Elon Musk becomes world’s first trillionaire
He founded SpaceX in 2002, now serving as its Chief Executive Officer, and became the chairman of electric carmaker Tesla in 2004
He founded SpaceX in 2002, now serving as its Chief Executive Officer, and became the chairman of electric carmaker Tesla in 2004
He founded SpaceX in 2002, now serving as its Chief Executive Officer, and became the chairman of electric carmaker Tesla in 2004
• SpaceX made its stock market debut, sending the company’s value past $2 trillion to make it the sixth-biggest US company by value and turning Elon Musk into the world’s first trillionaire.
• One trillion dollars is a thousand times greater than $1 billion.
• The IPO comes just over a year after Musk left President Donald Trump's administration, following a months-long stint leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Who is Elon Musk?
• Elon Musk is the CEO and co-founder of SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, X Corp and The Boring Company.
• Born in Pretoria, on June 28, 1971, the son of an engineer father and a Canadian-born model mother, Musk left South Africa in his late teens to attend Queen’s University in Ontario.
• He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania after two years and earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and business.
• After graduating from the prestigious Ivy League school, Musk abandoned plans to study at Stanford University.
• Instead, he dropped out and started Zip2, a company that made online publishing software for the media industry.
• He banked his first millions before the age of 30 when he sold Zip2 to US computer maker Compaq for more than $300 million in 1999.
• Musk’s next company, X.com, eventually merged with PayPal, the online payments firm bought by internet auction giant eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.
• He founded SpaceX in 2002, now serving as its Chief Executive Officer, and became the chairman of electric carmaker Tesla in 2004.
• As lead designer at SpaceX, Elon oversees the development of rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and ultimately to other planets. The SpaceX Falcon 1 was the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit, in 2008. In 2017, SpaceX made further history by re-flying both a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft for the first time. By pioneering the development of reusable rockets, SpaceX is pursuing the long-term goal of making humans a multi-planet species.
• Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX.
• At Tesla, Musk leads all product design, engineering and global manufacturing of the company's electric vehicles, battery products and solar energy products.
• Neuralink is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.
• The Boring Company combines fast, affordable tunneling technology with an all-electric public transportation system in order to alleviate soul-crushing urban congestion and enable high-speed, long-distance travel.
• In 2022, Musk purchased social media platform Twitter and renamed it as X.