Elon Musk is the world’s richest person, according to Forbes, with a net worth of $237 billion as of September 2024. Experts say he is likely to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2027. Most of his fortunes are from multi-business ventures. For example, he owns the electric car company Tesla and also owns X-the social media, which is actually Twitter. In addition, he invested billions in his venture for space exploration, SpaceX. He intends to send humans to Mars. Musk intends to start sending uncrewed missions to Mars by 2026 and intends to colonize the planet.
Peter Thiel on Elon Musk 🔊
“You know, when Elon was building both Tesla and SpaceX in the 2000s, people thought he was just really, really crazy. I think even those of us who had worked with him at PayPal, I mean, there’s this PayPal book that David Sacks and I thought of… pic.twitter.com/BojhJ81VoP
— Yaman Tasdivar (@ValueAnalyst1) July 5, 2024
David Sacks, former COO of PayPal, praised Musk’s ambition. “Elon thinks bigger than anyone I’ve ever met. He sets bold goals and works quickly to achieve them,” he told the Los Angeles Times. However, Musk is not known to avoid controversy. His forthright views, public wars, and statements have so often brought unwanted attention to himself. This understanding is possible only by looking into his long-term journey.
Musk was not a poor child. He grew up on the privileged side of Johannesburg in apartheid South Africa. During his formative years, he lived in the context of an apartheid society that was segregated and had white supremacy as the given norm. Melanie Cheary is one of Musk’s former classmates at high school. She tells The New York Times, “As white South African teenagers, we were really clueless about race.”
After completing high school, Musk circumvented mandatory military service by migrating to Canada, where he started at Queen’s University and eventually transferred to the University of Pennsylvania to pursue two undergraduate degrees, in physics and economics. He entered Stanford to work on a PhD in advanced energy storage for electric cars but dropped out after two days to start his first business with his brother, Kimbal: Zip2.
“My proceeds from PayPal were $180m. I put $100m in SpaceX, $70m in Tesla and $10m in Solar City. I had to borrow money for rent.”
— Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/hGnHAfuWva
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) August 21, 2023
The internet had online city guides, which was what Zip2 was offering. Major media outlets started taking an interest in the company because of its popularity. The Musk brothers sold the company to Compaq in 1999 for $307 million. Elon earned $22 million from the sale. Musk did not retire but reinvested his earnings into new ventures.
Musk founded online financial services company X.com. Later it was renamed PayPal. Later in 2002, eBay paid $1.5 billion in stock for PayPal, and Musk earned his share of $150 million, which he used to fund bold new projects. Musk heavily invested in Tesla, a firm working on electric vehicles. In the first phase, he contributed $6.35 million and was elected the chairman of the board. In due course of time, he took full control of the firm. Tesla went public in 2010 after issuing its IPO for $226 million.
Elon Musk kicks off 2025 as the world’s richest person—and the only billionaire to date worth more than $400 billion.
Read more: https://t.co/ISNgxAp41f pic.twitter.com/6ibNXt6dxj— Forbes (@Forbes) January 4, 2025
In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX with a vision of commercial space travel. “I like being involved in projects that change the world,” he told The Los Angeles Times. “The internet did, and space will do even more.” In September 2024, he announced that Mars missions would move faster. There will be launchings of uncrewed Starships in 2026 as a test on landing capabilities, and if that goes well, the first crewed missions can start as early as 2028. In the end, for Musk, it is still the same: to have humanity expand outside Earth.
Elon Musk’s journey into the future really shows how bright ideas, driven ambition, and strategic investments really shape industries.
