The identify Elon Musk is maybe one of the crucial recognisable within the modern-day.
The richest man on the planet is thought for being the proprietor of assorted firms together with electrical car maker Tesla and Area X, his takeover of social media firm Twitter – which he renamed X – and, till most just lately, his work within the US government.
After practically 130 days as head of the Department of Government Efficiency – generally known as DOGE for brief – Musk introduced he’s leaving his position inside Donald Trump’s administration.
His work inside the division and his shut relationship with Mr Trump led to Musk being within the headlines greater than ever, however there’s a lot to the billionaire businessman that’s not often reported.
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Listed here are seven issues you could not find out about Musk.
Youngster online game creator
Within the early Eighties, on the age of 12, Musk created the online game Blastar.
He created the sport, which duties gamers to make use of their keyboards to shoot at alien fighter spaceships, via his data of coding and programming, which he picked up on the age of 9, in keeping with Ashlee Vance’s 2015 biography of the tech mogul.
By 1984 the sport was so good, Musk bought it to PC and Workplace Expertise journal for $500 (£371), the place it featured within the publication’s December subject.
First huge pay cheque
From the get-go, it was clear Musk had a expertise for enterprise. In 1995, age 24, he arrange his first firm, Zip2 along with his brother, Kimbal.
The pair arrange the corporate, which created on-line metropolis guides for newspapers, for round $28,000 (£20,000). It was bought for round $300m (£222m) 4 years later in 1999.
Earlier than cashing in on the success of Zip2, Musk mentioned he and his brother have been just about broke and each slept within the workplace the place they labored – a behaviour he reportedly replicated within the early days of Tesla.
From the sale of the corporate, Musk walked away from Zip2 with a cool $22m, and the very first thing he purchased was a McLaren F1.
He informed CNN on the time: “Simply three years in the past I used to be sleeping on the workplace flooring, and now I’ve acquired a million-dollar automobile.”
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Musk’s musk
Regardless of having big success, a few of Musk’s concepts haven’t proved to be as long-lasting.
In 2022, he launched a fragrance known as Burnt Hair, which is described on his The Boring Firm web site as “the essence of repugnant want”.
The scent, which value $100 (£74) a bottle, was a smash hit, in keeping with Musk, who mentioned it had bought 10,000 bottles in only a few hours, incomes him one million {dollars}.
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“With a reputation like mine, entering into the perfume enterprise was inevitable – why did I even battle it for thus lengthy!?” Musk mentioned on the time.
It’s unknown if the product was critical, and (sadly) is now not out there on The Boring Firm web site.
Along with fragrance, Tesla launched its personal tequila in 2020, and in the identical yr, Musk adopted via on a joke to promote limited edition pairs of Tesla short shorts as a method to show traders who guess in opposition to the electrical car maker improper.
The unique PayPal
Lengthy earlier than Twitter grew to become X, Musk created X.com, an internet banking and monetary providers firm.
The platform shortly attracted a big buyer base, and within the yr 2000, it merged with Confinity, which was co-founded by tech entrepreneurs Peter Thiel and Max Levchin.
The platform was later renamed PayPal.
Musk with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel (L). Pic: AP
Musk went on to change into chief government of PayPal, however was later ousted from the place as arguments over the corporate’s identify and total path emerged.
In 2002, the banking website was purchased by eBay for $1.5bn (£1.4bn). Years later, in 2017, eBay bought the area X.com again to Musk.
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Inspiration for Iron Man
Musk’s life as a billionaire entrepreneur appears like the beginning of a Hollywood blockbuster. And in actuality, Musk’s persona and accomplishments have been partly used as inspiration for Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Iron Man within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In a 2022 interview, Iron Man screenwriter Mark Fergus mentioned his model of Tony Stark was based mostly on a end result of Musk, Mr Trump and Apple creator Steve Jobs.
Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark in Iron Man 2. Pic:
Marvel/THA/Shutterstock
“Musk took the brilliance of Jobs with the showmanship of Trump. He was the one one who had the enjoyable issue and the celeb vibe and precise enterprise substance,” Mr Fergus informed New York Journal.
Musk’s uncommon connection to the fictionalised billionaire was performed out on digicam when he made a cameo in Iron Man 2 in 2010.
The actual Tesla founder?
Opposite to perception, Musk did not start Tesla. He was truly an early investor within the firm and was the fourth chief government when he took over the position in 2008 – shortly after the corporate launched its first automobile – the Roadster sports activities automobile.
It was actually, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning who based the corporate in 2003, albeit Musk was the one to propel it on to a worldwide stage.
Want for the ‘every little thing app’
After taking on social media platform X for $44bn in 2022, Musk grew to become one step nearer to attaining his purpose of making an “every little thing app”.
The tech mogul has beforehand mentioned he needs for X to change into much like WeChat – a Chinese language app that provides a variety of options past messaging, together with funds, ordering taxis, sharing social media posts and conducting enterprise – consider it as a mixture between Fb, Apple Pay, WhatsApp and Google.
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Musk’s imaginative and prescient of this “tremendous app” appears to be shared by these at X, together with chief government Linda Yaccarino, who mentioned on the finish of final yr that 2025 could be the yr that X “join[s] you in methods by no means thought attainable. X TV, X Cash, Grok and extra”.
And this seems to be considerably coming true.
In January, Musk introduced X had partnered with cost large Visa, which is able to enable customers to maneuver funds between conventional banks and a digital X pockets and make funds to buddies.
