Why Elon Musk is famous: Tesla SpaceX Starlink & Facts

 Elon Musk

Elon Reeve Musk is a business magnate and investor 

 He is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of the company. The founder of The Boring Company is also a co-founder of Neuralink. According to the Forbes' real-time billionaires list, Musk is the wealthiest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $238 billion. Musk was born and raised in South Africa. He moved to Canada at the age of 17 and obtained citizenship through his Canadian-born mother. He received bachelor's degrees in economics and physics at the University of Pennsylvania after transferring from Queen's University. He decided to pursue a business career after moving to California in 1995 and co-founding Zip2 with his brother. In 1999 the startup was acquired by Compaq for $307 million. The online bank X was co-founded by Musk. In 2000 it merged with Confinity to form PayPal.

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eBay bought the payment processor for $1 in 2002. 5 billion. Musk founded the company in 2002 and is its CEO and chief engineer. He was an early investor in the electric vehicle manufacturer. The company is called Tesla, Inc. ) He assumed the position of CEO in 2008. He helped create SolarCity, a solar energy company that was later acquired byTesla. He co-founded Openai, a company that promotes friendly artificial intelligence. He co-founded Neuralink and The Boring Company. The president of the Musk Foundation is Musk, who has proposed a hyperloop high-speed vactrain transportation system.

 

Musk has been criticized for making unscientific and controversial statements, such as spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and promoting contentious perspectives regarding politics and various technologies. In the U. S. The SEC sued Musk for false and misleading statements he made about securing funding for a private takeover of the company. He settled with the SEC but did not admit guilt. He won a defamation case against a British caver. The deal to purchase Twitter for $44 billion was terminated by Musk in a letter, leading to lawsuits. Musk later decided to move forward with the purchase. 

Elon Musk's Childhood & Family

Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, one of the capital cities of South Africa, and was baptized into an Anglican church 

 Musk has British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. Maye Musk was born in Canada and raised in South Africa. Errol Musk was a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer who was a half-owner of a Zambian emerald mine. Musk has two siblings, a younger brother, Kimbal, and a younger sister, Tosca. Musk's family and His father was a member of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party and was elected to the City Council.

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Joshua Haldeman was an adventurous American-born Canadian who took his family on record-breaking journeys in a single-engine Bellanca airplane to Africa and Australia. Musk lived with his father after his parents divorced. Musk regretted his decision because he was estranged from his father.

He has two half-brothers. Musk was described in his biography as an awkward child. Musk learned how to program from his Commodore VIC-20 user manual when he was a child. He sold his game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for $500 when he was twelve. 

Education

He attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, Bryanston High School and graduated from Pretoria Boys High School 

 Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother, knowing that it would be easier to emigrate to the United States this way. He was able to avoid compulsory service in the South African Defence Force because he attended the University of Pretoria for five months while waiting for the documentation. Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989 and worked odd jobs at a farm and lumber mill for a year with a second cousin.

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He entered Queen's University in 1990. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the Wharton School in 1995 after transferring to the University of Pennsylvania. In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley, one at the energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute and the other at the Palo Alto-based startup Rocket Science Games. He was accepted to a PhD program in materials science at the university in 1995. After joining the Internet boom, Musk applied for a job at Netscape, but never got a response. 

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Business career

Zip2

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In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Zip2 

 Errol Musk is said to have provided the Musks with US$28,000 during this time, but later denied this, claiming that his father invested in a later round of funding. The company marketed the Internet city guide to newspapers. They worked at a small office in Palo Alto, with Musk coding the website every night. Zip2 got contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. The board of directors was persuaded by the brothers to abandon the merger with CitySearch, despite Musk's attempts to become CEO himself. In February 1999, Zip2 was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in cash, and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share. X com and PayPal

Later in 1999, Musk co-founded X.com 

 Online financial services and e-mail payment company. X.com Over 200,000 customers joined com after its initial months of operation, making it one of the first federally insured online banks. Even though Musk founded the company, investors thought he was inexperienced and replaced him with Bill Harris by the end of the year. In 2000. Confinity's money-transfer service was more popular than X's, which is why com merged with it. X.Com's service. Musk was the CEO of the merged company. His preference for Microsoft over Unix-based software caused a rift among the company's employees.

