that astronaut transport be handled by commercial companies like SpaceX.

Musk has stated that he was influenced by Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and views space exploration as an important step in expanding"?if not preserving"?the consciousness of human life. Musk has said that multiplanetary life may serve as a hedge against threats to the survival of the human species. "An asteroid or a super volcano could destroy us, and we face risks the dinosaurs never saw: An engineered virus, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, catastrophic global warming or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us. Humankind evolved over millions of years, but in the last sixty years atomic weaponry created the potential to extinguish ourselves. Sooner or later, we must expand life beyond this green and blue ball"?or go extinct." Musk's goal is to reduce the cost of human spaceflight by a factor of 10. He founded SpaceX with $100 million of his early fortune. He remains chief executive officer and chief technology officer of the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company.

In seven years, SpaceX designed the family of Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon multi-purpose spacecraft from the ground up. In September 2009, SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately funded liquid-fuelled vehicle to put a satellite into Earth orbit. NASA selected SpaceX to be part of the first program that entrusts private companies to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. This contract, which has a minimum value of $1.6 billion and a maximum value of $3.1 billion, has become a cornerstone of the Space Station's continued access to cargo delivery and return. In addition to these services, SpaceX's goals include simultaneously lowering the price of orbital spaceflight and improving reliability, both by an order of magnitude, while creating the first fully reusable orbital launch vehicle. In the coming years, Musk will focus on delivering astronauts to the International Space Station, but has stated his personal goal of eventually enabling human exploration and settlement of Mars. In a 2011 interview, he said he hopes to send humans to Mars' surface within 10"20 years. On 25 May 2012, the SpaceX Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, making history as the first commercial company to launch and dock a vehicle to the International Space Station.

Tesla Motors

Musk led the Series A financing of Tesla Motors, after the company was founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The Series A round included investment by several smaller investment groups, including SDL Ventures and Compass Technology Partners. As a result of the financial crisis in 2008, Musk assumed the leadership of the company and currently serves as CEO and product architect.

Tesla Motors first built an electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, with sales of about 2,500 vehicles to 31 countries. Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan on 22 June 2012 and unveiled its third product, the Model X, aimed at the SUV/minivan market, on 9 February 2012. Model X is scheduled to begin production in 2014. In addition to its own cars, Tesla sells electric powertrain systems to Daimler for the Smart EV and Mercedes A Class, and to Toyota for the upcoming electric RAV4. Musk was also able to bring in both companies as long-term investors in Tesla.

Musk has also favoured building a sub-$30,000 subcompact and building and selling electric vehicle powertrain components so that other automakers can produce electric vehicles at affordable prices without having to develop the products in house. Several mainstream publications have compared him with Henry Ford for his work on advanced vehicle powertrains.

To overcome the range limitations of electric cars, Musk said in an interview with All Things D in May 2013 that Tesla is "dramatically accelerating" their network of supercharger stations, tripling the number on the East and West coasts during the month of June, with plans for more expansion across North America, including Canada, throughout the year. He is reported to have a 32% stake in Tesla, which is valued at $5.82 billion, as of August 2013.

SolarCity

Musk provided the initial concept for SolarCity, where he remains the largest shareholder and chairman of the board. SolarCity is the largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. His cousin Lyndon Rive is the CEO and co-founder. The underlying motivation for funding both SolarCity and Tesla is to help combat global warming. In 2012, Musk announced that SolarCity and Tesla Motors are collaborating to use electric vehicle batteries to smooth the impact of rooftop solar on the power grid.

Hyperloop

On August 12, 2013, Musk unveiled a proposal for a new form of transportation between the Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area, after being disappointed with the approved California High-Speed Rail system. He named it "hyperloop," a subsonic air travel machine that stretches approximately 350 miles (560 km) from Sylmar (a northern district of Los Angeles) to Hayward (east of San Francisco) and would theoretically allow commuters to travel between the cities in 30 minutes or less, providing a shorter traveling time than even a commercial airplane can currently provide. Musk's proposal would make travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. The total cost of the whole system was estimated to be about $6 billion. The system is proposed to use a partial vacuum to reduce aerodynamic drag, which it is theorized would allow for high speed travel with relatively low power. It was proposed to rely completely on solar energy for all power requirements.

Philanthropy

Musk is chairman of the Musk Foundation, which focuses its philanthropic efforts on science education, pediatric health and clean energy. He is a trustee of the X Prize Foundation, promoting renewable-energy technologies. He sits on the boards of The Space Foundation, The National Academies Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, The Planetary Society, and Stanford Engineering Advisory Board. Musk is also a member of the board of trustees of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

He began a multi-million dollar program through his foundation in 2010 to donate solar-power systems for critical needs in disaster areas. The first such solar-power installation was donated to a hurricane response center in Alabama that had been neglected by state and federal aid. To make it clear that this was not serving Musk's commercial interests, SolarCity noted that it had no present or planned business activity in Alabama. In a 2011 visit to Soma City in Fukhushima, Japan, which had been devastated by tsunami, he donated a solar power project valued at $250,000 to this city.

Musk had plans for a "Mars Oasis" project in 2001, which would land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith. He put this project on hold when he came to the conclusion that the fundamental problem preventing humanity from becoming a true spacefaring civilization was the lack of advancement in rocket technology. He has sought to address this by founding SpaceX to create revolutionary new interplanetary rockets.

