Elon Musk Age, Wife, Girlfriend, Children, Family, Biography

 

Some Lesser Known Facts About Elon Musk

• Does Elon Musk smoke?: Yes

• Does Elon Musk drink alcohol?: Yes
  

  Elon Musk Drinking Alcohol

• He has his roots in America, Canada, South Africa and also has Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.

• At the age of 10, Elon started teaching himself computer programming after developing an interest in the Commodore VIC-20 (computer).

• He sold his first video game, ‘Blastar’ to ‘PC and Office Technology’ (a magazine) for $500. He was just 12 years old at that time.

• In his childhood, he was deeply inspired by Isaac Asimov’s book, ‘Foundation series.’

• Elon had a very dreadful childhood as he was bullied in his school. Once, he even got hospitalized after a group of boys beat him until he became unconscious and threw him down a flight of stairs.

• Just before his 18th birthday, Elon moved to Canada against his father’s will. His father wanted Elon to complete his graduation from Pretoria itself but Elon chose to flee since he believed that it was easier to get to the United States from Canada.

• In 1995, after raising funds from a small group of ‘angel investors,’ Elon and his brother, Kimbal, founded ‘Zip2’ (a web software company). Elon wanted to become the CEO of Zip2 but was not allowed by the other members of the board. However, Zip2 was later acquired by Compaq in 1999.

• In 1999. Elon co-founded an e-mail payment and online financial services company, ‘X.com.’ A year later, X.com merged with Confinity, which provided a money-transfer service called, ‘PayPal.’ In 2000, He was knocked out from his position of CEO because of some disagreement with the allied party. Elon was the largest shareholder of X.com before it was acquired by eBay in 2002.

• In 2000, he got married to his first wife, Justine Wilson. Their first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, died just after 10 weeks of his birth due to ‘Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).’ Through “in vitro fertilization” the couple was blessed with twins and triplets in the year 2004 and 2006 respectively.

• He drafted “Mars Oasis” in 2001. The project was aimed to gain public interest in space exploration. Elon went to Russia to buy refurbished ‘Dnepr Intercontinental ballistic missiles’ (ICBMs) for his project from the companies like NPO Lavochkin, and Kosmotras. He was spat upon by one of the Russian chief designers after Elon proposed his plan. He returned empty-handed to the US.

• In 2002, in another meeting with the company Kosmotras, the company offered one rocket for $8 million to Elon, which he found too expensive. He left the meeting in between in anger and there he got the idea of founding a company which could build the cost-effective rockets he needed and hence Elon ended up founding “SpaceX” in May 2002.

• In 2003, Tesla (a car manufacturer company) was co-founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. In 2004, Elon joined the company as the Chairman of the board of Directors. Amidst some financial crisis and a few conflicts in 2008, Elon became the CEO of Tesla overthrowing Martin Eberhard from the post.

• Musk’s Salary at Tesla is ₹1 only.

• In 2005, his aircraft: (1994) model Dassault Falcon 900, was used in the film, “Thank you for smoking.” Elon made a cameo in the film as the pilot of the plane.

• He was a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board in 2006.

• Musk provided financial support to his cousins, Lyndon, and Peter Rive, who founded ‘SolarCity’ in 2006. He also helped them by giving the initial concept of the project. Tesla, Inc wholly acquired SolarCity in 2016.

• In 2008, Elon and Justine shared the custody of their five sons after getting separated from each other.

• After dating actress, Talulah Riley, Elon tied the knot with her in 2010. In 2012, Musk announced a divorce with the actress. In 2013, Elon remarried her after which Musk again announced that he had filed for a second divorce from Talulah. Though the divorce was withdrawn but was later finalized in 2016.

• In 2010, his name was among “Time‘s 100 people” who affected the world the most and was also listed among the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine.

• Musk was listed among the “America’s 20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 And Under” by Forbes in February 2011.

• In 2013, Musk became the Fortune Businessperson of the year for SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity.

• In 2015, Elon made a cameo, playing himself in an episode, “The Musk Who Fell to Earth” of ‘The Simpsons.’ In the same year, Elon made a guest appearance, playing himself in an episode of the famous series, ‘The Big Bang Theory.’

• Along with Sal Khan and Mark Zuckerberg, he was listed as one of the “Top 10 Business Visionaries Creating Value for the World” in 2016.

• He held the 21st position on the Forbes list of the World’s Most Powerful People in December 2016.

• In 2016, Musk purchased the Tesla.com domain name from Stu Grossman.

• ‘Neuralink,’ was co-founded by Musk in 2016. It is a startup company that incorporates the human brain with artificial intelligence. It strives to create devices that can be embedded in the human brain.

• In 2017, Elon bought the domain X.com from PayPal, stating that he holds “great sentimental value” with it.