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In addition to compounding technological issues and a lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000. The company changed its name to PayPal in 2001 after focusing on the money transfer service. eBay acquired PayPal for $1 the next year. The largest shareholder is Musk with 11. The majority of shares received $175. There are 8 million. The domain X was purchased by Musk more than one and a half decades later. His personal sentimental value led to his decision to use PayPal. 

SpaceX and Starlink

In early 2001, Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars 

 He traveled to Moscow with two other people to buy refurbished intercontinental missiles that could send the greenhouse into space. Musk was seen as a novice and the group returned to the US empty-handed. The group went back to Russia in February 2002 to look for three ICBMs. They were offered one rocket for $8 million, but Musk rejected it. He decided to start a company that could build rockets. Musk's fortune was $100 million when he founded the company in 2002. 

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First launches

SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006 

 The rocket was awarded a contract by NASA after it failed to reach Earth. The Falcon 1 was launched into space in 2008 after two failed attempts. The company got a $1 later that year. NASA has a contract worth 6 billion dollars for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spaceship to the International Space Station. The Dragon vehicle was the first private vehicle to dock with the International Space Station. The company was saved by the NASA award, according to Musk. 

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First successful landing

Working towards its goal of reusable rockets, in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 on an inland platform h1

 On the ocean-based recovery platform, later landings were achieved. The first mission of the Falcon Heavy carried Musk's personal car as a dummy. Starship is a fully-reusable, super- heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to replace the Falcon 9 and Heavy. The first private company to place astronauts into space and dock a crewed spaceship with the International Space Station was launched in 2020. 

Starlink development

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SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low Earth orbit satellites in 2015 to provide satellite Internet access, with the first two prototype satellites launched in February 2018 

 When the first 60 operational satellites were launched, there was a second set of test satellites and the first large deployment of a piece of the constellation. The decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation is estimated to cost $10 billion. Critics say that Starlink blocks the view of the sky and poses a collision threat. 

Tesla

Tesla, Inc 

 The company was financed until the Series A round of funding by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Both men were involved in the company's early development. The Series A round of investment was led by Musk. 5 million became the majority shareholder and joined the board of directors. Musk oversaw product design but was not involved in day-to-day business operations. Eberhard was ousted from the firm after a series of conflicts. In 2008 Musk became the CEO and product architect of the company. The settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a co-founder of the company.

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Musk was the longest-tenured CEO of an automotive manufacturer. While retaining his position as CEO, Musk changed his title to "Technoking" in 2021. The first electric sports car built by the company was the Roadster. It was the first serial production all-electric car to use battery cells. Delivery of the four-door Model S sedan began in 2012 The Model X was launched in 2015. The Model 3 is a mass market sedan. In June 2021, the Model 3 became the first electric car to sell one million units worldwide.

 

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The Model Y is the fifth vehicle. The Cybertruck is an all-electric pickup truck. Multiple battery and electric vehicle factories have been constructed under Musk. In the year 2020, it became the most valuable car company in the world, and in the year 2010, it entered the S&P 500. It became the sixth company in US history to have a market cap of $1 trillion. Musk proposed selling 10% of hisTesla stock on November 6, 2021. After more than 3. 5 million accounts supported the sale. There were 9 billion ofTesla stock in the week ending November 12. By the end of the year, 4 billion had been reached. According to The Wall Street Journal, Kimbal Musk was under investigation by the SEC for possible insider trading related to the sale. 

 

SEC lawsuit

In 2018, Musk was sued by the SEC for a tweet claiming funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private 

 The lawsuit sought to bar Musk from being the CEO of publicly traded companies. Musk did not deny or admit the SEC's allegations. Musk was able to remain as CEO even though he was forced to step down as chairman for three years. Musk has stated in interviews that he doesn't regret posting the message. The shareholder who sued Musk said that a federal judge had ruled in his favor, but the ruling has not been made public.

