Elon Musk: Tech genius, social media boss, eccentric billionaire

Elon Musk revolutionised the auto business, despatched his personal rocket to house, and constructed the world’s largest fortune. And now, the Tesla CEO is the ‘Chief Twit’.

By Agence France-Presse: Elon Musk is at turns ingenious, impulsive and infuriating. He can be a company maverick, unafraid to deal with myriad industries by his personal guidelines.

After revolutionizing the auto business, sending his personal rocket to house — together with his automotive on board — and constructing the world’s largest fortune, the eccentric billionaire is the brand new king of social media after he took cost of Twitter on Thursday and fired its high executives.

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That will give him management of the community on which the world debates, mobilizes, bickers and throws shade, Musk typically first amongst them.
The deal can even gas the fireplace over his political opinions, enterprise strategies, outsized persona and unconventional private life — flames he does nothing to douse.

He is libertarian, anti-woke and promotes himself as a champion of free speech. He has been accused of being autocratic and bullying.

“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square” for wholesome debate, Musk stated earlier Thursday, whereas insisting it couldn’t turn out to be a “free-for-all hellscape.”

His takeover of the social media juggernaut caps a months-long curler coaster of bulletins, counter-announcements and authorized maneuvering — which he characteristically punctuated by firing jabs on the firm by itself platform.

ALSO READ | Day 1: Elon Musk requested Twitter staff to print out their code for overview

It is the newest company conquest for Musk, after on-line publishing and funds, house journey and electrical automobiles.

The 51-year-old is the richest individual on this planet, a title he took final yr from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos following the meteoric rise of Tesla, his electrical automaker based in 2003.

– Newsmaker, for higher and worse –

Musk’s companies make headlines for the fitting causes: his house transport agency SpaceX is a associate in a three-way enterprise that despatched the primary totally personal mission to the International Space Station.

But his empire additionally makes information of a much less flattering type: Tesla has confronted a collection of lawsuits alleging discrimination in opposition to Black staff in addition to sexual harassment.

ALSO READ | Elon Musk financed $44 billion Twitter cope with huge loans, private money and extra

In parallel with the whiplash-inducing stream of enterprise information, Musk’s unconventional personal life additionally retains the world’s eyebrows raised.

Musk has had two youngsters together with his on-again off-again associate, the musician Grimes: a son, X AE A-XII, often known as X, and a lady they named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk — though the mother and father will largely name her Y.

He additionally fathered twins with a high govt in Neuralink, an organization he co-founded.

One method or one other, Musk has turn out to be probably the most ubiquitous figures of the period. So how did he get the place he’s at present?

– To Mars… and past? –

Born in Pretoria, on June 28, 1971, the son of an engineer father and a Canadian-born mannequin mom, Musk left South Africa in his late teenagers to attend Queen’s University in Ontario.

He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania after two years and earned bachelor’s levels in physics and enterprise.

After graduating from the Ivy League faculty, Musk deserted plans to review at Stanford University in California.

Instead, he dropped out and began Zip2, an organization that made on-line publishing software program for the media business.

He banked his first tens of millions earlier than the age of 30 when he offered Zip2 to US laptop maker Compaq for greater than $300 million in 1999.

Musk’s subsequent firm, X.com, ultimately merged with PayPal, the net funds agency purchased by web public sale big eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

After leaving PayPal, Musk launched into a collection of ever extra formidable ventures.

He based SpaceX in 2002 — now serving as its chief govt officer and chief know-how officer — and have become the chairman of electrical carmaker Tesla in 2004.

ALSO READ | Elon Musk enters Twitter workplace carrying a rest room sink, adjustments bio to chief twit forward of formal Twitter purchase

After some early crashes and near-misses, SpaceX perfected the artwork of touchdown booster engines on stable floor and ocean platforms, rendering them reusable, and late final yr it despatched 4 vacationers into house, on the primary ever orbital mission with no skilled astronauts on board.

Musk’s jokingly-named The Boring Company is touting an ultra-fast “Hyperloop” rail transport system that will transport folks at close to supersonic speeds.

And he has stated he desires to make people an “interplanetary species” by establishing a colony of individuals dwelling on Mars.

To this finish, SpaceX is creating a prototype rocket, Starship, which it envisages carrying crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and past — with Musk saying he feels assured of an orbital check this yr, probably in November.

Musk, who holds US, Canadian and South African citizenship, has been married and divorced thrice — as soon as to the Canadian creator Justine Wilson and twice to actress Talulah Riley. He has 9 youngsters. A tenth baby died in infancy.

Forbes estimates his present internet price at $222 billion.

ALSO READ | Why is Elon Musk shopping for Twitter? Read his full reply and reasoning right here

Published On:

Oct 30, 2022