Elon Musk is the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity.
He has made billions in his lifetime, so he must be from a wealthy family, right?
While it may seem like all signs point to Elon coming from privilege, the truth could surprise you!
Let’s find out more about the billionaire!
Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. He is the oldest of three children and he had a brother and sister who were twins.
When Elon was only eight years old his father taught him how to program on an Atari computer that they had at home.
His parents divorced when Musk was around the age of nine or ten which left Elon’s mother with all four kids!
Elon went to Waterkloof House Preparatory School before attending Bryanston High School. He often got into trouble for skipping class as well as pranks like painting one of the teacher’s cars with graffiti!
Life After College
After high school, Elon made it his goal to move over to North America right away.
But first, he completed two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
He studied economics as well as physics!
After Elon moved to the United States, he eventually attended graduate school at Stanford but dropped out after only two days because it wasn’t challenging enough for him.
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Was Elon Musk Born Rich?
Elon Musk’s family was wealthy when he started. Actually, they were very wealthy according to his father Erol.
In his interview with Business Insider, he said: “We were very wealthy, we had so much money at times we couldn’t even close our safe.”
The First Successful Company
Elon Musk is most famously known for being the co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla Motors which was founded on July 01, 2003.
The company manufactures electric cars that many celebrities own including Will Smith, Jay Z, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cameron Diaz just to name a few. His brand also pioneered the future of automobiles!
Tesla Motors has had some major success with their first vehicle called the Roadster.
The car costs $101 900 (before any tax credits) and can go 245 miles per charge! That is amazing!
SpaceX
Elon Musk is also the co-founder and CEO of SpaceX which was founded on May 06, 2002. This company has a long-term goal to reduce space transportation costs as well as colonize Mars.
They have done some incredible things already including sending their first rocket into orbit in 2008. What is even more impressive is that they landed it back on Earth!
In 2010 they made history by sending an unmanned capsule with cargo up to the International Space Station.
In 2017 they successfully reused one of their rockets for the first time ever!
That’s huge news because normally those things are destroyed after launch but now we could potentially see them used over and over again!
Last year, SpaceX has launched seven rockets, more than any other launch company in history!
The company also intends to launch other rockets for space exploration.
Elon Musk’s Personal Life
Most of you wouldn’t know whether Elon Musk was married a few years ago. When NASA wanted to send an astronaut into space for over one year they needed someone who had already done that before. Well, guess what?
That person was none other than Talulah Riley! So yes, Elon has been married twice and both marriages lasted about six years each time. His first wife could not handle his busy schedule so she divorced him.
His second marriage ended because of their different ideas about having children together. During this most recent divorce, Elon and Talulah decided to share custody of their five young sons.
The Future
Elon Musk is one busy man! He currently has five companies that he works full time for including Tesla Motors, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and OpenAI.
While all of these companies may not be household names (yet), they are making huge waves in the industries they work in. Because of this, you can only guess what new ideas or concepts will come out next from him. Whatever they are, they are worth getting excited about!