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Musk said that he would build half a million cars in 2019. The SEC filed in court, asking the court to hold Musk in contempt for violating the terms of his settlement with the SEC. The previous agreement details were clarified by a joint agreement between Musk and the SEC. The topics that Musk would need preclearance for were included in the agreement. A judge prevented the lawsuit from proceeding in 2020 because of the agreement between Musk and the company. The SEC concluded that Musk had violated the agreement twice by posting aboutTesla's solar roof production volumes and its stock price. 

Solar City and Tesla Energy

Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006 

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 In the United States, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems. Musk promoted the idea of building an advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. The construction of the factory took place over the course of four years. It was a joint venture with Panasonic. SolarCity and its battery unit were merged with the battery unit ofTesla Energy. The announcement of the deal resulted in a drop in the company's stock price. SolarCity was facing issues at the time. Multiple shareholder groups filed a lawsuit against Musk and the directors of the company, claiming that the purchase of SolarCity was done to benefit Musk and came at the expense of the company's shareholders. The lawsuit was settled in January 2020. The court ruled in Musk's favor two years later. 

Neuralink

In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup company with an investment of $100 million 

 Neuralink wants to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence by creating devices that are embedded in the brain. It could allow the devices to communicate with software. Neurological conditions like Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and spinal cord injuries are some of the conditions the company hopes to treat. Musk said he was working on a device that could put threads into a human brain. At a 2020 live demonstration, Musk said that one of their early devices could cure paralysis, deafness, blindness, and other disabilities.

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The claims were described as "neuroscience theater" by MIT Technology Review. During the demonstration, Musk showed a pig with a Neuralink implant. Macaque monkeys were tested at the University of California, Davis' Primate Research Center. The company released a video in which a Macaque played a video game. Some monkeys have died in the company's animal trials. Neuralink's animal trials have been accused of violating the Animal Welfare Act by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Clinical trials would begin by the end of the year. The Neuralink team's researchers were angry that Musk was the sole author of the October paper. 

The Boring Company

In 2017, Musk founded The Boring Company to construct tunnels 

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 Musk revealed plans for vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour, circumventing above-ground traffic in major cities. The company began discussions with regulatory bodies early in the year. 50-foot (15 m) long and 1 m wide. There is a 6 m deep "test trench" on the premises of SpaceX's offices. Journalists were the first to see the Los Angeles tunnel. It was reported to be a rough ride and travel at less than optimal speeds. Two tunnel projects in Chicago and West Los Angeles have been canceled. There was a tunnel under the Las Vegas Convention Center. Further expansions of the tunnel system have been approved by local officials. Fort Lauderdale, Florida was approved for tunnel construction in 2021. 

Leadership style

Musk is often described as a micromanager and has called himself a "nano-manager" 

Musk doesn't make formal business plans, he prefers to approach engineering problems with an iterative design methodology and lenience with failures. Musk has forced employees to adopt the company's own jargon and launched ambitious, costly and risky projects against his advisors' recommendations. Most of the production is moved in-house because of Musk's insistence on vertical integration. This resulted in saved costs for the rocket, but it has caused problems for the software. Musk's handling of employees has been characterized as "carrot and stick", rewarding those who offer constructive criticism while also being known to threaten, swear and fire his employees. Musk expects his employees to work for long hours, sometimes for 80 hours per week, which most employees are aware and willing to meet the demands, while a few leave because of it.

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When Musk slept on the factory floor to set an example for workers, he often fires employees in sprees. 10 percent ofTesla's workforce will be fired due to Musk's concerns about the economy. He threatened to fire employees who did not work 40 hours per week and suspended remote work at both companies. Musk's leadership has been praised by some, who credit it with the success ofTesla and his other endeavors, and criticized by others as callous and demanding. There are stories in the book Power Play about Musk berating employees. The Wall Street Journal reported that after Musk insisted on branding his vehicles as "self-driving", he faced criticism from his engineers for putting customer lives at risk. Musk's approach was characterized by the New York Times. 