His long-term goal is to help humanity through SpaceX by creating a true spacefaring civilization. Musk's philosophy and description of what is needed to solve the problem are provided in the IEEE podcast "Elon Musk: a founder of Paypal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX" and article "Risky Business."

Musk joined The Giving Pledge in April 2012, offering an ethical commitment to donate the majority of his fortune to philanthropic causes. Musk became a member of the campaign first popularised by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates with a class of 12 of America's wealthiest families and individuals, which included Arthur Blank and Michael Moritz.

Car blog Jalopnik reported on 16 August 2012 that Musk was supporting an effort by Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal to preserve the site of Nikola Tesla's lab on Long Island, New York and turn it into a museum, the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.

Musk had been a supporter of the U.S. Political Action Committee FWD.us, which was started by fellow high-profile entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg and advocates for immigration reform. However in May 2013, Musk publicly withdrew his support in protest of advertisements the PAC was running that supported causes like the Keystone Pipeline. It is common for PACs to support causes on both sides of the political spectrum in order to gain favor with lawmakers for the group's primary cause. Musk and other important members of the group, including David Sacks, pulled out of the organisation and criticized the strategy, calling it "cynical."

Awards and recognition

• Listed as one of Time Magazine's 100 people who most affected the world in 2010. Jon Favreau, director of the Iron Man movies, describes in his article how Musk was the inspiration for Favreau's film depiction of genius billionaire Tony Stark.
• The world governing body for aerospace records, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, presented Musk in 2010 with the highest award in air & space, the FAI Gold Space Medal, for designing the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit. Prior recipients include Neil Armstrong, Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites and John Glenn.
• Named as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine.
• In June 2011, Musk was awarded the $500,000 Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization
• In February 2011, Forbes listed Musk as one of "America's 20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 And Under".
• Recognized as a Living Legend in Aviation in 2010 by the Kitty Hawk Foundation for creating the successor to the Space Shuttle (Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft). Other recipients include Buzz Aldrin and Richard Branson.
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low award for the most outstanding contribution in the field of space transportation in 2007/2008. Musk was recognized for his design of the Falcon 1, the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit.
• National Space Society's Von Braun Trophy in 2008/2009, given for leadership of the most significant achievement in space. Prior recipients include Burt Rutan and Steve Squyres.
• National Wildlife Federation 2008 National Conservation Achievement award for Tesla Motors and SolarCity. Other 2008 recipients include journalist Thomas Friedman, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy and Florida Governor Charlie Crist.
• The Aviation Week 2008 Laureate for the most significant achievement worldwide in the space industry.
• R&D Magazine Innovator of the Year for 2007 for SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity.
• Automotive Executive of the Year (worldwide) in 2010 for demonstrating technology leadership and innovation via Tesla Motors. Prior awardees include Bill Ford Jr, Bob Lutz, Dieter Zetsche and Lee Iacocca. Musk is the youngest ever recipient of this award.
• Inc Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2007 for his work on Tesla and SpaceX.
• 2007 Index Design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster. Global Green 2006 product design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev.
• In 2010, Musk was elected to the board of trustees of the California Institute of Technology.
• In 2011, Musk was honored as a Legendary Leader at the Churchill Club Awards.
• In 2012, Musk was awarded with the Royal Aeronautical's Society's highest award " a Gold Medal.

Musk is a Director of the Planetary Society, a Trustee of The X-Prize Foundation and a member of the Stanford University Engineering Advisory Board. He has previously served as a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board. In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Musk was ranked as the No. 10 (tied with rocketry pioneer and scientist Wernher von Braun) most popular space hero.

Honorary doctorates

• Honorary doctorate in design from the Art Center College of Design
• Honorary doctorate (DUniv) in aerospace engineering from the University of Surrey

Interests

Musk has described himself as a workaholic who routinely invests 100 hours per week running Tesla Motors and SpaceX, often flying in a corporate jet.

The SpaceX factory was used as a filming location for Iron Man 2, and Musk has a cameo in the movie.

Musk previously owned a McLaren F1 sports car and a Czech-made jet trainer aircraft Aero L-39. The 1994 model Dassault Falcon 900 aircraft used in the 2005 film Thank You for Smoking is registered to Musk (N900SX) and Musk had a cameo as the pilot of his plane, opening the door for Robert Duvall and escorting Aaron Eckhart aboard. Musk has attended the Burning Man festival, and says that he first thought up the idea for SolarCity at the 2004 festival.

Family

Musk lives in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, California. Musk met his first wife, the Canadian-born author Justine Musk, while they were both students at Queen's University. They were married in 2000. They announced their separation in September 2008. Musk announced in January 2012 that he had recently ended a four-year relationship with his second wife, British actress Talulah Riley.

Musk has five children, all boys: Twins that were seven years old in March 2012 and triplets that were five years old at that time. He shares custody with Justine Musk.

Tosca Musk, Elon's sister, is the founder of Musk Entertainment and has produced various movies. Elon was the executive producer of her first movie, Puzzled. His brother Kimbal was the CEO of a social search company OneRiot and owner of The Kitchen restaurant with locations in Boulder and Denver, Colorado.

His cousin Lyndon Rive is the CEO and co-founder of Solar City.