fbpx
Wikipedia

Elon Musk

August 21, 2023

Elon Reeve Musk (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. Musk is the founder, chairman, CEO and chief technology officer of SpaceX, angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc., owner, chairman and CTO of X Corp., founder of the Boring Company, a co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, and the president of the Musk Foundation. He is the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$217 billion as of August 2023, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $219 billion according to Forbes, primarily from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX.[3][4][5]

Elon Musk

FRS
Musk in 2022
Born
Elon Reeve Musk

(1971-06-28) June 28, 1971 (age 52)
Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa
EducationUniversity of Pennsylvania (BA, BS)
Title
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 2000; div. 2008)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 2010; div. 2012)​
    ​
    ​
    (m. 2013; div. 2016)​
PartnerGrimes (2018–2021)[1]
Children10[2]
Parents
FamilyMusk family
Signature

Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and briefly attended the University of Pretoria before immigrating to Canada at age 18, acquiring citizenship through his Canadian-born mother.[6] Two years later, he matriculated at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Musk later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, and received bachelor's degrees in economics and physics there. He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University. However, Musk dropped out after two days and, with his brother Kimbal, co-founded online city guide software company Zip2. The startup was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999, and with $12 million of the money he made, that same year Musk co-founded X.com, a direct bank. X.com merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal.

In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion, and that same year, with $100 million of the money he made, Musk founded SpaceX, a spaceflight services company. In 2004, he became an early investor in electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (now Tesla, Inc.). He became its chairman and product architect, assuming the position of CEO in 2008. In 2006, Musk helped create SolarCity, a solar energy company that was acquired by Tesla in 2016 and became Tesla Energy. In 2013, he proposed a hyperloop high-speed vactrain transportation system. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company. The following year, Musk co-founded Neuralink—a neurotechnology company developing brain–computer interfaces—and the Boring Company, a tunnel construction company. In 2022, he acquired Twitter for $44 billion and subsequently merged the company into newly created X Corp. and rebranded the service as X the following year. In March 2023, he founded xAI, an artificial-intelligence company.

Musk has expressed views that have made him a polarizing figure. He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including that of spreading COVID-19 misinformation, and promoting conspiracy theories.[7][8][9] His Twitter ownership has been similarly controversial, including letting off a large number of employees[10], an increase in hate speech on the platform[11] and features such as Twitter Blue and the implementation of limits on the amount of viewable Tweets per day being criticized.[12][13] [14][15]In 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued him for falsely tweeting that he had secured funding for a private takeover of Tesla. To settle the case, Musk stepped down as the chairman of Tesla and paid a $20 million fine.

Early life

Childhood and family

Further information: Musk family

Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, one of South Africa's capital cities.[16][17] Musk has British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.[18][19] His mother, Maye Musk (née Haldeman), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in South Africa.[20][21][22] His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer, who partly owned a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika.[23][24][25][26] Musk has a younger brother, Kimbal, and a younger sister, Tosca.[22][27]

Musk's family was wealthy during his youth.[26] His father was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party and has said that his children shared their father's dislike of apartheid.[16] His maternal grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, was an American-born Canadian who took his family on record-breaking journeys to Africa and Australia in a single-engine Bellanca airplane.[28][29][30] After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk chose to live primarily with his father.[18] Musk later regretted his decision and became estranged from his father.[31] He has a paternal half-sister and a half-brother.[28][32]

Maye Musk has said of her son that he "was shy and awkward at school" and "didn't have many friends".[33] At age ten, he developed an interest in computing and video games, teaching himself how to program from the VIC-20 user manual.[34] At age twelve, he sold his BASIC-based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500.[35][36]

Education

 
Musk graduated from Pretoria Boys High School in South Africa

Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, Bryanston High School, and Pretoria Boys High School, from where he graduated.[37] Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother,[38][39] knowing that it would be easier to immigrate to the United States this way.[40] While waiting for his application to be processed, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months.[41]

Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989 and lived with a second cousin in Saskatchewan for a year,[42] working odd jobs at a farm and lumber mill.[43] In 1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.[44][45] Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), where he completed studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the Wharton School.[46][47][48][49] Although Musk claims he earned the degrees in 1995, UPenn maintains it awarded them in 1997.[50] He reportedly hosted large, ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition, and wrote a business plan for an electronic book-scanning service similar to Google Books.[51]

In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley: one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which investigated electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage, and another at Palo Alto–based startup Rocket Science Games.[52][53] In 1995, he was accepted to a PhD program in materials science at Stanford University.[54][55] However, Musk decided to join the Internet boom, dropping out two days after being accepted and applied for a job at Netscape, to which he reportedly never received a response.[56][38]

Business career

Zip2

Main article: Zip2
External video
  Musk speaks of his early business experience during a 2014 commencement speech at USC on YouTube

In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Zip2.[57][58] Errol Musk provided them with $28,000 in funding.[59] The company developed an Internet city guide with maps, directions, and yellow pages, and marketed it to newspapers.[60] They worked at a small rented office in Palo Alto,[61] with Musk coding the website every night.[61] Eventually, Zip2 obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.[51] The brothers persuaded the board of directors to abandon a merger with CitySearch;[62] however, Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted.[63] Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999,[64][65] and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share.[66]

X.com and PayPal

Main articles: X.com (bank), PayPal, and PayPal Mafia

Later in 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company with $12 million of the money he made from the Compaq acquisition.[67] X.com was one of the first federally insured online banks, and over 200,000 customers joined in its initial months of operation.[68] Even though Musk founded the company, investors regarded him as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year.[69]

In 2000, X.com merged with online bank Confinity to avoid competition,[61][69][70] as the latter's money-transfer service PayPal was more popular than X.com's service.[71] Musk then returned as CEO of the merged company. His preference for Microsoft over Unix-based software caused a rift among the company's employees, and eventually led Confinity co-founder Peter Thiel to resign.[72] With the company suffering from compounding technological issues and the lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000.[73][a] Under Thiel, the company focused on the money-transfer service and was renamed PayPal in 2001.[75][76]

In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk—PayPal's largest shareholder with 11.72% of shares—received $175.8 million.[77][78] In 2017, more than 15 years later, Musk purchased the X.com domain from PayPal for its "sentimental value".[79][80] In 2022, Musk discussed a goal of creating "X, the everything app".[81]

SpaceX

Main article: SpaceX
 
Then NASA Administrator Charles Bolden congratulates Musk by the SpaceX Dragon following its 2012 mission

In early 2001, Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars.[82] In October of the same year, he traveled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell and Adeo Ressi to buy refurbished intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the greenhouse payloads into space. He met with the companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras; however, Musk was seen as a novice[83] and the group returned to the United States empty-handed. In February 2002, the group returned to Russia with Mike Griffin (president of In-Q-Tel) to look for three ICBMs. They had another meeting with Kosmotras and were offered one rocket for $8 million, which Musk rejected. He instead decided to start a company that could build affordable rockets.[83] With $100 million of his own money,[84] Musk founded SpaceX in May 2002 and became the company's CEO and Chief Engineer.[85][86]

SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006.[87] Though the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit, it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA Administrator (and former SpaceX consultant[88]) Mike Griffin later that year.[89][90] After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk and his companies to go bankrupt,[87] SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008.[91] Later that year, SpaceX received a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract from NASA for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement.[92] In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft.[93]

 
Musk examining F9R Dev1 debris in 2014

Working towards its goal of reusable rockets, in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 on an inland platform.[94] Later landings were achieved on autonomous spaceport drone ships, an ocean-based recovery platform.[95] In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy; the inaugural mission carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload.[96][97] Since 2019,[98] SpaceX has been developing Starship, a fully-reusable, super-heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to replace the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy.[99] In 2020, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight, the Demo-2, becoming the first private company to place astronauts into orbit and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS.[100]

Starlink

Main article: Starlink
See also: Starlink in Ukraine
 
50 Starlink satellites shortly before deployment to low Earth orbit, 2019

In 2015, SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide satellite Internet access,[101] with the first two prototype satellites launched in February 2018. A second set of test satellites, and the first large deployment of a piece of the constellation, occurred in May 2019, when the first 60 operational satellites were launched.[102] The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation is estimated by SpaceX to be about $10 billion.[103][b] Some critics, including the International Astronomical Union, have alleged that Starlink blocks the view of the sky and poses a collision threat to spacecraft.[106][107][108]

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Musk sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine to provide Internet access and communication.[109] However, Musk refused to block Russian state media on Starlink, declaring himself "a free speech absolutist".[110][111] In October 2022, Musk stated that about 20,000 satellite terminals had been donated to Ukraine, together with free data transfer subscriptions, which cost SpaceX $80 million. After asking the United States Department of Defense to pay for further units and future subscriptions on behalf of Ukraine,[112] Musk publicly stated that SpaceX would continue to provide Starlink to Ukraine for free, at a yearly cost to itself of $400 million.[113][114][115]

Tesla

Main article: Tesla, Inc.
 
Musk next to a Tesla Model S, 2011

Tesla, Inc.—originally Tesla Motors—was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who financed the company until the Series A round of funding. Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement.[116] Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $6.5 million, became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman.[117] Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations.[118]

Following a series of escalating conflicts in 2007, and the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Eberhard was ousted from the firm.[119][page needed][120] Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008.[121] A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others.[122][123] As of 2019, Musk was the longest-tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally.[124] In 2021, Musk nominally changed his title to "Technoking" while retaining his position as CEO.[125]

 
Musk before a Model X at the 2014 Tesla Inc. annual shareholder meeting

Tesla began delivery of an electric sports car, the Roadster, in 2008. With sales of about 2,500 vehicles, it was the first serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells.[126] Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan in 2012.[127] A cross-over, the Model X was launched in 2015.[128] A mass-market sedan, the Model 3, was released in 2017.[129] The Model 3 is the all-time bestselling plug-in electric car worldwide, and in June 2021 it became the first electric car to sell 1 million units globally.[130][131] A fifth vehicle, the Model Y crossover, was launched in 2020.[132] The Cybertruck, an all-electric pickup truck, was unveiled in 2019.[133] Under Musk, Tesla has also constructed multiple lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle factories, named Gigafactories.[134]

Since its initial public offering in 2010,[135] Tesla stock has risen significantly; it became the most valuable carmaker in summer 2020,[136][137] and it entered the S&P 500 later that year.[138][139] In October 2021, it reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion, the sixth company in U.S. history to do so.[140] In November 2021, Musk proposed, on Twitter, to sell 10% of his Tesla stock, since "much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance".[141] After more than 3.5 million Twitter accounts supported the sale, Musk sold $6.9 billion of Tesla stock within a week,[141] and a total of $16.4 billion by year end, reaching the 10% target.[142] In February 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that both Elon and Kimbal Musk were under investigation by the SEC for possible insider trading related to the sale.[143] In 2022, Musk unveiled a robot developed by Tesla, Optimus.[144] On June 20, 2023, Musk met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York City, suggesting that he might be interested in investing in India "as soon as humanly possible".[145]