Other activities

Hyperloop

In 2013, Musk announced plans for a version of a vactrain—a vacuum tube train—and assigned a dozen engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to establish the conceptual foundations and create initial designs 

The hyperloop was unveiled by Musk later that year. The alpha design for the system was published in a paper. An estimated $6 billion is the cost of building a transport system between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area. The proposal, if technologically feasible at the costs he has cited, would make Hyperloop travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. The original purpose of Musk's proposal was to prevent a high-speed rail project in California. In 2015, Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop Pods to operate on a mile-long track.

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In January of last year, Musk announced that the company started a tunnel project with Hawthorne airport as its destination. Musk claimed in July of last year that he had received "verbal government approval" to build a hyperloop from New York City to Washington. C. In Philadelphia and Baltimore. The project for the DC to Baltimore part was removed from the Boring Company website. 

OpenAI

 

In 2015, Musk founded OpenAI, a not-for-profit AI research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence intended to be safe and beneficial to humanity 

 The company is focused on democratizing artificial superintelligence systems against governments and corporations. In order to avoid future conflicts with his role as CEO of the company, Musk left the OpenAI board. The organization has made significant advancement in machine learning, producing neural networks such as GPT-3 and DALL-E. 

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Tham Luang cave rescue and defamation case

In July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a mini-submarine to assist the rescue of children stuck in a flooded cavern in Thailand 

 The leader of the international rescue diving team urged Musk to build a back-up vehicle in case of flooding. The mini-submarine was built from a Falcon 9 liquid oxygen transfer tube and personally delivered to Thailand. Thai authorities declined to use the submarine because eight of the 12 children had already been rescued using full face masks and oxygen under anesthesia. The King of Thailand gave various honors to 187 people who were involved in the rescue effort.

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 The order of the Direkgunabhorn. Soon after the rescue, Vernon Unsworth, a British recreational caver who had been exploring the cave for the previous six years and played a key advisory role in the operation, criticized the submarine on CNN as amounting to nothing more than a public relations effort with no chance of success, and that Musk referred to Unsworth as a "pedo guy" after he claimed that the device would have worked.

 

He apologized for causing his followers to harass Cher, a software engineer. Musk called Unsworth a child rapist and said that he had married a child. In September, Unsworth filed a defamation suit. Musk argued that "'pedo guy' was a common insult used in South Africa when I was growing up."  It is used to insult a person's appearance and demeanor. Unsworth was seeking $190 million in damages in the defamation case. Musk apologized to Unsworth again during the trial. The jury ruled in Musk's favor on December 6. 

2018 Joe Rogan podcast appearance

In 2018, Musk appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and discussed various topics for over two hours 

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 Joe Rogan claimed during the interview that Musk had smoked a tobacco product with cannabis in it. The confirmation of the departure of the vice president of worldwide finance at the same time as the incident caused the stock to drop. The Air Force said there was no investigation and that the situation was still being processed. In a 60 Minutes interview, Musk denied smoking pot. I have no idea how to smoke pot. Musk stated that he and his employees were randomly drug-tested after the incident. 

Music ventures

In 2019, Musk released a rap track, "RIP Harambe" on SoundCloud as Emo G Records h1

 The track refers to the killing of Harambe the gorilla and the subsequent Internet sensationalism surrounding the event. The following year, Musk released an electronic dance music track with his own lyrics and vocals. Alexi Petridis described it as "indistinguishable". It was said that it was not a bad representation of the genre. 

Proposed acquisition of Twitter

Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter as early as 2017 

 Musk reached a 5% stake in the company in March. Musk was the largest shareholder by April with a 9% stake. Musk did not file the SEC paperwork within 10 days of his 5% stake passing. When Musk disclosed his investment in an SEC 13G filing on April 4, the company's shares went up the most since its IPO. The revelation that Musk had acquired a significant stake in the micro-blogging site followed Musk's March statement that he was considering creating a rival social media site, although the comments were made after he had acquired 7.5% of the company's stake.

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On April 4, Musk agreed to a deal that would appoint him to the board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company. On April 13, Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter and then launched a takeover bid to buy all of the company's stock for $54 a share. 20 per share. A shareholder rights plan was adopted by the board to make it more expensive for any single investor to own more than 15% of the company. Musk got funding worth $46 a week later. $5 billion, which included $12. He had loans against his stock and equity financing. Musk's final bid was approximately $44 billion.

