Elon Musk has risen to fame by founding a number of the most revolutionary tech firms on this planet in the present day, together with electrical car maker Tesla and area exploration firm SpaceX. As we speak, Musk ranks because the richest particular person on this planet, in response to Bloomberg, largely because of his roughly 13 p.c stake in Tesla, which was value about $74 billion as of February 2024.
However Musk’s enterprise practices are unconventional and generally controversial. In 2022, he agreed to accumulate social media firm Twitter in a $44 billion deal earlier than later attempting to again out of the deal. He in the end agreed to shut the deal at its authentic phrases earlier than a Delaware trial was set to start.
Right here’s what else it is best to learn about Musk together with how he received his begin and his largest investments in the present day.
Key information about Elon Musk
- Estimated web value of $200 billion as of February 2024, making him the richest particular person on this planet, in response to Bloomberg. He’s about $5 billion forward of the person in second place, Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos.
- Leads 5 ventures: Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, Neuralink and The Boring Firm.
- Born in Pretoria, South Africa and acquired his first pc at age 10.
- Graduated from the College of Pennsylvania with levels in Physics and Economics.
- In 2012, Musk joined Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, which asks billionaires to dedicate nearly all of their wealth to charitable causes.
- Co-founder of on-line cost system PayPal, which was offered to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
- Helped launch The Boring Firm, a tunneling enterprise that hopes to alleviate city congestion and permit for high-speed, long-distance journey.
- CEO of Neuralink, which is working to develop interfaces that enable the human mind to be linked to computer systems.
- Agreed in 2018 to settle securities fraud prices introduced towards him by the Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) after he tweeted that he might take Tesla personal for $420 per share and that funding had been secured, which the SEC stated “lacked an sufficient foundation in reality.”
- Disclosed a 9 p.c stake in Twitter in April 2022 earlier than agreeing to accumulate all the firm in a $44 billion deal later that month. He later sought to again out of the deal earlier than reversing his place and finishing the deal at its authentic phrases.
Elon Musk’s prime investments
Elon Musk has been concerned in some main tech firms, a few of which have change into among the many largest firms within the U.S.
| Firm | Worth | # of Staff |
|---|---|---|
| *Notice: Tesla and PayPal values are as of Feb. 6, 2024. SpaceX worth is as of December 2023, The Boring Firm is as of October 2023 and Neuralink is as of November 2023.Sources: Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, The Data and PitchBook | ||
| Tesla | $587 billion | 140,473 |
| SpaceX | $180 billion | 13,000 |
| The Boring Firm | Over $7 billion | ~200 |
| Neuralink | $3.5 billion | |
| PayPal | $68 billion | 29,900 |
PayPal/X.com
After promoting Zip2, a software program firm designed to assist newspapers construct on-line metropolis guides, to Compaq Pc in 1999, Musk used the proceeds to create X.com. He later merged the enterprise with cash switch firm Confinity they usually mixed to create PayPal.
When PayPal was offered to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion, Musk’s 11.7 p.c stake ended up netting him about $180 million after taxes. The sale of PayPal created important wealth for its founders and early workers, who went on to create and put money into new tech firms. The group of PayPal founders, which incorporates investor and political activist Peter Thiel and Affirm CEO Max Levchin, got here to be often known as the “PayPal Mafia.”
Tesla
Based in 2003, Tesla has change into a pacesetter in electrical car manufacturing. Musk joined Tesla as an investor in 2004 and have become chairman of its board of administrators, finally changing into CEO in 2008. Tesla launched its first automotive in 2008, and its Mannequin S, launched in 2012, was named the most effective general automotive by Shopper Studies. Tesla turned the world’s most respected automotive firm in the summertime of 2020 and its market worth topped $1 trillion within the fall of 2021 earlier than falling in 2022. The corporate had a market worth of about $587 billion as of February 2024.
Musk owns a roughly 13 p.c stake in Tesla and has important affect on the firm, main product design, engineering and world manufacturing for the corporate’s EVs, battery and photo voltaic power merchandise.
In 2018, Musk and Tesla agreed to every pay $20 million to settle securities fraud prices introduced by the SEC after Musk tweeted that he might take the corporate personal for $420 per share and that funding had been secured, regardless of there being no sufficient foundation for the declare. Musk was additionally pressured to step down as chair of Tesla for 3 years as a part of the settlement.
SpaceX
Musk can be CEO and lead designer at SpaceX, which develops rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth’s orbit and in the end, the corporate says, to different planets. Musk used nearly all of the cash he gained from PayPal to begin SpaceX in 2002. The corporate has received contracts with NASA and the U.S. Air Pressure to design rockets.
SpaceX is a non-public firm, however Musk held a 42 p.c stake within the enterprise by means of a belief, in response to a 2022 submitting reviewed by Bloomberg.
Neuralink
Neuralink is creating ultra-high bandwidth mind machine interfaces to attach human brains to computer systems, in response to the corporate’s web site. The corporate introduced it had raised $205 million in 2021 from numerous enterprise capital corporations and traders together with Google.
The corporate says Musk’s aim with Neuralink is to assist folks with mind accidents within the close to time period and scale back the chance that synthetic intelligence poses to humanity in the long run. The corporate is without doubt one of the smallest Musk is concerned with and has fewer than 500 workers.
In January 2024, Musk introduced that the primary human had acquired a Neuralink mind implant and that the affected person was recovering properly.
The Boring Firm
The Boring Firm seeks to mix quick, inexpensive tunneling expertise with an electrical public transportation system in an effort to ease city congestion and permit for high-speed, long-distance journey. The corporate constructed a 1.15-mile tunnel in Hawthorne, California for use for analysis and growth and is presently constructing Vegas Loop, a public transportation system on the Las Vegas Conference Heart.
