Elon Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born entrepreneur and CEO known for leading Tesla and SpaceX, aiming to revolutionize transportation and enable multi-planetary life. Co-founder of PayPal and OpenAI, he later acquired Twitter (now X) and founded Neuralink. Known for high risk-taking, his work focuses on space exploration, AI, and renewable energy.

Early Life and Education

Birth: Born in Pretoria, South Africa, to a Canadian mother and South African father.
Background: Taught himself computer programming at age 12, selling his first video game.
Move to North America: Moved to Canada at 18 to avoid mandatory military service in South Africa and seek opportunities.
Education: Attended Queen’s University in Canada, then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, earning degrees in physics and economics.
Startup Journey: Briefly attended Stanford University for a PhD in applied physics before dropping out to join the internet boom.
Stanford Brief: Left a graduate program in applied physics at Stanford University after just two days to pursue Internet opportunities.
Key Business Ventures

• Zip2 (1995): Co-founded his first company, an online city guide software, which was sold to Compaq for over $300 million.
• PayPal (1999): Co-founded X.com, which merged with Confinity to form PayPal; it was later acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion.
• SpaceX (2002): Founded Space Exploration Technologies Corporation to reduce space travel costs and enable the colonization of Mars.
• Tesla (2004): Invested early and took over as CEO in 2008, focusing on producing electric cars (Model S, 3, X, Y) and sustainable energy.
• Other Ventures: Founded Neuralink (brain-machine interfaces), The Boring Company (high-speed tunnels), and xAI.
• Twitter/X (2022): Acquired the social media platform Twitter for $44 billion.