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Musk lost around $30 billion of his net worth after the stock market value of his company sank in reaction to the deal. Some of his 86 million followers engaged in sexist and racist harassment against her after he criticized her policies. A month after announcing the takeover, Musk stated that the deal was on hold after a report that 5 percent of the company's daily active users were fake. After clarifying that he remained committed to the acquisition, he notified the Board of Directors of his decision to end the deal in July. Musk was sued in the Chancery Court of Delaware for breaching a legally binding agreement to purchase Twitter. In October 2022, Musk offered to purchase the micro-messaging service for $54. 20 per share. 

Wealth

Musk made $175 million dollar 

 In 2002 the company was sold to eBay for 8 million dollars. He was listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012 with a net worth of $2 billion. Musk had a net worth of $27 billion at the beginning of 2020. His net worth increased by $150 billion by the end of the year, largely due to his ownership of 20% ofTesla stock. Musk's net worth was often volatile. It dropped $16. The biggest single-day plunge in the history of the index was 3 billion in September. In November of that year, Musk became the third-richest person in the world, while Bill Gates became the second-richest. In January 2021, Musk overtook Bezos to become the richest person in the world with a net worth of $185 billion. The following month, Bezos reclaimed the top spot.

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On September 27, 2021, Forbes announced that Musk had a net worth of over $200 billion, making him the richest person in the world. Musk was the first person with a net worth over $300 billion. Around three-quarters of Musk's wealth comes from the company. Musk's compensation plan with the board ties his earnings to the company's valuation and revenue, and he doesn't get a salary from the company. Musk only gets compensation if the company reaches certain market values. It was the largest deal ever done between a board and a CEO. He was eligible to purchase 1 in the first award. About 1% of the company's shares were worth about $800 million at below-market prices. Musk paid taxes on $1 Between 2010 and the present, 52 billion of income has been generated. Musk paid no federal income taxes last year. He said his tax bill would be $12 billion in 2021. The L-39 Albatros was Musk's favorite plane.

He uses a private jet owned by a company called Falcon Landing. The jet's use of fossil fuels has been criticized. Musk has described himself as a "cash poor" and "professed to have little interest in the material trappings of wealth". He promised to sell most of his physical possessions in May 2020. Musk said he is accumulating resources for space expansion. 

Philanthropy

Musk is president of the Musk Foundation, whose stated purpose is to: provide solar-power energy systems in disaster areas; support research, development, and advocacy (for interests including human space exploration, pediatrics, renewable energy and "safe artificial intelligence"); and support science and engineering educational efforts 

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 Half of the $25 million it gave to non-profits was given to Musk's OpenAI, which was at the time a non-profit organization. Over 350 donations have been made by the foundation. Scientific research or education nonprofits were the majority. His alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the notable beneficiaries. The Giving Pledge was taken by Musk in 2012 in order to give most of his wealth to charity. He endowed prizes at the X Prize Foundation. The website of the Musk Foundation was only 33 words in plain text. The relatively small amount of wealth donated by the foundation has been criticized. Forbes gave Musk a philanthropy score of 1, because he gave away less than 1% of his net worth. Musk donated $5 in November.

 

Fortune magazine noted that no nonprofits subsequently announced receiving any money from Musk despite his November 2021. His shares in the electric car company were worth 7 billion dollars for charity. 

Views and Twitter usage

Since joining the social media platform Twitter in 2009, Musk has been an active user and has over 100 million followers as of June 2022 

 He promotes business interests and comments on political and cultural issues. Musk's statements have often provoked controversy, such as for mocking preferred gender pronouns, comparing Canadian prime minister Trudeau to Hitler in support of the Canada convoy protest, and saying that the U S. Is it possible to "coup whoever we want"? 

Existential threats

Musk has stated that artificial intelligence poses the greatest existential threat to humanity 

 He warned of a "Terminator-like" apocalypse and suggested that the government regulate its safe development. The Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence was cosigned by Musk and hundreds of others. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation gave Musk's Annual Luddite Award in 2016 after he was called alarmist and sensationalist by critics. Climate change is the greatest threat to humanity, and Musk has advocated for a carbon tax.

