Elon Musk
Summary
Elon Musk, born in South Africa in 1971, is a founder and
CEO of the much acclaimed Space Exploration or SpaceX company, co-founder and
CEO of Tesla Inc, Co-Chairman of OpenAI, and founder and CEO of Neuralink.
Earlier, he was the co-founder and chairman of SolarCity, Zip2, XCom. His
estimated worth (as of 2017) is USD 15.2 billion. Elon Musk became a
multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a
division of Compaq Computers. Musk made headlines in May 2012, when SpaceX
launched a rocket that would send the first commercial vehicle to the
International Space Station.
Early successes
Taking interest in computers from age 10, he taught himself
computer programming at age 12. At that very young age he became an
entrepreneur by selling the code for a Basic-based video game –Blastar - that
he had developed, to a magazine for $500.
After receiving two bachelor degrees in physics and
economics, he joined a Ph. D course, only to leave it just after two days, to
pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.
In 1995, he and his brother started ZIP2, a software company
with a meagre US$2000 they took from their father. They developed an internet
based city guide for the newspaper publishing industry and they obtained
contracts from New York Times and Chicago Tribune.
In Feb 1999, Compaq acquired
ZIP2 for US $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options. Elon Musk
received US$22 million towards his 7% share in ZIP2.
That was the beginning of a long story of his ventures into
Space, Solar Power, Electric Cars, hyperlooping, artificial intelligence, and so
on. At every stage, he made a quantum jump into newer and riskier ventures.
Here is the remaining story.
Success Stories
In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial
services and e-mail payment company, with US$10 million from the sale of Zip2.
One year later, the company merged with Confinity, which had a money transfer
service called PayPal. The merged company became Pal in 2001. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay
for US$1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk received US$165 million towards his
11.7% share in PayPal.
In 2001, Musk conceptualized "Mars Oasis"; a
project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, in an attempt to recapture
public attention and interest in space exploration.
After two failed visits to Russia in 2001 and 2002 to
procure Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles that could send payloads into
space, he realized that it would be far more economical to start a company to
build affordable rockets than to buy ICBMs from the market.
In May 2002, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX,
investing US$100 million of his early fortune - with the long-term goal of creating a
"true spacefaring civilization." SpaceX develops and manufactures
space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of rocket technology.
In a period seven years time, SpaceX designed the family of
Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon multipurpose spacecraft.
In September 2008, SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket became the first
privately funded liquid-fueled vehicle to put a satellite into Earth orbit.
During 2006, SpaceX was awarded a contract from NASA to
continue the development and test of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and
Dragon spacecraft in order to transport cargo to the International Space
Station. This was followed by a US$1.6 billion NASA contract on December 23,
2008, for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the Space
Station, replacing the US Space Shuttle after it retired in 2011.
On May 25, 2012, the SpaceX stunned the world by berthing
its Dragon vehicle on the International Space Station (ISS), making history as
the first commercial company to launch and berth a vehicle to the ISS.
SpaceX is also one of the two companies awarded a contract
by NASA, intended to develop capability to transport a US astronaut by 2018.
On 22 December 2015, SpaceX successfully landed the first
stage of its Falcon rocket back at the launch pad, demonstrating the
possibility of reusing rockets and thus lowering cost of space exploration. This
first stage recovery was replicated several times in 2016.
SpaceX is both the largest private producer of rocket
engines in the world, and holder of the record for highest thrust-to-weight
ratio for a rocket engine.
Musk believes that
multiplanetary life may serve as a hedge against threats to the survival of the
human species.
Musk's goal is to reduce the cost of human spaceflight and to send humans to Mars' surface within 10–20
years. His vision is to establish a Mars
colony by 2040, with a population of 80,000. Musk stated that, since Mars'
atmosphere lacks oxygen, all transportation would have to be electric (electric
cars, electric trains, Hyperloop, electric aircraft). This thought, probably,
motivated him to invest in Tesla electric cars.
Tesla
Tesla, Inc. (originally Tesla Motors) was incorporated in
July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk’s substantial investments
in Tesla made him its chairman, and he took an active role in the design of Roadster
electric car.
Following the financial crisis in 2008, Musk assumed
leadership of the company as CEO and product architect. He still holds those
positions.
Tesla Motors first built an electric sports car, the Tesla
Roadster in 2008, with sales of about 2,500 vehicles to 31 countries. Tesla products
now include its four-door Model S sedan,
Model X SUV, and electric powertrain systems to Daimler and Toyota, who eventually became long term
investors in Tesla.
Musk believed in building a compact Tesla model that would
cost less than US$30,000l, and building and selling electric vehicle powertrain
components so that other automakers can produce electric vehicles at affordable
prices without having to develop the products in-house.
It is reported that his annual salary is just one dollar,
and like Steve Jobs of Apple and a few others, the remainder of his
compensation is in the form of stock and performance-based bonuses, which
signifies his confidence in his investment ideas.
SolarCity
Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for
SolarCity, which was then co-founded in 2006 by his cousins Lyndon and Peter
Rive. SolarCity is now the second largest provider of solar power systems in
the United States. The underlying motivation for funding both SolarCity and
Tesla is to help combat global warming.
Hyperloop
On August 12, 2013, Musk unveiled a concept for a high-speed
transportation system that involved pressurized capsules riding on an air
cushion through reduced-pressure tubes. This system is envisaged to be used
between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Musk assigned a dozen of his engineers from Tesla and SpaceX
to his hyperloop project, and they worked for nine months, establishing the
conceptual foundations and creating the designs for the transportation system,
that would reduce transportation costs between cities substantially.
In June 2015, Musk announced a design competition for
students and others to build Hyperloop pods to operate on a SpaceX-sponsored
mile-long track in a 2015–2017 Hyperloop pod competition. It appears that the competition is reaching its final stages, and we
must be proud that an Indian team has also been short-listed as finalists. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/hyperloop-india-team-including-keralites-make-it-to-the-finals-of-space-x-hyperloop-challenge/articleshow/59375614.cms)
OpenAI
In December 2015, Elon Musk announced the creation of
OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company.
OpenAI
aims to develop artificial general intelligence in a way that is safe and
beneficial to humanity and make it available to everyone without a profit
motive.
The Boring Company
On December 17, 2016, while stuck in traffic, the idea of
boring a tunnel to remove traffic jam struck Musk. He formed 'The Boring
Company', which began digging its first tunnel, a 30-foot-wide, 50-foot-long,
and 15-foot-deep "test trench" on the premises of Space X's offices
in Los Angeles in February 2017.
Neuralink
In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology
startup company, to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence. The
idea was centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain,
with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep
pace with advancements in artificial intelligence.
At the same time, Musk has frequently spoken out about the
potential dangers of artificial intelligence, declaring it "the most
serious threat to the survival of the human race". Musk had once remarked "There
have been movies about this, you know, like Terminator – there are some scary
outcomes. And we should try to make sure the outcomes are good, not bad."
However, there is no dearth of criticisms against Musk. Many
are still his critics and skeptics. Criticism and skepticism seem to be part of
one’s path to success.
(I thank the following websites for the very interesting information on Elon Musk:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
https://www.biography.com/people/elon-musk-20837159)