Elon Musk is at turns ingenious, impulsive and infuriating. He’s additionally a company maverick, unafraid to sort out myriad industries by his personal guidelines.
After revolutionizing the auto trade, sending his personal rocket to house — along with his automotive on board — and constructing the world’s largest fortune, the eccentric billionaire is the brand new king of social media after US information shops reported he took cost of Twitter on Thursday and fired its prime executives.
That may give him management of the community on which the world debates, mobilizes, bickers and throws shade, Musk typically first amongst them.
The deal may also gasoline the hearth over his political beliefs, enterprise strategies, outsized character and unconventional private life — flames he does nothing to douse.
He’s libertarian, anti-woke and promotes himself as a champion of free speech. He has been accused of being autocratic and bullying.
“The rationale I acquired Twitter is as a result of it is very important the way forward for civilization to have a typical digital city sq.” for wholesome debate, Musk stated earlier Thursday, whereas insisting it couldn’t grow 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.
It’s the newest company conquest for Musk, after on-line publishing and funds, house journey and electrical vehicles.
The 51-year-old is the richest particular person on the planet, a title he took final 12 months 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 correct causes: his house transport agency SpaceX is a accomplice in a three-way enterprise that despatched the primary totally non-public mission to the Worldwide Area Station.
However his empire additionally makes information of a much less flattering form: Tesla has confronted a collection of lawsuits alleging discrimination towards Black employees in addition to sexual harassment.
In parallel with the whiplash-inducing stream of enterprise information, Musk’s unconventional non-public life additionally retains the world’s eyebrows raised.
Musk has had two kids along with his on-again off-again accomplice, the musician Grimes: a son, X AE A-XII, generally known as X, and a lady they named Exa Darkish Sideræl Musk — though the mother and father will largely name her Y.
He additionally fathered twins with a prime govt in Neuralink, an organization he co-founded.
A technique or one other, Musk has grow to be one of the vital ubiquitous figures of the period. So how did he get the place he’s right this moment?
– 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 College in Ontario.
He transferred to the College of Pennsylvania after two years and earned bachelor’s levels in physics and enterprise.
After graduating from the Ivy League college, Musk deserted plans to check at Stanford College in California.
As an alternative, he dropped out and began Zip2, an organization that made on-line publishing software program for the media trade.
He banked his first tens of millions earlier than the age of 30 when he bought Zip2 to US pc 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 large eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.
After leaving PayPal, Musk launched into a collection of ever extra bold 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.
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 12 months it despatched 4 vacationers into house, on the primary ever orbital mission with no skilled astronauts on board.
Musk’s jokingly-named The Boring Firm is touting an ultra-fast “Hyperloop” rail transport system that may 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 residing on Mars.
To this finish, SpaceX is growing 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 12 months, 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 kids. A tenth little one died in infancy.
Forbes estimates his present web value at $222 billion.