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Musk was a critic of President Donald Trump for his stance on climate change, and resigned from two presidential business advisory councils after Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement. Musk believes that humanity should become a multiplanetary species. Nuclear weapons could be used to terraform Mars. A direct democracy on Mars would require more votes to create laws than to remove them. Musk said thatMars has zero human population. A lot of people are needed to become a multiplanet civilization. Speaking at The Wall Street Journals's CEO Council session in 2021, Musk stated that declining birth rates and population is one of the biggest risks to human civilization. 

Politics

Although often described as libertarian, Musk has called himself "politically moderate" and was a registered independent when he lived in California 

 The New York Times said that Musk's views don't fit into a political framework. Musk has donated to both Democrats and Republicans in states where he has a vested interest. Musk has been described as having a "charm offensive" to woo the Chinese government and access its markets forTesla. Musk wrote an article for China Cyberspace, the official publication of Cyberspace Administration of China, which enforces Internet censorship in China.

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The article was written in a way that was conflicting with his advocacy for free speech. Several Taiwanese officials denounced Musk's call for Taiwan to become a special administrative region of China. Musk posted a "peace plan" for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His plan was criticized by Ukrainian officials for assumptions that were made about the Russian-annexed regions of the country. Musk said that the company could no longer give Starlink satellite units to Ukraine at its own expense. Musk voted for Hillary Clinton. S. There is a presidential election. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Musk endorsed Andrew Yang and supported his proposal for a universal basic income. He voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 general election despite endorsing a different candidate. In 2022, Musk said that he could no longer support the Democrats because they were the "party of division and hate". S. If he were a candidate. Musk has argued with more left-leaning Democratic politicians like Elizabeth Warren, and has opposed a "billionaire tax". 

COVID-19

Musk was criticized for his public comments and conduct related to the COVID-19 pandemic 

 He spread misinformation, including promoting a widely discredited paper on the benefits of chloroquine and claiming that COVID-19 death statistics were inflated. The coronaviruses panic is dumb according to Musk in March 2020. Musk referred to COVID-19 as a "specific form of the common cold" and predicted that confirmed cases would not exceed 0 The US population is 1%. On March 19, 2020, Musk predicted that there would be no new cases by the end of April. This is one of the most audacious, confident, and spectacularly incorrect predictions. Children are essentially immune to COVID-19, according to Musk.

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Musk refused to close the factory in March 2020 despite the local shelter-in-place order. He reopened the factory in defiance of the local stay-at- home order and warned workers that they would not be paid if they did not report to work. Musk promised in March 2020 that he would make ventilators for COVID-19 patients if there was a shortage. After figures like New York City mayor Bill de Blasio responded to Musk's offer, Musk offered to donate ventilators which he would build or buy from a third party. Musk bought and donated BiPAP and CPAP machines instead of the more expensive and sought-after IMV machines. Musk stated in September 2020 that he wouldn't get the vaccine because he and his children weren't at risk. Two months later, Musk contracted COVID-19 and suggested his test results were questionable, after which the phrase "Space Karen" trended on social media. In December 2021, Musk revealed that he and his children had received the vaccine. 

Finance

Musk has stated that he does not believe the US government should provide subsidies to companies; instead they should use a carbon tax to discourage poor behavior 

 The free market would achieve the best solution according to Musk. His stance has been called hypocritical because of the billions of dollars in subsidies that the company has received. As a result of the tax credits given by the governments of California and the United States,Tesla's battery electric vehicles were price-competitive in comparison to other electric vehicles.

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The European Union Emissions Trading System and the Chinese national carbon trading scheme grant a lot of revenue to the company. Musk has argued that short-selling should be illegal. Musk's opposition to short-selling is thought to be due to how short-sellers target and publish opposition research about his companies. He encouraged the short squeeze. 

