Elon Musk, a South African-born American entrepreneur who founded X.com (which later became PayPal), SpaceX and Tesla Motors. In his twenties, Musk became a multimillionaire after he sold Zip2, his start-up business, to Compaq Computers.

Musk was the headlines when SpaceX launched a rocket to send the first commercial vehicle into orbit at the International Space Station in May 2012. Musk is believed to have surpassed Jeff Bezos in wealth by January 2021.

His early life:

Musk was born in Pretoria (South Africa) on June 28, 1971. He later lost himself in his dreams about inventions as a child and his parents ordered him to have a hearing test.

Musk Elon became interested in computers at the age of 10, around the time his parents divorced. He learned how to program and sold Blastar, his first software game. Musk was introverted, short and bookish in grade school.

Education:

Musk, then 17, moved to Canada in 1989 to attend Queen’s University. He wanted to avoid South African military service and to be able to go to Queen’s University. Musk gained his Canadian citizenship in 1989 because he believed it would be easier for him to attain American citizenship through that route.

Musk moved to the United States in 1992 to study physics and business at the University of Pennsylvania. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in economics, and then he continued his studies for a second bachelor’s in physics.

Musk moved to Stanford University to complete his PhD in energy physics after he left Penn. His timing was perfect for the Internet boom. He left Stanford University after only two days to launch Zip2 Corporation, his first company. In 2002, Musk received his U.S. citizen.

His Achievements and Companies

PayPal:

Elon Musk and Kimbal Musk created X.com in 1999 using the money from Zip2’s sale. PayPal was created by acquring X.com in the next year.

Therefore, Musk was awarded his first billion dollars in October 2002 when PayPal was purchased by eBay for $1.5billion stock.

SpaceX:

Musk started Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (or SpaceX) in 2002 to build spacecraft for commercial space travel. SpaceX had become a well-established company by 2008. NASA awarded SpaceX the cargo transport contract for the International Space Station. SpaceX also plans to transport astronauts in the future, in an attempt to replace NASA’s space shuttle missions.