From Pretoria to the world, happy Birthday Elon Musk

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and often regarded as the most successful tech investor and entrepreneur in the world turns 51 today(29 June 2022). Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and grew up for the majority of his life. He left for Canada in 1988, driven by US interests. In 1997, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and physics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Musk enrolled at Stanford University when he was 24 years old, but left after just two days to participate in the internet boom. His updates on projects like SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company frequently keep him in the news.

Being the CEO of Tesla has made Musk highly renowned. He took over as the organization’s CEO in 2007 when Martin Eberhard, the outgoing CEO, was fired. Tesla, one of the most valuable companies in the world, is currently valued at close to $700 billion on the market. He almost sells it to Google for $11 billion(R174,127,492.00, one hundred seventy-four million one hundred twenty-seven thousand four hundred ninety-two rands) back in 2013.

With the use of some of the proceeds from the sale of Zip2, Musk co-founded the financial services firm X.com, later known as PayPal.After eBay paid $1.5 billion to acquire PayPal in 2022, Musk made $180 million(R2,878,674,480.00 two billion eight hundred seventy-eight million six hundred seventy-four thousand four hundred eighty rands)

With $100 million(R1,599,263,600.00 one billion five hundred ninety-nine million two hundred sixty-three thousand six hundred rands)of this money, he started SpaceX. The space exploration corporation is currently worth $125 billion(R 2 001 798 750 000,00) on the market.

Mr. Mask has always had visions going back to the early days of the internet. In 1995, Musk co-founded Zip2, an online version of the yellow pages, with the goal of making money off the booming internet. The company started using borrowed funds. For $ 307 million(R4 920 362 680,00), Compaq Computer Corporation bought the company from Musk and his brother Kimbal in 1999. He received $22 million(R350,770,332.00) for his 7% stake as compensation.

Even as a young boy, Musk’s passion for the business was evident. At the age of 12, he produced and sold a $500 programming code for the video game “Blastar.”He also brought to the University of Pennsylvania his enthusiasm for acquiring capital. Musk opened a nightclub with a $5 cover charge with a friend in order to pay his rent.

Musk first got married in 2000 to Justine Wilson, with whom he shares five children. His wife from 2010 until their divorce in 2012 was the actress Talulah Riley. After getting wedded in 2013, they got divorced in 2016. In the past, Musk dated Amber Heard. In 2018, he made his relationship with Canadian musician Grimes public. They have a son and a daughter even though they are no longer together.

He is reportedly close to purchasing Twitter, a social network and microblogging service utilized by millions of individuals and organizations for real-time communication. According to an American regulatory filing on last month, Twitter’s board unanimously recommended that shareholders approve the proposed $44 billion(R 700,190,961,171) sales of the firm to billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

With a net worth of $224 billion(R 3,576,560,754), Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla, is the richest person in the world. Jeff Bezos, the creator of Amazon, ranks behind Musk in wealth, with an estimated net worth of $144 billion( R2,312,500,000,000).


Also read:University of Pretoria opens centre for the future of work

Source of News:Elon musk birthday june 28

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