Technology

Musk has promoted cryptocurrencies and supports them over traditional government-issued fiat currencies 

 Musk's statements about cryptocurrencies have been viewed as market manipulation by some. Musk was credited with increasing their prices. The announcement that it bought $1 was made in 2021. The environmental impact of cryptocurrencies mining was criticized by environmentalists and investors due to the fact that in 2021, the energy consumption of cryptocurrencies exceeded that of Argentina.

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In response to the criticism, Musk announced on the social networking site that he would no longer accept the virtual currency until the environmental issues are solved. Despite The Boring Company's involvement in building mass transit infrastructure, Musk has criticized public transport and promoted individualized transport. His comments were called "elitist" by transportation and urban planning experts, who pointed out that public transportation in dense urban areas is more economical, more energy efficient, and requires less space than private cars. 

Russia–Ukraine peace proposal

On 3 October 2022, Musk floated a peace proposal on Twitter, arguing that Russia should be allowed to keep Crimea, assuring its water supply from Ukraine, and that Ukraine should adopt a neutral status, dropping its bid to join NATO 

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The proposal suggested that the United Nations redo the Kremlin organised referendums that were denounced by the West as a sham. The proposal was welcomed by the Kremlin and rebuked by the Ukrainian President. In an email newsletter to clients, Ian Bremmer, head of political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group said that Musk told him that he had spoken directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Musk denied in a reply on Twitter, saying he had spoken to Putin only once 18 months prior, on a Musk replied to Bremmer that nobody should trust him, after he said that Musk had told him of the discussion with Putin two weeks earlier. The Kremlin said that Musk and Putin had only spoken about a year and a half before. Private citizens are not allowed to conduct foreign affairs without the permission of the US government. 

Personal life

From the early 2000s until late 2020, Musk resided in California where both Tesla and SpaceX were founded 

 He moved to Texas in 2020 to be closer to his family. While hosting Saturday Night Live in May 2021. He was criticized for using the term "Asperger Syndrome" since it was no longer included in the DSM-5. Musk met his first wife, Canadian Justine Wilson, while attending Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, and they married in 2000. Their first child died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 10 weeks. The couple decided to use fertility treatments after his death. They had twins in 2004. In 2008, the couple divorced and shared custody of their children. One of the twins changed her name to reflect her gender identity and used Wilson as her last name because she no longer wanted to be associated with Musk. In October 2022, I had an interview with the Financial Times.

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The Financial Times characterized the takeover of elite schools and universities by neo-Marxists as the reason for the estrangement of Musk's daughter. Musk began dating Talulah Riley in 2008. They were married at the cathedral two years later. The couple got married again in the following year. Musk finalized a second divorce from Riley after briefly filing for divorce. It was reported that Musk had been pursuing Heard since 2012 and that he dated her for several months last year. Johnny Depp accused Musk of having an affair with Heard while she was still married to him. Both Musk and Heard denied having an affair.

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Musk and a Canadian musician revealed that they were dating. Their son was born in May 2020. The name "X  A-12" was changed to "X  A-Xii" due to the fact that it contained characters that were not in the English alphabet. is not a letter in the English alphabet. The child was named after Musk, with "X" as a first name, "AE A-XII" as a middle name, and "Musk" as a surname. A daughter named "Y" was born via surrogate in December of 2021. Musk said in an interview with Time that he was single despite the fact that the couple were "semi-separated" in September 2021.

"I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid," she said. It was later that month that she said that she and Musk had broken up again. Insider published court documents showing that Musk had twins with a Neuralink director. Their second child was born via surrogate in December. The news raises questions about workplace ethics since it's a direct report of Musk. According to The Wall Street Journal, Musk had an affair with Sergey Brin's wife in 2021, leading to their divorce the following year. The report was denied by Musk. 

Recognition

Musk was elected for fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018 

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 He received a degree in engineering and technology from Yale University. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Transportation Award was one of the awards he received for his contributions to the development of the Falcon rockets. Time magazine had a list of the 100 most influential people. Musk was selected as Time's Person of the Year in 2021. Edward Felsenthal, editor-in-chief of Time, wrote that Musk has had more influence on life on Earth than any other person. Musk was a member of the National Academy of Engineering.