Elon Reeve Musk is an entrepreneur and an investor. The business magnate is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of “SpaceX,” CEO, angel investor, and product architect of Tesla, Inc.
He is also the founder of “The Boring Company” and co-founder of “OpenAI” and “Neuralink.” Elon has an estimated net worth of about 232 Billion USD.
According to Forbes and Billionaires Index, Musk is the wealthiest person in the world. Lets find out how he gets his wealth and how he spends it.
Elon Musk Net worth
The current Elon musk net worth is 232 Billion USD.
Last five years’ Net Worth
2023 | 232 Billion USD |
2022 | 193 Billion USD |
2021 | 107 Billion USD |
2020 | 25.5 Billion USD |
2019 | 21.4 Billion USD |
Elon Musk Networth Graph
Early life
Elon musk was born on June, 28,1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. The South African-born American entrepreneur was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother.
He bought his first ever computer at the age of 10 and started learning how to program. At the age of 17, Elon Musk left South Africa for Canada to study at Queen’s University. Later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania to study Business and Physics.
After graduating with an Economics Degree, he earned his second bachelor’s degree in Physics and later pursued Energy Physics Ph.D. at Stanford University. However, he dropped out to take part in the internet boom and concentrate on creating companies.
Elon Musk Investments and Income Sources
Elon Musk is known as a serial entrepreneur. He has a wide range of companies he has created from scratch, while others he acquired are on the way.
Since his childhood, he has created and sold some companies to move on to bigger projects.
He made his first buck at the age of 12 after creating a space-based shooter game called blaster that he sold for $500.
Since then, Musk has created over five successful, highly valued companies. Let’s dive into his investment and learn how much he makes from them.
X.com/PayPal
Elon Musk co-founded X.com, which provided online financial services back in 1999. X.com helped businesses as well as individuals to make payments using Email.
After one year, X.com merged with another online financial services provider company named Confinity to give birth to modern-day PayPal.
eBay acquired PayPal on October 3, 2002, at a whopping $1.5 Billion. During that time, Musk had an 11.7 percent stake in the company, making him the largest shareholder.
After the sale, he walked away with more than $180 million, which he used to create other companies later. Elon Musk no longer holds PayPal shares.
SpaceX
When he was a Kid, Elon Musk was obsessed with Space exploration. After selling his PayPal stake in 2002, he created Space Exploration Technologies Corp also known as SpaceX.
His mission was to create Rockets that could ferry humans to Mars and other areas in space one day. Four years later, after its launch, SpaceX was awarded a lucrative contract by NASA.
In 2008 it launched Falcon 1 to orbit, making it the first-ever privately owned liquid rocket ever to reach orbit. SpaceX reached the international space station in 2010, causing it to win more contracts for shuttle ISS crew members.
Since then, the company’s success has grown tremendously and played a big role in launching Starlink, a satellite-based Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Tesla Motors
Elon Musk also invested a big chunk of his PayPal stake in 2003 in starting an Electric car company dubbed Tesla motors. He initially joined as an investor but later chaired the board of its directors before becoming the CEO in 2008.
In 2010, Tesla was launched on the NASDAQ with a share trading at 17. Four years later (2012), after Elon Musk became CEO, Tesla launched its first car, Tesla Model S, which against all the odds, was ranked as the best car by consumer reports.
Currently, Tesla has many car models, including the Tesla Model S, Tesla Model Y, Tesla Roadster, and the Model 3. In 2020, Tesla was valued at over $1 trillion. As of December 2021, he owned about 177 million shares valued at $143 billion.
Since then, he has offloaded more than $32 billion worth of shares. He is still the largest shareholder despite offloading a huge chunk of his shares.
Solar City
Elon Musk invested in a company founded by two of his cousins in 2006. At one point, the company was valued at $2 billion but faced a lot of backlash and lawsuits.
Tesla acquired the company to form a subsidiary called Tesla energy. Tesla Energy is now behind Tesla’s power wall and solar roofing systems.
DeepMind Technologies
DeepMind Technologies was launched in 2010. Elon Musk invested in the company because he was fond of AI and was worried that it would soon take over the world.
Deepmind was acquired by Alphabet in January 2014 for an undisclosed amount. Since Elon was one of its key investors, he walked away with a generous piece of the cake.
The Boring Company
Elon Musk firmly believes that the Auto industry’s future is not flying cars but underground tunnels.
He argues that no one would feel safe with cars flying over them. For this reason, he founded an underground tunneling company called the Boring Company.
The company’s main objective is to utilize the underground highway land to minimize traffic. Ars can travel at a maximum speed underground, posing less risk to pedestrians and oncoming traffic.
In 2019, the Boring Company was granted permission to build the $48.6 million LVCC loop by Las Vegas.
Philanthropy
Elon musk is the founder and president of the Musk foundation. The main objective of this foundation is to provide support in disaster areas using his company’s resources.
For instance, solar power systems, research development support, financial support, space exploration, renewable energy, and other Science and Engineering efforts.
In late 2021, David Beasley, head of the WFP, stated that 2% of Elon Musk’s wealth could help solve World hunger. In a tweet, Musk asked the World Food Programme to provide a framework on how his wealth could solve the hunger problem.