• On 6 February 2018, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched ‘Falcon Heavy’ which carried a ‘Tesla Roadster’ as a dummy payload belonging to Musk. Falcon Heavy is the world’s 4th highest capacity rocket ever built, becoming the most powerful rocket in operation as of 2018.
  

  Space X launched Falcon Heavy with a Tesla Roadstar as a dummy payload

• Once, Musk was stuck in a traffic jam, it was then, Musk decided to build a tunnel and unveiled its company’s name, ‘The Boring Company.’

• In 2018, Musk tried to assist the rescuers in the ‘Tham Luang cave rescue operation,’ in which a junior football team got trapped in (a cave in Thailand). His engineers at SpaceX and The Boring Company constructed a submarine called, ‘Wild Boar’ to be sent to Thailand to rescue the children. By the time his submarine reached Thailand, eight of the twelve children had already been rescued so the Government of Thailand did not use his submarine.
  

  Elon Musk’s ‘Wild Boar’ being tested for the rescue operation

• In 2018, Elon announced that SpaceX would be sending its first passenger, Yusaku Maezawa (a Japanese billionaire) to the moon by 2023.
  

  Elon Musk With Yusaku Maezawa

• In an interview, Elon revealed that Tesla would never make an electric motorcycle. He further revealed that when he was a teenager he was almost killed by a truck while driving his motorcycle.

• Being a Philanthropist, he founded the ‘Musk Foundation,’ which aims to provide solar-power energy systems in the disaster-prone areas.

• On his trip to India, he spent a night with a spiritual guru who told him to serve the poor. That is how Musk got the enlightenment of social service.

• In April 2020, he took to Twitter to reveal the name of his newborn son – X Æ A-12 Musk. 

• By Forbes’ calculations, Elon Musk surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person on January 8, 2021. The Tesla chief went nearly $5 billion ahead of the former world’s number one, Jeff Bezos, who had a net worth of $185 billion. ^[8]Forbes

• In September 2021, in an interview, he told that he and Grimes were semi-separated. ^[9]India Today He said,
  

  We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms.

• Even after being one of the richest persons in the world, Elon Musk doesn’t own any house. ^[10]Time

• On 5 April 2022, Twitter Inc announced Elon Musk to join the board of directors, a day after Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in the social media company; ^[11]The Hindu however, he declined to join the Twitter board and said that he would continue to give new suggestions to the microblogging site. ^[12]The Hindu On 25 April 2022, in a dramatic shift, he reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion. ^[13]The Hindu In a joint statement with Twitter, he said,
  

  Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”

• In May 2022, his mother, Maye Musk, was featured on the cover page of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2022, making her one of the world’s oldest women to be featured on the cover of this magazine. ^[14]The Free Press Journal
  

  Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2022

• In July 2022, his father, Errol Musk, made headlines after it was revealed that he had allegedly impregnated his 35-year-old stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout. Reportedly, Elon Musk has an estranged relationship with his father, and in an interview with Rolling Stone, Elon Musk cried and described his father as a horrible and evil person. ^[15]The Economic Times Elon Musk, in another interview, revealed that he had tried changing his father for the better, but he failed. Elon Musk said,
  

  I tried threats, rewards, and arguments to change my father for the better. No way, it just got worse.”

• On 15 February 2023, he introduced his pet dog Floki, a Shiba Inu dog, as the new CEO of Twitter and said that Floki was “so much better than that other guy.”
  

  Elon Musk’s tweet about his pet dog Floki as the CEO of Twitter

• In an interview, American author, professor, and journalist Walter Isaacson shared insights about Elon Musk’s inspirations and perspectives. Isaacson highlighted that Musk, profoundly inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte’s leadership, has deeply studied his life. Musk’s interest in military history is so pronounced that he often listens to the ‘Hardcore History’ podcast at night. Isaacson further said that Musk sees the lessons from military history, particularly those from Napoleon’s era, as applicable to the business sphere. Additionally, according to Isaacson, Musk holds a strong view against remote work, considering working from home to be “morally wrong.” ^[16]New York Post

• According to Elon Musk’s biography, he joined a wilderness survival camp named Veldskool at the age of 12. In the camp, the children were given small portions of food and water and were encouraged to compete for these resources. This often led to conflicts with older kids often resorting to physical aggression to take food from the younger ones. Elon himself experienced being beaten up twice at the camp. He joined the camp for the second time at the age of 16, and this time, he had learnt judo. ^[17]India Today A statement in the book read,
  

  I realised by then that is someone bullied me, I could punch them very hard in the nose, and they wouldn’t bully me again. They might beat the s*** out of me, but if I had punched them hard in the nose, they wouldn’t come after me again.”

• During an interaction with Canadian psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson in July 2024, he called gender-affirming care “evil” and said he would destroy the woke mind virus that killed his child Xavier. After coming out as transgender in June 2022, Xavier filed a legal request to change her name from Xavier to Vivian and desired she should not be connected with Musk.