Elon Reeve Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate, industrial designer, and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, CTO, and chief designer of SpaceX; Tesla, Inc. Early-stage investor, CEO, and product architect; Founder of the Boring Company; Co-founder of Neuralink; And co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI. A multi-billionaire, Musk is one of the richest people in the world.
Musk was born to a Canadian mother and South African father and was raised in Pretoria, South Africa. He briefly attended Pretoria University before moving to Canada at the age of 17 to attend Queen's University. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania after two years, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics and physics. He moved to California to attend Stanford University in 1995 but decided to pursue a business career with his brother Kimble as co-founder of the web software company Zip2. In 1999, Compaq acquired it for $ 307 million. The same year Musk co-founded the online bank X.com, which merged with Confinity in 2000 to form the company PayPal, and in 2002 it was bought by eBay for $ 1.5 billion.
In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer, and space transportation services company, of which he is CEO, CTO, and head designer. In 2004, he joined electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (now Tesla, Inc.) as president and product architect, becoming its CEO in 2008. In 2006, he helped form SolarCity Services and the current Tesla subsidiary SolarCity. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a non-profit research company that promotes friendly artificial intelligence. In 2016, he co-founded the neurotechnology company Neuralink, which focused on developing brain-computer interfaces and founded the tunnel construction company, The Boring Company. Musk has proposed Hyperloop, a high-speed veteran transport system.
Musk has been the subject of criticism due to unconventional or unscientific attitudes and highly publicized controversies. In 2018, he was sued for defamation by a diver who advised in Tham Luang Cave Rescue; A California jury ruled in favor of Musk. That same year, he was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a false tweet that he had obtained funding for a private takeover of Tesla. He settled with the SEC, temporarily stepped down from his presidency, and accepted limitations on his Twitter usage. Musk has spread misinformation about the COVID-19 epidemic and received criticism from experts for his other views on matters such as artificial intelligence and public transport.
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