A month later, he sold $5.7 billion worth of his Tesla shares and donated it to the program. Since 2002 it’s estimated that the Musk foundation has made over 350 donations, most of them landing to research institutions.
Of the most notable donations was the $100 million reward via the X prize foundation for the best carbon capture technology.
Twitter account
Elon Musk is an active Twitter account user with one of the highest followers, which stands at 107.6 million as of October 2022. In fact, it’s the only social media platform that he is currently active on.
In the past, he has criticized platforms such as Facebook for their privacy policy to set the records straight why he never uses the platform. He has gotten in trouble several times over his tweets from the feds.
For instance, he was sued by the SEC for securities fraud in 2022 for his series of tweets about taking twitter private.
In April 2022, Elon had accumulated 9% of the company Elon Musk initially offered to buy Twitter at a whopping $44 billion, but the sale didn’t go through since the owners couldn’t disclose the bots report.
Musk has since pulled out of the deal, which has stirred a mixed reaction on social media. Apart from the jokes, Elon uses Twitter to talk about his companies. However, in recent times his lawyers have had to review tweets that could move the stock market first, so he doesn’t land in more trouble.
Controversies:
Elon Musk has had several controversies throughout his business career and personal life. One of the most controversial moments is when he appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast and smoked a joint of Marijuana.
This moment became an internet sensation, and several memes were created out of it.
Elon spent approximately $100 million. He bought seven properties, including a century-old mansion in Northern California. Fast forward to 2019, he bought out an entire leafy neighborhood of Los Angeles.
In 2022, Musk sold all seven properties and settled in a studio apartment whose estimated cost is $50,000 in Boca Chica, Texas.
Personal life
From the early 2000s to 2020, Elon musk spent all his life in California. In 2020 he moved all his operations from California to Texas, stating that it had become difficult for him to achieve economic success due to policies.
He Married Justine Wilson in 2000 before divorcing in 2008. The couple had six children, but the firstborn died at the age of 10 weeks due to sudden infant death.
After divorcing Justine Wilson, Elon Musk started dating Talulah Riley.
They married after dating for two years and later divorced in 2012. A year later, the couple remarried again but filed a divorce in 2014 and officially divorced in 2014.
Afterward, Elon Musk dated Amber Heard in 2017, who he had been pursuing since 2012.
In 2022, Johnny Depp accused Amber Heard and Elon Musk of having an affair while Amber was still married to Depp. However, they both denied the allegations.
In 2018 Elon Musk revealed that he was dating Elise Boucher, a Canadian Musician as popular as Grimes.
They gave birth to a son whom they named X AE A-XII Musk. X is the first name, AE A-XII is the middle name, and Musk is the surname.
The name was initially AE A-XII, but it violated the California naming regulations as some of the characters did not exist in modern-day English.
In March 2022, Grimes announced that they had parted ways with Elon Musk. Barely two months later, it was revealed that Elon had twins with Neural Link director of operations Shivon Alice Zills.
Summary
Date of Birth | June 28, 1971 |
Age | 51 |
Gender | Male |
Zodiac Sign | Cancer |
Net worth | 232 Billion USD |
Height | 6 feet 2 inches |
Weight | 82 kg |
Profession | Entrepreneur |
Nationality | South African, Canadian, and American |
Parents | Errol Musk (father) and Maye Musk (mother) |
Birth Place | Pretoria, South Africa |
Relationship Status | Complicated |
Children | 8 |
Hair Colour | Light Ash Blonde |
Eye Colour | Moss Green |
FAQs
1. What kind of car does Elon Musk drive?
Elon Musk mostly drives the Tesla Model S. He also owns a fleet of other car models, such as the 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo 2010 Audi Q7, and the 2006 BMW M5. Musk has also been spotted cruising around the 2020 Cyber Truck, which is still in its production stage.
2. How did Elon Musk get Famous?
He became famous after selling PayPal to eBay. His fame also exploded after investing in Tesla and SpaceX, one of the two most valuable companies in the world.
Elon Musk’s fame is attributed to the success and Milestones that his companies have achieved in the last two decades.
3. What Languages does Elon Musk speak?
Elon Musk speaks two languages which are English and Afrikaans. English is his first Language, while Afrikaans is one of the official languages of his country of origin South Africa. However, he has never spoken the Afrikaan language in public. Thus it’s hard to tell whether he’s fluent.
4. What does Elon Musk make money from?
Elon musk makes most of his money from the companies that he owns. Tesla Motors makes the biggest contributor to his wealth.
The recent boom of Electric vehicles has shot his company valuation to over $1 trillion.
5. Did Elon Musk grow up rich?
Elon Musk was raised by wealthy parents. His father, Errol, was an Engineer, while his mother, Maye, was a Canadian model and dietitian. However, a vast majority of his wealth is self-made from his company’s success.
6. How old is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk is 51 years old. He was born on June 28, 1971.
7. What is Elon Musk Networth?
Elon Musk net worth is 232 Billion USD.
Final Thoughts:
Elon Musk is a serial tech entrepreneur with a current net worth of 232 Billion USD. He was born and raised in the South and later moved to Canada and USA for higher education and investment, respectively.
Tesla Motors is his biggest wealth contributor, followed by SpaceX. His companies continue to grow, with Tesla being the highest valued at over $1 Trillion.