Elon Musk was born in South Africa in 1971.
He became famous for starting Tesla Motors and SpaceX but he first made his fortune as a co-founder of PayPal.
Musk provided a large amount of inspiration for the Hollywood character Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man). In fact, parts of Iron Man 2 were actually filmed inside and outside of SpaceX. Musk even has a cameo in the film!
Like Steve Jobs and other famous entrepreneurs, Musk's official annual salary for Tesla Motors is just $1.
At age 12, Musk taught himself computer programming and created a video game called Blastar, which he sold for $500.
Elon Musk didn't become an American citizen until 2002, at age 31.
When Elon Musk was 17, he moved from South Africa to Canada. Eventually, he attended college
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He left Stanford after just two days, deciding instead to take advantage of the Internet boom, which was in full swing.
After dropping out of grad school, Musk quickly established his first company --Zip2, which provided online newspapers with maps and business directories. He sold the company in 1999 for $307 million.
In 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online payment company that eventually became PayPal before being acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock (of which $165 million was given to Musk).
Musk co-founded Tesla Motors, a company that designs and manufacturers electric sports cars. Tesla was able to succeed in the electric car market where other large manufacturers failed. He now serves as CEO and chief product architect at Tesla.
The Tesla Model S was awarded a 5.4-out-of-5 safety rating from the National Highway Safety Administration, the highest rating ever given an automobile.
Musk is one of the major driving forces behind SolarCity, a company founded by his cousins. He is also the largest shareholder of the
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Elon Musk established the Musk Foundation, which is a group committed to space exploration and discovering clean energy sources. The Foundation runs the Musk Mars Desert Observatory telescope in Utah.
The Musk Foundation also runs a simulated Mars environment that allows visitors to experience what life on Mars might be like (complete with waste-burning toilets).
Musk has been referred to as a "thrillionaire," a new class of high-tech entrepreneurs looking to use their wealth to make science-fiction dreams into a modern reality.
Musk is a firm supporter of fighting global warming and working toward sustainable energy use -- he cites it as his primary incentive for founding Tesla Motors and SolarCity.
Elon Musk has signed the Giving Pledge, in which pledges promise to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic efforts. The Giving Pledge has also been signed by Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg, among others.
Elon Musk owns Wet Nellie, a custom-built Lotus Esprit submarine car from the James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me.
Musk was named one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire