Elon Musk is the founding father of SpaceX and The Boring Company and a co-founder of Zip2, PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and OpenAI. He also has imagined and plans to make a very high-speed transit system for the passengers on the ground known as the Hyperloop
As of January 2022, his approximately net worth of $222.2 Billion, and now he is the wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes and Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Elon Musk was born in 1971 in South Africa and started his professional career as a computer programmer when he was 12 years old. At that age, he learned coding and sold a computer game, “Blastar”, for approximately $500. Then, at the age of 17, he came to the United States and earned degrees in business and physics from the University of Pennsylvania.
His first company, Zip2, provided online content publishing software for media companies. Zip2 Corporation was financially backed by Compaq Computer Corporation, which later merged with Hewlett-Packard. Compaq wanted Zip2 to create software to sell to cities using their utility networks. In 1999, Compaq bought Zip2 for $307 million.
Next, he started an online banking technology company X.com, which eventually merged with Confinity Inc. to form PayPal. In July 2002, eBay agreed to acquire PayPal for $1.5 billion in stock.
He is one of the most brilliant minds globally and thinking about how technology could help shape the future world. He wanted to see more people using technology for good rather than evil.
He revolutionized the internet, created PayPal, and attempted to colonize Mars by building the first private space program. He works for Zip2 Corporation as a web software developer.
Tesla:
Tesla Motors is one of the most valuable car companies globally and has become a significant player in the auto industry. A company that designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars, has grown exponentially. Musk’s Tesla Motors is one of the largest companies in the world to produce electric vehicles and batteries exclusively.
The company was launched to market with a luxury electric sports car, the Roadster, in 2008 and now also sells a full line of luxury electric vehicles and electric powertrain components for automotive companies like Daimler and Toyota.
The company produces the Model S, Model X, and Model 3, high-performance all-electric cars. Consumer Reports have rated the Model S as the best car they have ever tested.
More than 85% of Tesla’s revenues come from its sales of electric vehicles. It also earns income from selling zero-emission vehicle credits to other automakers, which is expected to be a more prominent source of revenue in upcoming years as more stringent emission standards are introduced.
On July 1, 2003, it was founded by Martin Eberhard, JB Straubel, Elon Reeve Musk, Marc Tarpenning, and its headquarters in Palo Alto, CA. The company’s mission is to produce affordable, mass-market electric cars, battery products, and solar roofs.
This company designs develops, manufactures, and sells fully electric vehicles and energy storage products in the United States, China, Norway, and internationally. It offers sedans and sport utility vehicles under the Tesla marque. In June 2016, Tesla became the most valuable carmaker in the U.S., ahead of General Motors Company and Ford Motor Company.
SpaceX:
Musk founded SpaceX, which designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. It has already successfully launched several missions into space and has developed reusable missiles, making them less costly than traditional rockets, which have to be used once then discarded.
SpaceX helped achieve many big contracts from American space agency NASA and U.S Air Force to make rockets for their military assignments. He is very confident to send an astronaut to Mars with the collaboration of NASA at the end of 2025.
He has built a massive fortune through his work at SpaceX, which he founded with $100 million and got many subsidies from the U.S government. Although that may sound like a lot of money.
It took eight years for SpaceX to get off the ground, but it began making huge profits working on NASA and other government contracts once it did.
As you probably know, SpaceX recently received a $2.9 billion contract from NASA to build part of the space station, which will use for research and resupply missions for future missions.
PayPal:
PayPal was established by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, Elon Musk, and Ken Howery in 1998 to make it easier for people to transfer money via email. It provides many services to people and businesses like moving funds from one place to another, buying and selling goods, sending or receiving donations from individuals and companies. In 2002 eBay acquired PayPal.
Stock Price:
According to the latest selling, he holds 175 Million shares of Tesla stock. His net worth comes from his 27% stake in Tesla Motors. It is expected that the sales will grow over 50% in 2022 by opening new factories and boosting the production of existing plants.
It is also the company that he helped start back in 2003 after leaving Zip2. In addition to his stake, he also has a 10% stake in SolarCity, which Tesla Motors bought for $2.6 billion in 2016.
He founded his first company, Zip2, which made online city guides for newspapers and sold it for $307 million in cash. Later in 1999, he co-founded X.com, used for online funds transfer and online payments. Later, it became PayPal after merging with its rival Confinity Inc. in 2000, making Musk one of its largest shareholders before its sale to eBay $1.5 billion in 2002.
In 1999, Musk sold Zip2 to Compaq for $307M. After taxes and due to his small 7% share he took home $22M. He made over $180 million from his 11% stake in PayPal.
Musk then founded X.com, which later merged with Confinity based out of California. Before the merger, Musk owned about 30% of Confinity stock. The company had an IPO, and he ended up getting $55M from the sale of his shares..
After selling both Zip2 and Confinity, Musk had more money than earlier in his career. Before 1999, he made around $20-30M from both companies’ combined, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at but pales in comparison to the massive amounts of money that came later on in life.