The corporate was valued at greater than $7 billion after an worker share sale in October 2023, in response to a report from The Data. That valuation is greater than its valuation throughout a funding spherical in April 2022 when it raised $675 million. The 2022 funding was led by Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital, two main enterprise capital corporations.
DeepMind Applied sciences
Synthetic intelligence firm DeepMind Applied sciences was began in 2010 with Musk as a key investor. The corporate has developed AI programs that play video games higher than people. Musk has lengthy warned concerning the risks of AI and the chance it poses to civilization.
Google acquired DeepMind in 2014 for a reported sum of $600 million.
SolarCity
SolarCity was began in 2006 by two of Musk’s cousins and financially backed by Musk, who served on the corporate’s board. The corporate offered and put in photo voltaic era programs and different associated merchandise to residential, business and industrial clients.
Tesla agreed to accumulate SolarCity in a $2.6 billion deal in 2016. Some critics characterised the acquisition as a bailout for SolarCity, which had struggled to lift cash. Musk stated he wasn’t concerned within the valuation of the acquisition and later received a shareholder lawsuit associated to the deal.
Elon Musk’s web value
Elon Musk has grown his web value by creating and investing in firms. He’s been in a position to flip his proceeds from the sale of PayPal early in his profession into even better sums by redeploying the cash into ventures which have turned out enormously properly.
His present estimated web value of $200 billion has grown tremendously for the reason that begin of 2020, when it stood at about $27.6 billion, in response to Bloomberg. Since then, Tesla’s inventory has appreciated greater than six-fold and Musk’s web value has risen with it, vaulting him into the place of richest particular person on this planet. At his web value of $27.6 billion at first of 2020, he’d sit at quantity 57 on the present record of billionaires.
Elon Musk and Twitter
In April 2022, Musk disclosed a 9 p.c stake in social media firm Twitter after years of being an energetic consumer with a big following. Ultimately he agreed to buy all the firm earlier than later attempting to again out of the deal. He in the end agreed to buy the corporate on the authentic deal phrases. Right here’s a timeline of how the occasions performed out:
- April 4, 2022: Musk disclosed that he holds a 9 p.c stake in Twitter, sending Twitter shares hovering.
- April 25, 2022: Twitter accepts Musk’s bid to take over the corporate in a $44 billion deal, which values the corporate at $54.20 per share.
- July 8, 2022: Musk seeks to terminate the merger settlement with Twitter, saying he hasn’t acquired sufficient info to grasp what number of pretend accounts exist on the platform.
- July 12, 2022: Twitter information a lawsuit towards Musk, looking for to pressure him to honor the merger settlement. The corporate stated it “bent over backwards” to supply the knowledge he requested.
- July 19, 2022: Delaware choose grants Twitter’s request to fast-track its lawsuit, setting a five-day trial to start in October.
- August 4, 2022: In a countersuit, Musk accuses Twitter of fraud, saying the corporate misrepresented key consumer metrics earlier than he agreed to accumulate the corporate.
- August 6, 2022: Musk challenges Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to a public debate concerning the proportion of Twitter customers which might be pretend or spam accounts.
- October 4, 2022: Musk agrees to buy Twitter on the authentic deal value of $54.20/share weeks earlier than a Delaware trial was set to start.
- October 6, 2022: Delaware choose units an Oct. 28 deadline for Musk and Twitter to finish the deal.
- October 28, 2022: Musk completes deal for Twitter and instantly fires its prime executives together with its CEO and CFO.
- Could 12, 2023: Musk broadcasts that he’s employed NBCUniversal govt Linda Yaccarino to be Twitter’s new CEO.
- June 5, 2023: The New York Occasions experiences that Twitter’s advert gross sales fell 59 p.c from April 1 by means of the primary week of Could, in comparison with the identical interval in 2022.
- July 24, 2023: Musk unveiled a brand new X brand, saying it might substitute Twitter’s blue chicken, doubtlessly organising the corporate to enter the monetary providers business.
Elon Musk and cryptocurrency
Musk has additionally been a frequent commentator and supporter of cryptocurrencies by means of his tweets. In February 2021, Tesla introduced it had bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and deliberate to simply accept the coin as cost for its product and providers. A number of months later, Musk appeared on Saturday Night time Stay the place he referred to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin as a “hustle.” The coin fell 30 p.c after Musk’s feedback and has fallen even additional since.
Tesla stopped accepting Bitcoin as cost only a few months after it began resulting from environmental considerations. Musk stated in July 2021 that Tesla would “almost certainly” settle for Bitcoin once more as soon as it turns into extra eco-friendly.
In July 2022, Tesla stated it had transformed about 75 p.c of its Bitcoin holdings into fiat forex, regardless of touting the long-term potential of Bitcoin a 12 months earlier.
Funding recommendation from Elon Musk
- Spend money on bodily issues: Musk wrote in a tweet in March 2022 that “it’s typically higher to personal bodily issues like a house or inventory in firms you suppose make good merchandise, than {dollars} when inflation is excessive.” He added that he wouldn’t be promoting his cryptocurrency holdings reminiscent of Bitcoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin.
- Diversification: “Purchase inventory in a number of firms that make services that *you* imagine in,” Musk wrote to followers in 2022. By suggesting traders select a number of firms, Musk is arguing for a diversified method, which implies you received’t be sunk if one or two of your investments carry out poorly.
- Keep calm: Musk means that the one purpose to promote an funding is that if an organization’s services are deteriorating. “Don’t panic when the market does,” he says.
