Who is ELON MUSK? | Biography Timeline - YouTube

WHO IS ELON MUSK?

June 1971 

Born in Pretoria, South Africa Musk was born on June 28,  

1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. He is the son  of Maye Musk, a model and dietitian from Canada,  

and Errol Musk, a South African  electromechanical engineer, pilot and sailor.

March 1981 Interest in Computing 

His parents divorced when  Elon was 10 during this time  

he really got into computers. At the  age of 10, he developed an interest  

in computing with the Commodore VIC-20  and taught himself computer programming.

March 1984 Sold his first video game 

By the age of 12, Musk sold the code of a  BASIC-based video game he created called Blastar,  

to a magazine called PC and Office  Technology, for approximately $500.

June 1989 Moved to Canada 

At the age of 17, Elon Musk moved to  Canada to attend Queen's University,  

avoiding mandatory service in  the South African military.

August 1992 University of Pennsylvania 

Musk left Canada to study business and physics  at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated  

with an undergraduate degree in economics and  stayed for a second bachelor's degree in physics.

February 1995 Started Zip2 

Musk and his brother, Kimbal, started Zip2,  a web software company that developed and  

marketed an Internet city guide for  the newspaper publishing industry.  

The company raised money from a  small group of angel investors.

February 1999 Sold Zip2 to Compaq 

Compaq acquired Zip2 for US$307 million  in cash and US$34 million in stock options  

in February 1999. Musk received US$22 million  for his 7 percent share from the sale.

March 1999 Cofounded X.com 

Musk co-founded X.com, a financial services  and payments company via email. It achieved  

a high level of security without it being  complicated for the user to make the transfer.

March 2000 X.com to PayPal 

X.com merged with Confinity Inc., a  software company based in Silicon Valley.  

Musk was attracted to Confinity  because of its easy payment system.  

The merged company changed its name to PayPal.

January 2000 First Wife 

Musk married Canadian author Justine Wilson  after meeting her while attending the University  

of Queens. They had six children together but  their first son, Nevada, passed away in infancy.

May 2002 Founded SpaceX 

Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, or  SpaceX, with US$100 million of his early fortune.  

SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch  vehicles with the goal of eventually building  

more affordable spacecraft that would make it  possible to one day reach and colonize Mars.

October 2002 eBay acquired PayPal 

PayPal was acquired by eBay  for US$1.5 billion in stock,  

of which Musk won 150 million USD in eBay shares.

July 2003 Tesla is Founded 

Engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning  founded Tesla Motors. Elon Musk came into the  

project in 2004, leading an investment  round in the Startup with a personal  

contribution of $70 million. Musk participated  in designing their first electric car,  

which was a Tesla Roadster sports  car based on the British Lotus Elise.

July 2006 Cofounded SolarCity 

Musk provided the initial concept and financial  capital for SolarCity. Co-founded by his cousins  

Lyndon and Peter Rive, SolarCity develops  and sells solar panels and solar roof tiles.

May 2012 SpaceX Dragon 

SpaceX's vehicle, Dragon docked with  the International Space Station (ISS),  

making history as the first commercial company  

to launch and berth a vehicle to  the International Space Station.

September 2014 Tesla Autopilot 

Tesla Motors announced its  first version of AutoPilot.  

Its system is capable of lane control  with autonomous steering, braking and  

speed limit adjustment based on signals image  recognition. Musk believes that before too long,  

the software will be good enough that it  can operate without active human oversight.

July 2016 Neuralink 

Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology  Startup company centred on creating devices  

that can be implanted in the human brain, with  the eventual purpose of helping human beings  

merge with software and keep pace with  advancements in artificial intelligence.

May 2016 SpaceX makes history 

After many failed attempts, SpaceX successfully  landed its Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship at sea  

after launching it into space for the first time  changing the economics of spaceflight forever.

January 2021 World’s richest man 

Musk is now worth $182.9 billion, which  again makes him the wealthiest person  

on the planet. According to Forbes' estimates,  the Tesla chief is now just less than  

$1 billion richer than Bezos, who falls  to the second-richest person in the world.

2025 Mars 

SpaceX intends to land on the Martian surface,  starting a project which could colonize Mars in  

40-100 years. Musk has said he’d like to die  there, if possible – though not on impact.