SEC and shareholder lawsuits regarding tweets

In 2018, Musk was sued by the SEC for a tweet claiming that funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private.[146][c] The lawsuit characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies.[146][150][151] Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations. As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $20 million each, and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman but was able to remain as CEO.[152] Musk has stated in interviews that he does not regret posting the tweet that triggered the SEC investigation.[153][154] In April 2022, the shareholder who sued Musk over the tweet, along with several Tesla shareholders, said that a federal judge had ruled that the tweet was false, although the ruling in question has not been unsealed.[155] In February 2023, the jury found Musk and Tesla not liable.[156]

In 2019, Musk stated in a tweet that Tesla would build half a million cars that year.[157] The SEC reacted to Musk's tweet by filing in court, asking the court to hold him in contempt for violating the terms of a settlement agreement with such a tweet; the accusation was disputed by Musk. This was eventually settled by a joint agreement between Musk and the SEC clarifying the previous agreement details.[158] The agreement included a list of topics that Musk would need preclearance before tweeting about.[159] In 2020, a judge prevented a lawsuit from proceeding that claimed a tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price ("too high imo") violated the agreement.[160][161] FOIA-released records showed that the SEC itself concluded Musk has subsequently violated the agreement twice by tweeting regarding "Tesla's solar roof production volumes and its stock price".[162]

SolarCity and Tesla Energy

Main articles: SolarCity and Tesla Energy
 
SolarCity solar-panel installation vans in 2009

Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006.[163] By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States.[164] In 2014, Musk promoted the idea of SolarCity building an advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States.[165] Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017. It operated as a joint venture with Panasonic until early 2020.[166][167]

Tesla acquired SolarCity for over $2 billion in 2016 and merged it with its battery unit to create Tesla Energy. The deal's announcement resulted in a more than 10% drop in Tesla's stock price. At the time, SolarCity was facing liquidity issues.[168] Multiple shareholder groups filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla's directors, claiming that the purchase of SolarCity was done solely to benefit Musk and came at the expense of Tesla and its shareholders.[169][170] Tesla directors settled the lawsuit in January 2020, leaving Musk the sole remaining defendant.[171][172] Two years later, the court ruled in Musk's favor.[173]

Neuralink

Main article: Neuralink
 
Musk discussing a Neuralink device during a live demonstration in 2020

In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup company, with an investment of $100 million.[174][175] Neuralink aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI) by creating devices that are embedded in the brain to facilitate its merging with machines. Such technology could enhance memory or allow the devices to communicate with software.[175][176] The company also hopes to develop devices with which to treat neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and spinal cord injuries.[177]

In 2019, Musk announced work on a device akin to a sewing machine that could embed threads into a human brain.[174] He is listed as the sole author of an October 2019 paper that details some of Neuralink's research,[178] although Musk's being listed as such rankled the Neuralink team's researchers.[179] At a 2020 live demonstration, Musk described one of their early devices as "a Fitbit in your skull" that could soon cure paralysis, deafness, blindness, and other disabilities. Many neuroscientists and publications criticized these claims,[180][181][182] with MIT Technology Review describing them as "highly speculative" and "neuroscience theater".[180] During the demonstration, Musk revealed a pig with a Neuralink implant that tracked neural activity related to smell.[177] In 2022, Neuralink announced that clinical trials would begin by the end of the year.[183]

Neuralink has conducted further animal testing on macaque monkeys at the University of California, Davis' Primate Research Center. In 2021, the company released a video in which a Macaque played the video game Pong via a Neuralink implant. The company's animal trials—which have caused the deaths of some monkeys—have led to claims of animal cruelty. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has alleged that Neuralink's animal trials have violated the Animal Welfare Act.[184] Employees have complained that pressure from Musk to accelerate development has led to botched experiments and unnecessary animal deaths. In 2022, a federal probe was launched into possible animal welfare violations by Neuralink.[185]

The Boring Company

Main article: The Boring Company
 
Musk during the 2018 inauguration of the Boring Test Tunnel in Hawthorne, California

In 2017, Musk founded the Boring Company to construct tunnels, and revealed plans for specialized, underground, high-occupancy vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) and thus circumvent above-ground traffic in major cities.[186][187] Early in 2017, the company began discussions with regulatory bodies and initiated construction of a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 50-foot (15 m) long, and 15-foot (4.6 m) deep "test trench" on the premises of SpaceX's offices, as that required no permits.[188] The Los Angeles tunnel, less than two miles (3.2 km) in length, debuted to journalists in 2018. It used Tesla Model Xs and was reported to be a rough ride while traveling at suboptimal speeds.[189]

Two tunnel projects announced in 2018, in Chicago and West Los Angeles, have been canceled.[190][191] However, a tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2021.[192] Local officials have approved further expansions of the tunnel system.[193] In 2021, tunnel construction was approved for Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[194]

Twitter

Further information: Acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk
 
 Elon Musk Twitter
@elonmusk

I made an offer
https://sec.gov/Archives/edgar...

April 14, 2022[195]

Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter as early as 2017,[196] and had previously questioned the platform's commitment to freedom of speech.[197][198] In January 2022, Musk started purchasing Twitter shares, reaching a 9.2% stake by April,[199] making him the largest shareholder.[200][d] When this was publicly disclosed, Twitter shares experienced the largest intraday price surge since the company's 2013 IPO.[202] On April 4, Musk agreed to a deal that would appoint him to Twitter's board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company.[203][204] However, on April 13, Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter, launching a takeover bid to buy 100% of Twitter's stock at $54.20 per share.[200][205] In response, Twitter's board adopted a "poison pill" shareholder rights plan to make it more expensive for any single investor to own more than 15% of the company without board approval.[206] Nevertheless, by the end of the month Musk had successfully concluded his bid for approximately $44 billion.[207] This included about $12.5 billion in loans against his Tesla stock and $21 billion in equity financing.[208][209]

Tesla's stock market value sank by over $100 billion the next day in reaction to the deal, causing Musk to lose around $30 billion of his net worth.[210][211] He subsequently tweeted criticism of Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde's policies to his 86 million followers, which led to some of them engaging in sexist and racist harassment against her.[212] Exactly a month after announcing the takeover, Musk stated that the deal was "on hold" following a report that 5% of Twitter's daily active users were spam accounts,[213] causing Twitter shares to drop more than 10 percent.[214] Although he initially affirmed his commitment to the acquisition,[215] he sent notification of his termination of the deal in July; Twitter's Board of Directors responded that they were committed to holding him to the transaction.[216] On July 12, 2022, Twitter formally sued Musk in the Chancery Court of Delaware for breaching a legally binding agreement to purchase Twitter.[217] In October 2022, Musk reversed again, offering to purchase Twitter at $54.20 per share.[218] The acquisition was officially completed on October 27.[219]

Immediately after the acquisition, Musk fired several top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal;[219][220] Musk became the CEO instead.[221] He instituted a $7.99 monthly subscription for a "blue check",[222][223][224] and laid off a significant portion of the company's staff.[225][226] Musk lessened content moderation,[227] and in December, Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in the leadup to the 2020 presidential election.[228] The Southern Poverty Law Center noted that Twitter has verified numerous extremists,[229] and a study of millions of tweets following the acquisition indicated that hate speech on the platform has become "more visible" under Musk's leadership.[230]

Within the first weeks of ownership, Musk made a series of decisions and changes that he quickly reversed, including the paid blue checkmark,[231] creating an "official" label[232] and forbidding linking to one's profiles on other social media platforms.[233] Under Musk's management, Twitter experienced several large scale outages.[234]

In April 2022, The Washington Post reported that Musk privately claimed that supposed censorship on the platform, including the banning of accounts such as The Babylon Bee, had prompted him to begin the acquisition. The New York Post revealed that Musk's ex-wife Talulah Riley had encouraged Musk to purchase Twitter, specifically citing the Bee's ban.[235] Following the acquisition, he made reinstatement of accounts like the Bee an immediate priority.[236] The Independent reported that Musk has "appealed to far-right activists and influencers and unleashed a wave of hate speech and abuse aimed at LGBT+ people" since taking control of Twitter.[237]

On December 18, Musk posted a poll to his Twitter account asking users to decide whether he should step down as the head of Twitter, with 57.5% out of the more than 17.5 million votes supporting that decision.[238] Musk then announced that he would resign as CEO "as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job".[239]

On May 11, 2023, Musk announced that he would be stepping down from the CEO position and instead moving to "exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops" and announced the new CEO, former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino.[240][241]

xAI

On July 12, 2023, Elon Musk launched an artificial intelligence company called xAI, which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like ChatGPT. The company has reportedly hired engineers from Google and OpenAI.[242]

Leadership style

 
Musk giving a speech to SpaceX employees in 2012

Musk is often described as a micromanager and has called himself a "nano-manager".[243] The New York Times has characterized his approach as absolutist.[244] Musk does not make formal business plans;[244] instead, he says he prefers to approach engineering problems[non sequitur] with an "iterative design methodology" and "tolerance for failures".[245] He has forced employees to adopt the company's own jargon and launched ambitious, risky, and costly projects against his advisors' recommendations, such as removing front-facing radar from Tesla Autopilot. His insistence on vertical integration causes his companies to move most production in-house. While this resulted in saved costs for SpaceX's rocket,[246] vertical integration has caused many usability problems for Tesla's software.[243]

Musk's handling of employees—whom he communicates with directly through mass emails—has been characterized as "carrot and stick", rewarding those "who offer constructive criticism" while also being known to impulsively threaten, swear at, and fire his employees.[247][248][249] Musk said he expects his employees to work for long hours, sometimes for 80 hours per week.[250] He has his new employees sign strict non-disclosure agreements and often fires in sprees,[251][252] such as during the Model 3 "production hell" in 2018.[252] In 2022, Musk revealed plans to fire 10 percent of Tesla's workforce, due to his concerns about the economy.[253] That same month, he suspended remote work at SpaceX and Tesla and threatened to fire employees who do not work 40 hours per week in the office.[254]

Musk's leadership has been praised by some, who credit it with the success of Tesla and his other endeavors,[243] and criticized by others, who see him as callous and his managerial decisions as "show[ing] a lack of human understanding."[249][255] The 2021 book Power Play contains anecdotes of Musk berating employees.[256] 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", with some employees resigning in consequence.[257]

Other activities

Musk Foundation

Musk is president of the Musk Foundation he founded in 2001,[258][259] 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.[260] From 2002 to 2018, the foundation gave $25 million directly to non-profit organizations, nearly half of which went to Musk's OpenAI,[261] which was a non-profit at the time.[262]

Since 2002, the foundation has made over 350 donations. Around half of them were made to scientific research or education nonprofits. Notable beneficiaries include the Wikimedia Foundation, his alma mater the University of Pennsylvania, and his brother Kimbal's non-profit Big Green.[263] In 2012, Musk took the Giving Pledge, thereby committing to give the majority of his wealth to charitable causes either during his lifetime or in his will.[264] He has endowed prizes at the X Prize Foundation, including $100 million to reward improved carbon capture technology.[265]

Vox said "the Musk Foundation is almost entertaining in its simplicity and yet is strikingly opaque", noting that its website was only 33 words in plain-text.[261] The foundation has been criticized for the relatively small amount of wealth donated.[266] In 2020, Forbes gave Musk a philanthropy score of 1, because he had given away less than 1% of his net worth.[263] In November 2021, Musk donated $5.7 billion of Tesla's shares to charity, according to regulatory filings.[267] However, Bloomberg News noted that all of it went to his own foundation, bringing Musk Foundation's assets up to $9.4 billion at the end of 2021. The foundation disbursed $160 million to non-profits that year.[268]

Hyperloop

Main articles: Hyperloop and Hyperloop pod competition
 
A tube part of the 2017 Hyperloop pod competition sponsored by SpaceX

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.[269] Later that year, Musk unveiled the concept, which he dubbed the hyperloop.[270] The alpha design for the system was published in a whitepaper posted to the Tesla and SpaceX blogs.[271] The document scoped out the technology and outlined a notional route where such a transport system could be built between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of $6 billion.[272] The proposal, if technologically feasible at the costs cited, would make Hyperloop travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances.[273]

In 2015, Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop pods, to operate on a SpaceX-sponsored mile-long track, for a 2015–2017 Hyperloop pod competition. The track was used in January 2017, and Musk also announced that the company had started a tunnel project, with Hawthorne Municipal Airport as its destination.[274] In July 2017, Musk claimed that he had received "verbal government approval" to build a hyperloop from New York City to Washington, D.C., with stops in both Philadelphia and Baltimore.[275] Mention of the projected DC-to-Baltimore leg was removed from the Boring Company website in 2021.[276] The tunnel project to Hawthorne was discontinued in 2022 and is cited to be converted into parking spots for SpaceX workers.[277]

Biographer Ashlee Vance has noted that Musk hoped Hyperloop would "make the public and legislators rethink the high-speed train" proposal current in California at the time and consider more "creative" ideas.[278]

OpenAI

Main article: OpenAI

In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence intended to be safe and beneficial to humanity.[279] A particular focus of the company is to democratize artificial superintelligence systems, against governments and corporations.[31] Musk pledged $1 billion of funding to OpenAI.[280] In 2023, Musk tweeted that he had ended up giving a total of $100 million to OpenAI. TechCrunch later reported that, according to its own investigation of public records, "only $15 million" of OpenAI's funding could be definitively traced to Musk. Musk subsequently stated that he had donated about $50 million.[281]

In 2018, Musk left the OpenAI board to avoid possible future conflicts with his role as CEO of Tesla as the latter company increasingly became involved in AI through Tesla Autopilot.[282] Since then, OpenAI has made significant advances in machine learning, producing neural networks such as GPT-3 (producing human-like text),[283] and DALL-E (generating digital images from natural language descriptions).[284]

Tham Luang cave rescue and defamation case

Further information: Tham Luang cave rescue
 
During the Tham Luang cave rescue (pictured), Musk had proposed a mini-submarine to evacuate the children, which was rejected

In July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a mini-submarine to assist the rescue of children trapped in a flooded cavern in Thailand.[285] Richard Stanton, leader of the international rescue diving team, urged Musk to facilitate the construction of the vehicle as a back-up, in case flooding worsened.[286] Engineers at SpaceX and the Boring Company built the mini-submarine from a Falcon 9 liquid oxygen transfer tube in eight hours and personally delivered it to Thailand.[287][288] By this time, however, eight of the 12 children, had already been rescued, the rescuers employing full face masks, oxygen, and anesthesia; consequently, Thai authorities declined to use the submarine.[285] In March 2019, Musk was later one of the 187 people who received various honors conferred by the King of Thailand for involvement in the rescue effort.[289]

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, maintaining that Musk "had no conception of what the cave passage was like" and "can stick his submarine where it hurts". Musk asserted on Twitter that the device would have worked and referred to Unsworth as a "pedo guy".[290] He deleted the tweets,[290] and apologized,[291] and he deleted his responses to critical tweets from Cher Scarlett, a software engineer, which had caused his followers to harass her.[292] In an email to BuzzFeed News, Musk later called Unsworth a "child rapist" and said that he had married a child.[293][294]

In September, Unsworth filed a defamation suit in the District Court for the Central District of California.[295][296] In his defense, Musk argued that "'pedo guy' was a common insult used in South Africa when I was growing up ... synonymous with 'creepy old man' and is used to insult a person's appearance and demeanor".[37] The defamation case began in December 2019, with Unsworth seeking $190 million in damages.[297] During the trial Musk apologized to Unsworth again for the tweet. On December 6, the jury found in favor of Musk and ruled he was not liable.[298][299]

2018 Joe Rogan podcast appearance

In 2018, Musk appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and discussed various topics for over two hours. During the interview, Musk sampled a puff from a cigar consisting, the host claimed, of tobacco laced with cannabis. Tesla stock dropped after the incident, which coincided with the confirmation of the departure of Tesla's vice president of worldwide finance earlier that day.[300] Fortune wondered if the cannabis use could have ramifications for SpaceX contracts with the United States Air Force, though an Air Force spokesperson told The Verge that there was no investigation and that the Air Force was still determining the facts.[301] In 2022, Musk claimed that he and other Space-X employees were subjected to random drug tests for about a year following the incident.[302] In a 60 Minutes interview, Musk said of the incident: "I do not smoke pot. As anybody who watched that podcast could tell, I have no idea how to smoke pot."[303]

Music

In 2019, Musk, through Emo G Records, released a rap track, "RIP Harambe", on SoundCloud. The track, which refers to the killing of Harambe the gorilla and the subsequent Internet sensationalism surrounding the event, was performed by Yung Jake, written by Yung Jake and Caroline Polachek, and produced by BloodPop.[304][305] The following year, Musk released an EDM track, "Don't Doubt Ur Vibe", featuring his own lyrics and vocals.[306] While Guardian critic Alexi Petridis described it as "indistinguishable... from umpteen competent but unthrilling bits of bedroom electronica posted elsewhere on Soundcloud",[307] TechCrunch said it was "not a bad representation of the genre".[306]

Private jet

Main articles: ElonJet and 2022 Twitter suspensions

In 2003, Musk said his favorite plane he owned was an L-39 Albatros.[308] He uses a private jet owned by Falcon Landing LLC, a SpaceX-linked company, and acquired a second jet in August 2020.[309][310] His heavy use of the jet—it flew over 150,000 miles in 2018—and the consequent fossil fuel usage has received criticism.[309][311]

His flight usage is tracked on social media through ElonJet. The Twitter version of the account was blocked in December 2022, after Musk claimed that his son X AE A-XII had been harassed by a stalker after the account posted the airport at which his jet had landed.[312][313][314] This led to Musk banning the ElonJet account on Twitter, as well as the accounts of journalists that posted stories regarding the incident, including Donie O'Sullivan, Keith Olbermann, and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and The Intercept.[315] Musk equated the reporting to doxxing.[316] The police do not believe there is a link between the account and alleged stalker.[317] Musk later took a Twitter poll on whether the journalists' accounts should be reinstated, which resulted in reinstating the accounts.[318]

Wealth

Net worth

 
Musk's net worth from 2013 to 2023 as estimated by Forbes magazine

Musk made $175.8 million when PayPal was sold to eBay in 2002.[319] He was first listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012, with a net worth of $2 billion.[320]

At the start of 2020, Musk had a net worth of $27 billion.[321] By the end of the year his net worth had increased by $150 billion, mostly driven by his ownership of around 20% of Tesla stock.[322] During this period, Musk's net worth was often volatile. For example, it dropped $16.3 billion in September, the largest single-day plunge in Bloomberg Billionaires Index's history.[323] In November of that year, Musk passed Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg to become the third-richest person in the world; a week later he passed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the second-richest.[324]

In January 2021, Musk, with a net worth of $185 billion, surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the richest person in the world.[325] Bezos reclaimed the top spot the following month.[326] On September 27, 2021, after Tesla stock surged, Forbes announced that Musk had a net worth of over $200 billion, and was the richest person in the world.[327] In November 2021, Musk became the first person to have a net worth of more than $300 billion.[328]

On December 30, 2022, it was reported that Musk had lost $200 billion from his net worth due to declining stock values in Tesla, becoming the first person in history to lose such a large sum of money.[329][330] In January 2023, Musk was recognized by Guinness World Records for experiencing the "largest loss of personal fortune in history" with regards to his financial losses since November 2021, which Guinness quoted a Forbes estimate of $182 billion.[331]

Musk's personal wealth is managed by his family office called Excession LLC, which was formed in 2016 and run by Jared Birchall.[332][259]

Sources of wealth

Around 75% of Musk's wealth derived from Tesla stock in November 2020,[324] a proportion that fell to about 37% as of December 2022,[e] after selling nearly $40 billion in company shares since late 2021.[333] Musk does not receive a salary from Tesla; he agreed with the board in 2018 to a compensation plan that ties his personal earnings to Tesla's valuation and revenue.[322] The deal stipulated that Musk only receives the compensation if Tesla reaches certain market values.[334] It was the largest such deal ever done between a CEO and a company board.[335] In the first award, given in May 2020, he was eligible to purchase 1.69 million Tesla shares (about 1% of the company) at below-market prices, which was worth about $800 million.[335][334]

Musk paid $455 million in taxes on $1.52 billion of income between 2014 and 2018.[336] According to ProPublica, Musk paid no federal income taxes in 2018.[337] He claimed his 2021 tax bill was estimated at $12 billion based on his sale of $14 billion worth of Tesla stock.[336]

Musk has repeatedly described himself as "cash poor",[338][339] and has "professed to have little interest in the material trappings of wealth".[338] In May 2020, he pledged to sell almost all physical possessions.[339] Musk has defended his wealth by saying he is accumulating resources for humanity's outward expansion to space.[340]

Personal views and Twitter (later X) usage

Main article: Views of Elon Musk

Since joining Twitter (now known as X) in 2009,[341] Musk has been an active user and has over 100 million followers as of June 2022.[342] He posts memes, promotes business interests, and comments on contemporary political and cultural issues.[343] Musk's statements have provoked controversy, such as for mocking preferred gender pronouns,[344][345] and comparing Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler.[346] The New York Times describes his contributions to international relations as "chaotic", and critics of Musk argue that there is a lack of separation between his opinions and his business interests.[347] As CEO of Twitter, Musk emerged as a source of misinformation, for example by suggesting online details about mass murderer Mauricio Garcia's apparent interest in Nazism could have been planted as part of a psyop.[348] Allegations of him being transphobic appeared as well in response to actions taken by Twitter under his guidance.[349][350] The Israel government and several media outlets accused Musk of antisemitism due to him spreading George Soros conspiracy theories,[351][352][353] although some Israeli officials defended Musk.[354]

Existential threats

 
Musk giving details about Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft at the 2006 Mars Society Conference

Musk has been described as believing in longtermism, emphasizing the needs of future populations.[355] Accordingly, Musk has stated that artificial intelligence poses the greatest existential threat to humanity.[356][357] He has warned of a "Terminator-like" AI apocalypse and suggested that the government should regulate its safe development.[358][359] In 2015, Musk was a cosignatory, along with Stephen Hawking and hundreds of others, of the Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence, which called for the ban of autonomous weapons.[360] Musk's AI stances have been called alarmist and sensationalist by critics such as computer scientist Yann LeCun and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg,[361][362] and led the think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation to award Musk its Annual Luddite Award in 2016.[363]

Musk has described climate change as the greatest threat to humanity after AI,[364] and has advocated for a carbon tax.[365] Musk was a critic of President Donald Trump's stance on climate change,[366][367] and resigned from two presidential business advisory councils following Trump's 2017 decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.[368]

Musk has long promoted the colonization of Mars and argues that humanity should become a "multiplanetary species".[369] He has suggested the use of nuclear weapons to terraform Mars.[370][371] He envisioned establishing a direct democracy on Mars, with a system in which more votes would be required to create laws than remove them.[372] Musk has also voiced concerns about human population decline,[373][374] saying that "Mars has zero human population. We need a lot of people to become a multiplanet civilization."[375] Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council session in 2021, Musk stated that a declining birth rate, and consequent population decline, is one of the biggest risks to human civilization.[376]

Politics

 
 
Musk with Senator Dianne Feinstein at the opening of the Tesla Fremont Factory (2010), and with Vice President Mike Pence at the Kennedy Space Center before SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-2 launch (2020)

While often described as libertarian, Musk has called himself "politically moderate" and was a registered independent voter when he lived in California. The New York Times wrote that Musk "expresses views that don't fit neatly into [the American] binary, left-right political framework".[377] Historically, Musk has donated to both Democrats and Republicans,[378] many of whom are in states in which he has a vested interest.[377] Beginning in the late 2010s, Musk's political contributions have shifted to almost entirely supporting Republicans.[379]

Musk voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[380] In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Musk endorsed candidate Andrew Yang and expressed support for his proposed universal basic income.[381] He also endorsed Kanye West's 2020 presidential campaign.[382] He said he voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.[380] In 2022, Musk said that he could "no longer support" the Democrats because they are the "party of division & hate",[383][384] and wrote a tweet encouraging "independent-minded voters" to vote Republican in the 2022 U.S. elections, which was an outlier among social media executives who typically avoid partisan political advocacy.[385][386] He has supported Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, and Twitter hosted DeSantis's campaign announcement on a Twitter Spaces event[387][388][389] As of May 2023, Musk was declining to endorse any specific candidate.[388]

Musk opposes a "billionaire's tax",[390] and has argued on Twitter with more left-leaning Democratic politicians such as Bernie Sanders,[391][392] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,[393] and Elizabeth Warren.[394] He has raised questions about the Black Lives Matter protests, partially based on the fact that the phrase "Hands up, don't shoot" was made up.[395][396] Musk also promoted a baseless theory relating to the attack of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, but Musk deleted his tweet.[397]

Musk has praised China and has been described as having a close relationship with the Chinese government, allowing access to its markets for Tesla.[398] After Gigafactory Shanghai produced its first batch of vehicles, Musk thanked the Chinese government and Chinese people while criticizing the United States and its people.[399]: 207–208  In 2022, Musk wrote an article for China Cyberspace, the official publication of Cyberspace Administration of China, which enforces Internet censorship in China. His writing the article was described as conflicting with his advocacy for free speech.[400][401] Musk later advocated for Taiwan to become a "special administrative zone" of China which drew cross-party criticism from Taiwanese lawmakers.[402][403][404] In October 2022, Musk posted a Twitter poll and "peace plan" to resolve the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[405][406] It was reported that Musk allegedly spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the proposal, which Musk denied.[407][408][409][410]

COVID-19

 
Musk wears a bandana as a face mask during the COVID-19 pandemic

Musk was criticized for his public comments and conduct related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[411][412] He spread misinformation about the virus, including promoting a widely discredited paper on the benefits of chloroquine and claiming that COVID-19 death statistics were inflated.[413]

In March 2020, Musk stated, "The coronavirus panic is dumb."[414][415] In an email to Tesla employees, Musk referred to COVID-19 as a "specific form of the common cold" and predicted that confirmed COVID-19 cases would not exceed 0.1% of the U.S. population.[411] On March 19, 2020, Musk predicted that there would be "probably close to zero new cases in [the U.S.] by end of April".[412] Politico labeled this statement one of "the most audacious, confident, and spectacularly incorrect prognostications [of 2020]".[416] Musk also claimed falsely that children "are essentially immune" to COVID-19.[417][418]

Musk condemned COVID-19 lockdowns and initially refused to close the Tesla Fremont Factory in March 2020, defying the local shelter-in-place order.[411][419][420] In May 2020, he reopened the Tesla factory, defying the local stay-at-home order,[421][422] and warned workers that they would be unpaid, and their unemployment benefits might be jeopardized, if they did not report to work.[422] In December 2022, Musk called for prosecution of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci.[423][424]

In March 2020, Musk promised that Tesla would make ventilators for COVID-19 patients if there were a shortage.[425] After figures like New York City mayor Bill de Blasio responded to Musk's offer,[426] Musk offered to donate ventilators which Tesla would build or buy from a third party.[425] However, Musk ended up buying and donating BiPAP and CPAP machines, which are devices that support respirations of someone able to breathe on their own, rather than the much more expensive and sought-after mechanical ventilator machines that are able to breathe for a patient entirely.[427][428]

In September 2020, Musk stated that he would not get the COVID-19 vaccine, because he and his children were "not at risk for COVID".[429][430] Two months later, Musk contracted COVID-19 and suggested his COVID-19 rapid antigen test results were dubious, after which the phrase "Space Karen" trended on Twitter, in reference to Musk.[431][432] However, in December 2021, Musk revealed that he and his eligible children had received the vaccine.[433]

Finance

Musk said that the U.S. government should not provide subsidies to companies, but impose a carbon tax to discourage poor behavior.[434][435] The free market, in his view, would achieve the best solution, and producing environmentally unfriendly vehicles should have consequences.[436] Tesla has received billions of dollars in subsidies.[437] In addition, Tesla made large sums from government-initiated systems of zero-emissions credits offered in California and at the United States federal level, which facilitated initial consumer adoption of Tesla vehicles, as the tax credits given by governments enabled Tesla's battery electric vehicles to be price-competitive, in comparison with existing lower-priced internal combustion engine vehicles.[438] Notably, Tesla generates some of its revenue from its sales of carbon credits granted to the company, by both the European Union Emissions Trading System and the Chinese national carbon trading scheme.[439][440][441][442]

Musk, a longtime opponent of short-selling, has repeatedly criticized the practice and argued it should be illegal.[443][444] Wired magazine speculated that Musk's opposition to short-selling stems from how short sellers have an incentive to find and promote unfavorable information about his companies.[445] In early 2021, he encouraged the GameStop short squeeze.[446][447]

In December 2022, Musk sold $3.6 billion of his stock in Tesla, equal to 22 million shares in the company,[448] despite pledging earlier in the year that he would not sell any additional shares.[449]

Technology

Musk has promoted cryptocurrencies and supports them over traditional government-issued fiat currencies.[450] Given the influence of Musk's tweets in moving cryptocurrency markets,[451] his statements about cryptocurrencies have been viewed as market manipulation by some, such as economist Nouriel Roubini.[452] Musk's social media praising of Bitcoin and Dogecoin was credited for increasing their prices. Consequently, Tesla's 2021 announcement, against the backdrop of Musk's social media behavior, that it bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, raised questions.[453] Tesla's announcement that it would accept Bitcoin for payment was criticized by environmentalists and investors, due to the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining. A few months later, in response to the criticism, Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would no longer accept payments in Bitcoin and would not engage in any Bitcoin transactions until the environmental issues are solved.[454][455]

Despite the Boring Company's involvement in building mass transit infrastructure, Musk has criticized public transport and promoted individualized transport (private vehicles).[456][457][458] His comments have been called "elitist" and have sparked widespread criticism from both transportation and urban planning experts, who have pointed out that public transportation in dense urban areas is more economical, more energy efficient, and requires much less space than private cars.[457][459][458]

Personal life

From the early 2000s until late 2020, Musk resided in California, where both Tesla and SpaceX were founded.[460] In 2020, he relocated to Texas, saying that California had become "complacent" about its economic success.[460][461] While hosting Saturday Night Live in May 2021, Musk revealed that he has Asperger syndrome.[462] Musk is also a practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.[463]

Relationships and children

Musk met his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, while attending Queen's University in Ontario, Canada; and they married in 2000.[464] In 2002, their first child died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 10 weeks.[465] After his death, the couple decided to use IVF to continue their family.[466] They had twins in 2004 followed by triplets in 2006.[466] The couple divorced in 2008 and shared custody of their children.[467][468] In 2022, one of the twins officially changed her name to reflect her gender identity as a trans woman, and to use Wilson as her last name because she no longer wished to be associated with Musk.[469] Musk blamed the estrangement of his daughter on what the Financial Times characterized as "the supposed takeover of elite schools and universities by neo-Marxists."[470]

In 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley.[471] They married two years later at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland.[472][473] In 2012, the couple divorced, before remarrying the following year.[474] After briefly filing for divorce in 2014,[474] Musk finalized a second divorce from Riley in 2016.[475] Musk then dated Amber Heard for several months in 2017;[476] he had reportedly been pursuing her since 2012.[477] Johnny Depp later accused Musk of having an affair with Heard while she was still married to Depp.[478][479] Musk and Heard both denied the affair.[478]

In 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes revealed that they were dating.[480] Grimes gave birth to their son in May 2020.[481][482] According to Musk and Grimes, his name was "X Æ A-12" (/ɛks æʃ eɪ ˈtwɛlv/); however, the name would have violated California regulations as it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet,[483][484] and was then changed to "X Æ A-Xii". This drew more confusion, as Æ is not a letter in the modern English alphabet.[485] The child was eventually named X AE A-XII Musk, with "X" as a first name, "AE A-XII" as a middle name, and "Musk" as surname.[486] In December 2021, Grimes and Musk had a second child, a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk (nicknamed "Y"), born via surrogacy.[1] Despite the pregnancy, Musk confirmed reports that the couple were "semi-separated" in September 2021; in an interview with Time in December 2021, he said he was single.[487][488] In March 2022, Grimes said of her relationship with Musk: "I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid."[1] Later that month, Grimes tweeted that she and Musk had broken up again but remained on good terms.[489]

In July 2022, Insider published court documents revealing that Musk had had twins with Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, in November 2021.[2] They were born weeks before Musk and Grimes had their second child via surrogate in December. The news "raise[d] questions about workplace ethics", given that Zilis directly reported to Musk.[490] Also in July 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk allegedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in 2021, leading to their divorce the following year.[491] Musk denied the report.[492]

Legal matters

Main articles: List of lawsuits involving Tesla, Inc. and Criticism of Tesla, Inc.

In May 2022, Business Insider cited an anonymous friend of an unnamed SpaceX contract flight attendant, alleging that Musk engaged in sexual misconduct in 2016. The source stated that in November 2018, Musk, SpaceX, and the former flight attendant entered into a severance agreement granting the attendant a $250,000 payment in exchange for a promise not to sue over the claims.[493] Musk responded, "If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light". He accused the article from Business Insider of being a "politically motivated hit piece".[494][495] After the release of the Business Insider article, Tesla's stock fell by more than 6%,[496] decreasing Musk's net worth by $10 billion.[497] Barron's wrote "...some investors considered key-man risk – the danger that a company could be badly hurt by the loss of one individual."[498]

In April 2023, the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands sought to subpoena Musk for documents in a lawsuit alleging that JPMorgan Chase profited from Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation.[499] In May, a judge granted the U.S. Virgin Islands' request to serve Musk electronically through Tesla after the U.S. territory had difficulty locating him.[499] The efforts to subpoena Musk for documents do not implicate him in any wrongdoing and do not seek to have Musk testify under oath.[499]

Public perception

See also: Elon Musk filmography and List of awards and honors received by Elon Musk

Though Musk's ventures were influential within their own industries in the 2000s, he only became a public figure in the early 2010s. He has often been described as an eccentric who makes spontaneous and controversial statements, contrary to other billionaires who prefer reclusiveness to protect their businesses.[500][501] Celebrated by fans and hated by critics, Musk was described by Vance as having become very polarizing because of his "part philosopher, part troll" role on Twitter.[502]

With Steve Jobs and Donald Trump, Musk served as inspiration for the characterization of Tony Stark in the Marvel film Iron Man (2008).[503] Musk had a cameo appearance in the film's 2010 sequel, Iron Man 2.[504] Musk has made cameos and appearances in other films such as Machete Kills (2013),[505] Why Him? (2016),[506] and Men in Black: International (2019).[507] Television series in which he has appeared include The Simpsons ("The Musk Who Fell to Earth", 2015),[508] The Big Bang Theory ("The Platonic Permutation", 2015),[509] South Park ("Members Only", 2016),[510][511] Young Sheldon ("A Patch, a Modem, and a Zantac®", 2017),[512] Rick and Morty ("One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty", 2019),[513][514] and Saturday Night Live (2021).[515] He contributed interviews to the documentaries Racing Extinction (2015) and the Werner Herzog-directed Lo and Behold (2016).[516][517]

Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018.[518] In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate in engineering and technology from Yale University[519] and IEEE Honorary Membership.[520] Awards for his contributions to the development of the Falcon rockets include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Transportation Award in 2008,[521] the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Gold Space Medal in 2010,[522] and the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal in 2012.[523] Time has listed Musk as one of the most influential people in the world on four occasions in 2010,[524] 2013,[525] 2018,[526] and 2021.[527] Musk was selected as Time's "Person of the Year" for 2021. Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that "Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too".[528][529] In February 2022, Musk was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering.[530]

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ^ Musk remained on the board and served as an advisor.[74][75]
  2. ^ SpaceX received nearly $900 million in Federal Communications Commission subsidies for Starlink.[104][105]
  3. ^ Musk stated he was considering taking Tesla private at a price of $420 a share, an alleged reference to marijuana.[147] Members of Tesla's board and rapper Azealia Banks alleged that Musk may have been under the influence of recreational drugs when he wrote the tweet.[148][149]
  4. ^ He did not file the necessary SEC paperwork within 10 days of his stake passing 5%, a violation of U.S. securities laws.[201]
  5. ^ According to the Wall Street Journal, he was worth $140 billion, with $52 billion of that attributable to his ownership of Tesla stock.

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Gordon, Devin (March 10, 2022). ""Infamy Is Kind Of Fun": Grimes on Music, Mars, and—Surprise!—Her Secret New Baby With Elon Musk". Vanity Fair. from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Southern, Keiran (July 7, 2022). Written at Los Angeles. "Elon Musk 'had twins with one of his executives'". The Times. London. Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  3. ^ Mohamed, Theron (December 15, 2022). "Elon Musk just cashed in another $3.6 billion of Tesla stock as he wrestles with mounting interest payments at Twitter and a looming recession". Business Insider.
  4. ^ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index". Bloomberg L.P.
  5. ^ "Real Time Billionaires". Forbes.
  6. ^ Hopper, Tristin (July 12, 2022). "Why does Elon Musk keep conceiving children with Canadians?". National Post. Retrieved August 6, 2023. Musk himself has Canadian citizenship through his mother,
  7. ^ Ghaffary, Shirin (May 20, 2023). "Elon Musk won't stop tweeting his way into trouble". Vox.
  8. ^ "Elon Musk says 'so be it' to consequences of his tweeting". NBC News. May 16, 2023.
  9. ^ Chen, Pauline Lockwood,Heather (July 23, 2023). "Elon Musk says Twitter logo to change, birds to be gradually abandoned". CNN.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ "In Latest Round of Job Cuts, Twitter Is Said to Lay Off at Least 200 Employees". February 27, 2023. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  11. ^ "Hate Speech's Rise on Twitter Is Unprecedented, Researchers Find". December 2, 2022. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  12. ^ Ghaffary, Shirin (April 25, 2023). "Elon's blue check disaster is getting worse". Vox. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  13. ^ "Twitter starts removing blue check marks from users who don't pay - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. April 20, 2023. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  14. ^ Singh, Manish (July 1, 2023). "Twitter limits the number of tweets users can read amid extended outage". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  15. ^ Inskeep 1 Allyn 2, Steve 1 Bobby 2 (July 3, 2023). "Why Twitter is limiting the number of Tweets a user can view". NPR.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ a b Eligon, John; Chutel, Lynsey (May 5, 2022). "Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege". The New York Times. from the original on November 11, 2022. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  17. ^ Vance (2017), pp. 25, 31.
  18. ^ a b Hall, Dana (April 11, 2014). "Rocket Man: The otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk". The Mercury News. from the original on April 14, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  19. ^ Elliott, Hannah (March 26, 2012). "At Home With Elon Musk: The (Soon-to-Be) Bachelor Billionaire". Forbes. from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
  20. ^ His biography author Ashlee Vance interviewed on the TV show Triangulation on the TWiT.tv network, discussion of his family starts around the 15th minute
  21. ^ Vargas, Chanel (March 6, 2018). "11 Things to Know About Stunning 69-Year-Old Model Maye Musk". Town & Country. from the original on March 7, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  22. ^ a b Usborne, Simon (February 21, 2018). "Meet the Musks: who's who in Elon's extended family?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. from the original on May 27, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  23. ^ May, Dana Hull and Patrick. "Exploring the otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk". The Buffalo News. from the original on September 26, 2022. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
  24. ^ Friend, Tad (August 17, 2009). "Plugged In". The New Yorker. from the original on March 8, 2022.
  25. ^ Dolan, Kerry A. "How To Raise A Billionaire: An Interview With Elon Musk's Father, Errol Musk". Forbes. from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  26. ^ a b Smith, Adam (June 28, 2021). "50 years of Elon Musk's huge wealth, from emeralds to SpaceX and Tesla". The Independent. from the original on November 25, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  27. ^ Lieberman, Hallie. "The Musk of Romance". Wired. from the original on September 2, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  28. ^ a b Hull, Dana; May, Patrick (April 10, 2014). "2014: Rocket Man: The otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk". The Mercury News. from the original on September 6, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  29. ^ Keating, Joseph C. Jr. (September 1995). "Joshua N Haldeman, DC: the Canadian Years, 1926–1950". The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association. PMC 2485067.
  30. ^ Vance (2017), pp. 26–30.
  31. ^ a b Strauss, Neil (November 15, 2017). . Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 17, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2017.
  32. ^ Crilly, Rob (March 25, 2018). "Elon Musk's father has baby with step-daughter he has known since she was four". The Daily Telegraph. from the original on April 26, 2021.
  33. ^ Florio, Gina (January 5, 2023). "Elon Musk And His Mother Reveal Details Of His 'Very Violent' Childhood That Included Domestic Abuse And Severe Bullying". EvieMagazine.com. from the original on April 19, 2023.
  34. ^ Vance (2017), p. 38.
  35. ^ O'Kane, Sean (June 9, 2015). "Play the PC game Elon Musk wrote as a pre-teen". The Verge. from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  36. ^ Belfiore (2007), pp. 166–95.
  37. ^ a b Mak, Aaron (December 4, 2019). . Slate. Archived from the original on October 6, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
  38. ^ a b Clifford, Catherine (June 12, 2018). . CNBC. Archived from the original on August 2, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  39. ^ Vance (2017), p. 44.
  40. ^ Junod, Tom (November 15, 2012). . Esquire. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  41. ^ Vance (2017), pp. 43–44.
  42. ^ Vance (2017), p. 45.
  43. ^ Vance (2017), p. 46.
  44. ^ Vance (2017), pp. 46–47.
  45. ^ Locke, Taylor (December 20, 2019). "Elon Musk's college pal: This is what 'differentiates Elon from the rest of humanity'". CNBC. from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  46. ^ "Encyclopedia Britannica Elon Musk". from the original on September 4, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  47. ^ Vance (2017), Appendix 1
  48. ^ Meisenzahl, Elizabeth. . The Daily Pennsylvanian. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  49. ^ McCray, Patrick W. (June 11, 2012). "A pioneer in space and on Earth". CNN. from the original on November 28, 2022. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  50. ^ Kasprak, Alex (December 21, 2022). "Does Elon Musk Have an Undergraduate Degree in Physics?". Snopes. from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
  51. ^ a b Hern, Alex (February 9, 2018). "Elon Musk: the real-life Iron Man". The Guardian. from the original on June 11, 2022. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  52. ^ . CNBC. July 16, 2018. Archived from the original on December 28, 2019. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
  53. ^ Soni, Jimmi (February 22, 2022). "The little-known story about Elon Musk's first post-grad internship". Fortune. from the original on March 7, 2022.
  54. ^ Vance (2017), p. 368.
  55. ^ Feeley, Jef (August 31, 2022). "Stanford Pulled Into Dropout Musk's Legal Fight With Twitter". Bloomberg. from the original on September 3, 2022. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  56. ^ Maidment, Paul (March 15, 2016). . CNBC. Archived from the original on May 15, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  57. ^ Delevett, Peter; Hull, Dana (August 13, 2012). "Greg Kouri, early investor in PayPal, dies in New York". The Mercury News. from the original on October 6, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  58. ^ Huddleston, Tom Jr. (June 19, 2018). "How Elon Musk founded Zip2 with his brother Kimbal". CNBC. from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  59. ^ Vance, Ashlee (2017) [2015]. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (2nd ed.). New York: Ecco. p. Ch.4. ISBN 978-0-06-230125-3. Errol Musk gave his sons $28,000 to help them through this period, but they were more or less broke after getting the office space, licensing software, and buying some equipment
  60. ^ Chafkin, Max (December 1, 2007). "Entrepreneur of the Year, 2007: Elon Musk". Inc. from the original on December 28, 2007. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  61. ^ a b c Huddleston, Tom Jr. (June 19, 2018). . CNBC. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
  62. ^ Kidder (2013), pp. 224–228.
  63. ^ Vance (2017), p. 67.
  64. ^ Vance (2017), p. 14.
  65. ^ Junnarkar, Sandeep (February 16, 1999). "Compaq buys Zip2". CNET. from the original on October 21, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  66. ^ Vance (2017), p. 109.
  67. ^ Vance (2017), p. 78.
  68. ^ Vance (2017), p. 84.
  69. ^ a b Vance (2017), p. 86.
  70. ^ Jackson (2004), pp. 40, 69, 130, 163.
  71. ^ Vance (2017), pp. 85–86.
  72. ^ Vance (2017), pp. 85–87.
  73. ^ Vance (2017), pp. 87–88.
  74. ^ . Fortune. Archived from the original on May 23, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
  75. ^ a b Vance (2017), p. 89.
  76. ^ Odell, Mark (September 30, 2014). "Timeline: The rise of PayPal". Financial Times. from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  77. ^ . PayPal. December 31, 2001. Archived from the original on August 25, 2020.
  78. ^ Vance (2017), pp. 116.
  79. ^ Huang, Echo. . Quartz. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  80. ^ Statt, Nick (July 10, 2017). . The Verge. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  81. ^ Kleinman, Zoe (October 5, 2022). "Elon Musk, Twitter and the mysterious X app". BBC. from the original on October 21, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  82. ^ Vance (2017), pp. 99, 102–103.
  83. ^ a b Vance, Ashlee (May 14, 2015). "Elon Musk's space dream almost killed Tesla". Bloomberg L.P. from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
  84. ^ Wayne, Leslie (February 5, 2006). . The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 12, 2020. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
  85. ^ California Business Search (C2414622 – Space Exploration Technologies Corp), from the original on February 23, 2018, retrieved December 13, 2020
  86. ^ Koren, Marina (May 6, 2021). "Elon Musk Is Maybe, Actually, Strangely, Going to Do This Mars Thing". The Atlantic. from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  87. ^ a b Berger (2021), pp. 178–182.
  88. ^ Friedman, Josh (April 22, 2003). "Entrepreneur Tries His Midas Touch in Space, Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. from the original on October 29, 2022. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  89. ^ Malik, Tariq (November 21, 2005). "Griffin Reiterates NASA's Commitment to Commercial Cargo, Space News". Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  90. ^ Dunbar, Brian. "NASA Invests in Private Sector Space Flight with SpaceX, Rocketplane-Kistler". nasa.gov (Press release). from the original on September 8, 2021. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  91. ^ Ledur, Júlia (May 1, 2019). "Falcon Flights". Reuters. from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  92. ^ Chang, Kenneth (May 22, 2012). "Big Day for a Space Entrepreneur Promising More". The New York Times. from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  93. ^ Harwood, William (May 31, 2012). . CBS News. Archived from the original on April 22, 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  94. ^ "SpaceX rocket in historic upright landing". BBC News. December 22, 2015. from the original on August 31, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  95. ^ O'Kane, Sean (May 27, 2016). "SpaceX successfully lands a Falcon 9 rocket at sea for the third time". The Verge. from the original on June 27, 2016. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  96. ^ Drake, Nadia (February 25, 2018). "Elon Musk's Tesla in Space Could Crash into Earth". National Geographic. from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  97. ^ Chow, Denise (November 6, 2019). "'Starman' and the Tesla Roadster that SpaceX launched into orbit have now cruised beyond Mars". NBC News. from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  98. ^ Berger, Eric (August 28, 2019). "Starhopper aces test, sets up full-scale prototype flights this year". Ars Technica. from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  99. ^ Roulette, Joey (March 28, 2022). . Reuters. Archived from the original on March 29, 2022. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  100. ^ Wattles, Jackie (May 30, 2020). . CNN. Archived from the original on August 29, 2020. Retrieved May 30, 2020.
  101. ^ Johnson, Eric M.; Roulette, Joey (October 31, 2018). "Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources". Reuters. from the original on May 18, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  102. ^ Hall, Shannon (June 1, 2019). . The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 21, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  103. ^ Shepardson, David; Roulette, Joey (July 30, 2020). "Taking on SpaceX, Amazon to invest $10 billion in satellite broadband plan". Reuters. from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  104. ^ Sheetz, Michael (December 7, 2020). "SpaceX's Starlink wins nearly $900 million in FCC subsidies to bring internet to rural areas". CNBC. from the original on December 16, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  105. ^ Wattles, Jackie (December 8, 2020). "SpaceX gets almost $900 million in federal subsidies to deliver broadband to rural America". CNN. from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  106. ^ Griffin, Andrew (December 30, 2021). "Elon Musk rejects criticism that his satellite fleet is dangerous". The Independent. from the original on December 30, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  107. ^ "Elon Musk rejects claims that his satellites are hogging space". BBC News. December 30, 2021. from the original on December 31, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  108. ^ Smith, Adam (February 7, 2021). "Astronomers create new global force to stop Elon Musk's internet satellites hiding killer asteroids". The Independent. from the original on May 27, 2022. Retrieved June 30, 2022.
  109. ^ Sheetz, Michael (March 22, 2022). "Elon Musk's SpaceX sent thousands of Starlink satellite internet dishes to Ukraine, company's president says". CNBC. from the original on March 27, 2022. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
  110. ^ "SpaceX's Musk says Starlink has been told by some governments to block Russian news". Reuters. March 6, 2022. from the original on April 4, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
  111. ^ Porter, Jon (April 4, 2022). "Elon Musk buys 9.2 percent of Twitter amid complaints about free speech". The Verge. from the original on April 4, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
  112. ^ Marquardt, Alex (October 13, 2022). "Exclusive: Musk's SpaceX says it can no longer pay for critical satellite services in Ukraine, asks Pentagon to pick up the tab". CNN. from the original on October 24, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  113. ^ Capoot, Ashley (October 15, 2022). "'The hell with it': Elon Musk tweets SpaceX will 'keep funding Ukraine govt for free' amid Starlink controversy". CNBC. from the original on November 3, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  114. ^ Hern, Alex (October 15, 2022). "Musk says SpaceX will keep funding Ukraine Starlink internet". BBC News. from the original on December 5, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  115. ^ "Elon Musk says SpaceX will keep funding Starlink internet in Ukraine". The Guardian. October 16, 2022. from the original on October 24, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  116. ^ Reed, Eric (February 4, 2020). "History of Tesla: Timeline and Facts". TheStreet.com. from the original on December 20, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  117. ^ Vance (2017), pp. 153–154.
  118. ^ Vance (2017), p. 159.
  119. ^ Schilling, Melissa (2018). Quirky: The remarkable story of the traits, foibles, and genius of breakthrough innovators who changed the world. PublicAffairs. ISBN 9781610397926.
  120. ^ Morrison, Chris (October 15, 2008). "Musk steps in as CEO". The New York Times. from the original on February 4, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  121. ^ "Elon Musk: The Story of a Maverick". interestingengineering.com. August 13, 2020. from the original on March 16, 2021. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  122. ^ LaMonica, Martin (September 2009). "Tesla Motors founders: Now there are five". CNET. from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2020. Tesla Motors and co-founder Martin Eberhard announced an agreement over who can claim to be a founder of the company on Monday.
  123. ^ Schwartz, Ariel (September 21, 2009). "Tesla Lawsuit Drama Ends as Five Company Founders Emerge". Fast Company. from the original on June 6, 2015. Retrieved April 14, 2020. Eberhard and Musk have reached a rather unexpected resolution–instead of agreeing to share the title of "founder", the pair has designated five people as company founders, including Musk, Eberhard, JB Straubel, Mark Tarpenning, and Ian Wright.
  124. ^ Royse, Dave (July 8, 2019). "Industry Shift: With Four Departures This Year, Who Is The Longest-Tenured Automotive CEO?". Yahoo. from the original on December 29, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  125. ^ Shead, Sam (March 15, 2021). "Elon Musk has officially been made the 'Technoking of Tesla'". CNBC. from the original on January 12, 2022. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  126. ^ Wilson, Kevin A. (March 15, 2018). "Worth the Watt: A Brief History of the Electric Car, 1830 to Present". Car and Driver. from the original on March 17, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  127. ^ Boudreau, John (June 22, 2012). "In a Silicon Valley milestone, Tesla Motors begins delivering Model S electric cars". The Mercury News. from the original on November 24, 2012. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
  128. ^ Ruddick, Graham (September 30, 2015). "Tesla's Model X electric car spreads falcon wings at U.S. launch". The Guardian. from the original on June 2, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  129. ^ Vlasic, Bill (July 29, 2017). "In Pivotal Moment, Tesla Unveils Its First Mass-Market Sedan". The New York Times. from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
  130. ^ Shahan, Zachary (August 26, 2021). "Tesla Model 3 Has Passed 1 Million Sales". CleanTechnica. from the original on September 4, 2021. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
  131. ^ Holland, Maximilian (March 10, 2020). "Tesla Passes 1 Million EV Milestone & Model 3 Becomes All Time Best Seller". CleanTechnica. from the original on April 12, 2020. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  132. ^ O'Kane, Sean (March 16, 2020). "Tesla Model Y deliveries begin in the US". The Verge. from the original on March 17, 2020. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  133. ^ Huddleston, Tom Jr. (November 22, 2019). "This is the James Bond sports car Elon Musk bought for nearly $1 million that inspired Tesla Cybertruck". CNBC. from the original on November 27, 2019. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  134. ^ Eddy, Melissa (March 4, 2022). "Tesla Wins Approval to Open European Assembly Plant". The New York Times. from the original on September 4, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  135. ^ "With First Share Offering, Tesla Bets on Electric Car's Future". The New York Times. Associated Press. June 28, 2010. from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
  136. ^ "Tesla overtakes Toyota to become world's most valuable carmaker". BBC News. July 1, 2020. from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
  137. ^ Boudette, Neal E. (July 2, 2020). "Tesla Shines During the Pandemic as Other Automakers Struggle". The New York Times. from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
  138. ^ Li, Yun (December 20, 2021). "Tesla shares fall 6% as it enters the S&P 500 with 1.69% weighting, fifth largest". CNBC. from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
  139. ^ "Tesla Stock Joins the S&P 500: A Game Changer". The Wall Street Journal. December 21, 2020. from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
  140. ^ Isidore, Chris (October 26, 2021). "Tesla is now worth more than $1 trillion". CNN. from the original on November 14, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2021.
  141. ^ a b Haselton, Todd (November 13, 2021). "Elon Musk sold about $6.9 billion in Tesla stock this week". CNBC. from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  142. ^ Jin, Hyunjoo (December 30, 2021). "Tesla's Musk exercises all of his stock options expiring next year". Reuters. from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  143. ^ Michaels, Dave (February 24, 2022). "WSJ News Exclusive | SEC Probes Trading by Elon Musk and Brother in Wake of Tesla CEO's Sales". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  144. ^ Siddiqui, Faiz (September 30, 2022). "Elon Musk debuts Tesla robot, Optimus, calling it a 'fundamental transformation'". The Washington Post. from the original on October 22, 2022.
  145. ^ "'I am a fan of Modi': Tesla CEO Elon Musk after meeting PM in New York". Hindustan Times. June 21, 2023. from the original on June 21, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  146. ^ a b Goldstein, Matthew (September 27, 2018). . The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 23, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
  147. ^ Choudhury, Saheli Roy (September 28, 2018). . CNBC. Archived from the original on October 6, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  148. ^ Swisher, Kara (August 23, 2018). "How and Why Silicon Valley Gets High". The New York Times. from the original on August 24, 2018. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  149. ^ Woodyard, Chris (August 30, 2018). "Elon Musk's tweet on taking Tesla private now dogged by drugs claim from rapper Azealia Banks". USA Today. from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  150. ^ Patnaik, Subrat; Kalia, Shubham (September 28, 2018). . Reuters. Archived from the original on November 23, 2019. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  151. ^ O'Kane, Sean; Lopatto, Elizabeth (September 27, 2018). . The Verge. Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
  152. ^ . The Verge. Archived from the original on May 27, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  153. ^ . Reuters. October 27, 2018. Archived from the original on May 22, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  154. ^ Youn, Soo; Katersky, Aaron (October 11, 2018). . ABC News. Archived from the original on October 23, 2019. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  155. ^ Brodkin, Jon (April 18, 2022). "Musk keeps falsely claiming 'Funding secured' tweet was accurate, judge is told". Ars Technica. from the original on September 9, 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  156. ^ Godoy, Jody; Jin, Hyunjoo (February 3, 2023). "Tesla's Elon Musk found not liable in trial over 2018 'funding secured' tweets". Reuters. from the original on February 4, 2023. Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  157. ^ Ohnsman, Alan (February 25, 2019). . Forbes. Archived from the original on May 28, 2020. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
  158. ^ Wattles, Jackie (April 27, 2019). . CNN Business. Archived from the original on June 8, 2020. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
  159. ^ Marino-Nachison, David (April 26, 2019). . Barrons. Archived from the original on January 22, 2020. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  160. ^ Bursztynsky, Jessica (May 1, 2020). . CNBC. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  161. ^ "Court Rules That No One Can Stop Elon Musk From Tweeting Tesla News—For Now". Observer. May 20, 2020. from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  162. ^ Elliott, Dave; Michaels, Rebecca (June 2, 2021). "WSJ News Exclusive: Tesla Failed to Oversee Elon Musk's Tweets, SEC Argued in Letters". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on June 10, 2021. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
  163. ^ Kanellos, Michael (February 15, 2008). "Elon Musk on rockets, sports cars, and solar power". CNET. from the original on January 29, 2014.
  164. ^ "2013 Top 250 Solar Contractors". Solar Power World. September 13, 2013. from the original on October 10, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  165. ^ Smith, Aaron (June 17, 2014). "Elon Musk's sunny plans for Buffalo". CNNMoney. from the original on October 9, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  166. ^ Kolodny, Lora (February 26, 2020). . CNBC. Archived from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  167. ^ "The highs, lows and legacy of Panasonic's doomed project in Buffalo". The Business Journals. from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  168. ^ Kolodny, Lora; Bursztynsky, Jessica (April 27, 2022). "Elon Musk wins shareholder lawsuit over Tesla's $2.6 billion SolarCity acquisition". CNBC. from the original on May 24, 2022. Retrieved June 7, 2022. According to emails that were part of evidence in the trial, Musk wrote an e-mail to SolarCity CFO Brad Buss on Sept. 18, 2016, saying that to get Tesla investors on board with the deal, SolarCity needed to get a handle on its liquidity problem and sign a letter of intent for a contract with Panasonic.
  169. ^ Strong, Michael (March 16, 2020). . The Detroit Bureau. Archived from the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  170. ^ Mitchell, Russ (September 23, 2019). . Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  171. ^ Hals, Tom (January 30, 2020). . Reuters. Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  172. ^ Chase, Randall (August 17, 2020). . ABC. Archived from the original on August 25, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  173. ^ Kolodny, Lora; Bursztynsky, Jessica (April 27, 2022). "Elon Musk wins shareholder lawsuit over Tesla's $2.6 billion SolarCity acquisition". CNBC. from the original on May 24, 2022. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
  174. ^ a b Markoff, John (July 16, 2019). "Elon Musk's Neuralink Wants 'Sewing Machine-Like' Robots to Wire Brains to the Internet". The New York Times. from the original on July 20, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
  175. ^ a b Statt, Nick (March 27, 2017). . The Verge. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  176. ^ Winkler, Rolfe (March 27, 2017). . The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  177. ^ a b "Elon Musk's Neuralink puts computer chips in pigs' brains in bid to cure diseases". NBC News. Reuters. August 29, 2020. from the original on April 26, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
  178. ^ Zhavoronkov, Alex. "Elon Musk's Big Neuralink Paper: Should We Prepare For The Digital Afterlife?". Forbes. from the original on August 17, 2022. Retrieved August 17, 2022.
  179. ^ Kahn, Jeremy; Vanian, Jonathan (January 27, 2022). "Inside Neuralink, Elon Musk's mysterious brain chip startup: A culture of blame, impossible deadlines, and a missing CEO". Fortune. from the original on September 25, 2022. Retrieved August 17, 2022.
  180. ^ a b Regalado, Antonio (August 30, 2020). "Elon Musk's Neuralink is neuroscience theater". MIT Technology Review. from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  181. ^ Cellan-Jones, Rory (September 1, 2020). . BBC News. Archived from the original on September 12, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  182. ^ Rogers, Adam (September 4, 2020). . Wired. Archived from the original on September 6, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  183. ^ Neate, Rupert (January 20, 2022). "Elon Musk's brain chip firm Neuralink lines up clinical trials in humans". The Guardian. from the original on July 12, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
  184. ^ Ryan, Hannah (February 17, 2022). "Elon Musk's Neuralink confirms monkeys died in the project, denies animal cruelty claims". CNN Business. from the original on July 11, 2022.
  185. ^ Levy, Rachel (December 5, 2022). "Musk's Neuralink faces federal probe, employee backlash over animal tests". Reuters. from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
  186. ^ Petrova, Magdalena (July 20, 2021). "Why Elon Musk's Boring Company is finding that traffic is tough to fix". CNBC. from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  187. ^ McFarland, Matt (July 6, 2022). "Elon Musk's Boring Company will let you pay for a ride with Dogecoin". CNN. from the original on July 26, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
  188. ^ Heathman, Amelia. "Elon Musk's boring machine has already built a 'test trench' in LA". Wired. from the original on July 18, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  189. ^ Romero, Dennis (December 19, 2018). "Elon Musk unveils his test car tunnel as a fix for traffic in Los Angeles". NBC News. from the original on July 4, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
  190. ^ Farivar, Cyrus (June 8, 2021). "Fort Lauderdale officials say Elon Musk's new tunnel to the beach can't come fast enough". NBC News. from the original on July 3, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  191. ^ Heater, Brian (November 28, 2018). "Elon Musk's Boring Co. drops LA Westside tunnel plan". TechCrunch. from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  192. ^ "Boring Co. underground loop to be put to the test". Las Vegas Review-Journal. May 20, 2021. from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 29, 2021.
  193. ^ McBride, Sarah (December 16, 2020). "Elon Musk's Proposed Vegas Strip Transit System Advanced by City Council Vote". Bloomberg L.P. from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  194. ^ McFarland, Matt (July 7, 2021). "Fort Lauderdale accepts proposal for Elon Musk's Tesla beach tunnel". CNN Business. from the original on July 24, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
  195. ^ Elon Musk [@elonmusk] (April 14, 2022). "I made an offer
    [www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001418091/000110465922045641/tm2212748d1_sc13da.htm sec.gov/Archives/edgar...]" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  196. ^ Paul, Kari (April 26, 2022). "Chaotic and crass: a brief timeline of Elon Musk's history with Twitter". The Guardian. from the original on April 26, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  197. ^ "Elon Musk snaps up $3bn Twitter stake". BBC News. April 4, 2022. from the original on April 4, 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  198. ^ Jones, Callum. "Elon Musk becomes Twitter's biggest shareholder after taking 9.2% stake". The Times. from the original on April 4, 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  199. ^ Elder, Bryce (April 6, 2022). "Musk and Twitter: the timeline". Financial Times. from the original on May 30, 2022. Retrieved June 4, 2022.
  200. ^ a b Adler, Maxwell; Turner, Giles (April 14, 2022). "Elon Musk Makes $43 Billion Unsolicited Bid to Take Twitter Private". Bloomberg L.P. from the original on April 14, 2022. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
  201. ^ "Elon Musk delayed filing a form and made $156 million". The Washington Post. from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  202. ^ Imbert, Fred (April 4, 2022). "Twitter shares close up 27% after Elon Musk takes 9% stake in social media company". CNBC. from the original on April 4, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2022. Twitter shares close up 27% after Elon Musk takes 9% stake in social media company
  203. ^ Corfield, Gareth (April 5, 2022). "Elon Musk to join Twitter board". The Daily Telegraph. from the original on April 5, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
  204. ^ McLean, Rob (April 11, 2022). "Twitter CEO: Elon Musk will not join Twitter board". CNN. from the original on April 11, 2022. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
  205. ^ "Elon Musk launches hostile takeover bid for Twitter". Agence France-Presse. April 14, 2022. from the original on April 14, 2022. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
  206. ^ Feiner, Lauren (April 15, 2022). "Twitter board adopts 'poison pill' after Musk's $43 billion bid to buy company". CNBC. from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  207. ^ Stahl, George. "Musk-Twitter Deal Values Company at Around $44 Billion". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  208. ^ Isaac, Mike; Hirsch, Lauren (April 25, 2022). "With Deal for Twitter, Musk Lands a Prize and Pledges Fewer Limits". The New York Times. from the original on April 27, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  209. ^ MacMillan, Douglas; Siddiqui, Faiz; Lerman, Rachel; Telford, Taylor (April 25, 2022). "Elon Musk acquires Twitter for roughly $44 billion". The Washington Post. from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  210. ^ Siddiqui, Faiz (April 26, 2022). "Tesla's value dropped Tuesday by more than double the cost of Twitter". The Washington Post. from the original on April 27, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  211. ^ Gura, David (April 26, 2022). "Tesla shares sink, wipe out over $125 billion in value, as Musk scores Twitter deal". NPR. from the original on April 27, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  212. ^ Woo, Erin; Isaac, Mike (April 27, 2022). . The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 28, 2022. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  213. ^ Balu, Nivedita; Li, Kenneth (May 13, 2022). "Musk says $44 bln Twitter deal on hold over fake account data". Reuters. from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  214. ^ Brandon, Russell (May 13, 2022). "Twitter shares plummet as Musk raises new doubts about acquisition". The Verge. from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  215. ^ Seal, Dean; Needleman, Sarah E.; Lombardo, Cara (May 13, 2022). "Elon Musk Says His $44 Billion Twitter Deal Is 'On Hold'". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  216. ^ Feiner, Lauren (July 8, 2022). "Elon Musk notifies Twitter he is terminating deal". CNBC. from the original on October 24, 2022. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  217. ^ Conger, Kate; Hirsch, Lauren (July 12, 2022). "Twitter Sues Musk After He Tries Backing Out of $44 Billion Deal". The New York Times. from the original on October 24, 2022. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  218. ^ Conger, Kate; Hirsch, Lauren; Sorkin, Andrew Ross (October 4, 2022). "Elon Musk Suggests Buying Twitter at His Original Price". The New York Times. from the original on October 24, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  219. ^ a b Klar, Rebecca (October 27, 2022). "Musk officially closes Twitter deal: reports". The Hill. from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  220. ^ "Musk Said to Begin Firing Twitter's Top Executives". The New York Times. October 27, 2022. from the original on October 28, 2022.
  221. ^ Mehta, Chavi; Dang, Sheila; Ghosh, Sayantani (October 31, 2022). "Elon Musk, who runs four other companies, will now be Twitter CEO". Reuters. from the original on November 1, 2022.
  222. ^ "Elon Musk says $8 monthly fee for Twitter blue tick". BBC. November 2, 2022. from the original on November 2, 2022. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  223. ^ Korn, Jennifer (November 2, 2022). "Musk says Twitter will charge $8 a month for account verification after criticism for $19.99 plan". CNN. from the original on November 2, 2022. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  224. ^ Binoy, Rhea (November 5, 2022). "Musk's Twitter updates app to start charging $8 for blue checkmark". Reuters. from the original on November 5, 2022. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
  225. ^ Conger, Kate; Mac, Ryan (November 4, 2022). "Elon Musk Begins Layoffs at Twitter". The New York Times. from the original on November 4, 2022. Retrieved November 4, 2022.
  226. ^ Picchi, Aimee (November 4, 2022). "Elon Musk set to fire roughly half of Twitter's workers". CBS News. from the original on November 3, 2022. Retrieved November 4, 2022.
  227. ^ Ecarma, Caleb (November 21, 2022). "We're Officially in the Elon Musk Era of Content Moderation". Vanity Fair. from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  228. ^ Marshall, Aarian; Hoover, Amanda (December 3, 2022). "The Twitter Files Revealed One Thing: Elon Musk Is Trapped". Wired. from the original on December 13, 2022. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
  229. ^ Wilson, Jason (November 16, 2022). "Twitter Blesses Extremists With Paid 'Blue Checks'". Southern Poverty Law Center. from the original on November 27, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  230. ^ Knight, Will (November 25, 2022). "Here's Proof Hate Speech Is More Viral on Elon Musk's Twitter". Wired. from the original on December 13, 2022. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  231. ^ Balu, Nivedita (November 11, 2022). "Musk halts Twitter's coveted blue check amid proliferation of imposters". Reuters. from the original on December 28, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2022 – via Yahoo Finance.
  232. ^ "Musk reverses decision on Twitter's 'official' label designation". StreetInsider.com. November 9, 2022. from the original on December 28, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  233. ^ DeGeurin, Mack (December 19, 2022). "Twitter Suddenly Reverses Course on 'Policy' That Banned Links to Competing Social Media Sites". Gizmodo. from the original on December 21, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  234. ^ "Twitter fixes links outage that hit thousands of users". Reuters. March 6, 2023. from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  235. ^ Barrabi, Thomas (October 4, 2022). "Elon Musk's ex-wife Talulah Riley surfaces in Twitter deal texts". New York Post. from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  236. ^ Zakrewski, Siddiqui; Faiz, Siddiqui; Menn, Joseph (November 22, 2022). "Musk's 'free speech' agenda dismantles safety work at Twitter, insiders say". The Washington Post. from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  237. ^ "Elon Musk promotes transphobic content as hate speech surges on his far-right platform". The Independent. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  238. ^ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (December 18, 2022). "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll" (Tweet). from the original on December 20, 2022. Retrieved December 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
  239. ^ "Elon Musk on Twitter". December 18, 2022. from the original on January 9, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
  240. ^ Milmo, Dan (May 11, 2023). "Elon Musk announces he has found new Twitter CEO". The Guardian. from the original on May 11, 2023. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  241. ^ "Elon Musk says he has appointed new Twitter boss". BBC News. May 11, 2023. from the original on May 11, 2023. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  242. ^ "Elon Musk launches his own AI company to compete with ChatGPT". abc News. from the original on July 15, 2023. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  243. ^ a b c Kolodny, Lora (October 19, 2018). "Elon Musk's extreme micromanagement has wasted time and money at Tesla, insiders say". CNBC. from the original on May 24, 2022. Retrieved July 4, 2022.
  244. ^ a b Mac, Ryan; Metz, Cade; Conger, Kate (May 3, 2022). "'I Don't Really Have a Business Plan': How Elon Musk Wings It". The New York Times. from the original on June 28, 2022. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
  245. ^ Berger (2021), pp. 24–25.
  246. ^ Berger (2021), pp. 15.
  247. ^ Berger (2021), pp. 25.
  248. ^ Kolodny, Lora (November 19, 2021). "Read the emails Elon Musk sent Tesla employees about music on the job and following directions". CNBC. from the original on July 4, 2022. Retrieved July 4, 2022.
  249. ^ a b Duhigg, Charles (December 13, 2018). "Dr. Elon & Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell". Wired. from the original on March 21, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  250. ^ Berger (2021), pp. 18.
  251. ^ "Is the world's richest person the world's worst boss? What it's like working for Elon Musk". Los Angeles Times. November 14, 2022. from the original on November 16, 2022. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  252. ^ a b Duhigg, Charles. "Dr. Elon & Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. from the original on March 21, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  253. ^ "Elon Musk feels 'super bad' about economy, needs to cut 10% of Tesla jobs". CNBC. June 3, 2022. from the original on June 28, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  254. ^ Mac, Ryan (June 1, 2022). "Elon Musk to Workers: Spend 40 Hours in the Office, or Else". The New York Times. from the original on June 1, 2022.
  255. ^ * Bilton, Nick (November 10, 2020). "Elon Musk's Totally Awful, Batshit-Crazy, Completely Bonkers, Most Excellent Year". Vanity Fair. from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
    • Vance (2017), p. 340. "Elon's worst trait by far, in my opinion, is a complete lack of loyalty or human connection. Many of us worked tirelessly for him for years and were tossed to the curb like a piece of litter without a second thought. Maybe it was calculated to keep the rest of the workforce on their toes and scared; maybe he was just able to detach from human connection to a remarkable degree. What was clear is that people who worked for him were like ammunition: used for a specific purpose until exhausted and discarded."
    • Wong, Julia Carrie (June 13, 2018). "Tesla workers say they pay the price for Elon Musk's big promises". The Guardian. from the original on March 23, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021. The CEO is known for outsized claims and ambitious goals. But numerous factory workers say he doesn't follow through – and that his leadership sets a troubling tone.
    • Warzel, Charlie (November 7, 2022). "Elon Musk Is Bad at This" 2022-12-31 at the Wayback Machine. The Atlantic.
  256. ^ Mitchell, Charlie. "Sweary tirades and abrupt firings under Elon Musk, new book claims". The Times. from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  257. ^ Dugan, Ianthe Jeanne; Spector, Mike (August 24, 2017). "Tesla's Push to Build a Self-Driving Car Sparked Dissent Among Its Engineers". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on April 16, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  258. ^ "Musk Foundation". ProPublica. May 9, 2013. from the original on February 10, 2022.
  259. ^ a b Carlson, Kara (December 13, 2022). "Mapping Musklandia: A guide to Elon Musk-related activity in the Austin area". Austin American-Statesman. Archived from the original on December 15, 2022. Musk's private foundation was founded in 2001 and is focused on renewable energy, ...
  260. ^ Harris, Mark (January 23, 2019). . The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  261. ^ a b Schleifer, Theodore (January 11, 2021). "The big decision before Elon Musk, now the richest person in the world". Vox. from the original on February 17, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  262. ^ "OpenAI shifts from nonprofit to 'capped-profit' to attract capital". March 11, 2019. from the original on April 25, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  263. ^ a b Cuccinello, Hayley C. (September 8, 2020). "Elon Musk Has Promised To Give at Least Half His Fortune To Charity. Here's How Much He's Donated So Far". Forbes. from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  264. ^ . The Giving Pledge. Archived from the original on January 9, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  265. ^ Chappell, Bill (February 8, 2021). "Elon Musk Funds $100 Million XPrize For Pursuit Of New Carbon Removal Ideas". NPR. from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
  266. ^ Coren, Michael J. "All the causes Elon Musk's foundation has donated money to since 2002". Quartz. from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  267. ^ "Elon Musk Makes Biggest Donation in History". Bloomberg L.P. February 15, 2022. from the original on February 15, 2022. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  268. ^ Alexander, Sophie (December 12, 2022). "Musk's $5.7 Billion Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on December 12, 2022.
  269. ^ "Hyperloop Update: Elon Musk Will Start Developing It Himself". Forbes. from the original on September 29, 2017. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  270. ^ Kolawole, Emi (August 12, 2013). "Elon Musk Unveils 'Hyperloop' Plans". The Washington Post. from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  271. ^ Kirschen, Philippe; Burnell, Edward (April 6, 2021). "Hyperloop System Optimization". arXiv:2104.03907 [cs.CE].
  272. ^ Vance, Ashlee (August 12, 2013). . Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on January 27, 2015. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  273. ^ Ranger, Steve. "What is Hyperloop? Everything you need to know about the race for super-fast travel". ZDNet. from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  274. ^ Mazza, Sandy (January 29, 2017). "Hyperloop competition brings new mass-transit technology to life in Hawthorne". Daily Bulletin. from the original on August 16, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  275. ^ . NPR. Archived from the original on August 31, 2020. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  276. ^ "Elon Musk's Boring Company removes D.C.-Baltimore tunnel from list of projects on website". The Washington Post. from the original on August 23, 2021. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
  277. ^ McBride, Sarah. "Musk's SpaceX Dismantles Hyperloop Prototype, Puts Up a Parking Lot". Bloomberg. from the original on November 4, 2022. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
  278. ^ Sorokanich, Bob (August 11, 2022). "Did Musk Propose Hyperloop to Stop California High-Speed Rail?". Jalopnik. from the original on August 19, 2022. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  279. ^ Markoff, John (December 11, 2015). . The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 30, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
  280. ^ Vincent, James (March 24, 2023). "Elon Musk reportedly tried and failed to take over OpenAI in 2018". The Verge. from the original on June 19, 2023. Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  281. ^ "Why Elon Musk's $100 million donation claim to ChatGPT maker OpenAI may be wrong". The Times of India. May 18, 2023. from the original on June 19, 2023. Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  282. ^ Novet, Jordan (February 2, 2018). . CNBC. Archived from the original on August 30, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  283. ^ Johnson, Steven; Iziev, Nikita (April 15, 2022). "A.I. Is Mastering Language. Should We Trust What It Says?". The New York Times. from the original on November 24, 2022. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  284. ^ Metz, Cade (April 6, 2022). "Meet DALL-E, the A.I. That Draws Anything at Your Command". The New York Times. from the original on July 20, 2022. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  285. ^ a b Lee, Timothy B. (July 10, 2018). "Thai official: Elon Musk's submarine "not practical for this mission" [Updated]". Ars Technica. from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  286. ^ Wong, Julia Carrie (December 5, 2019). "Elon Musk trial: Vernon Unsworth says entrepreneur's tweets 'humiliated' him". The Guardian. from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  287. ^ Ferris, Robert (July 10, 2018). "Elon Musk says his 'mini-submarine' can be used for other things". CNBC. from the original on July 13, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  288. ^ "Tested for Thailand, SpaceX's makeshift mini-sub could serve as space escape pod". GeekWire.com. July 8, 2018. from the original on December 7, 2019. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
  289. ^ . Reuters. April 19, 2019. Archived from the original on April 6, 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  290. ^ a b Levin, Sam (July 15, 2018). "Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue a 'pedo' in baseless attack". The Guardian. from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  291. ^ Browne, Ryan (July 18, 2020). . CNBC. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  292. ^ Klepper, David (April 27, 2022). "What Elon Musk's own tweets reveal about Twitter's next owner—and his plans for the company". Fortune. from the original on May 25, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  293. ^ Smith, Adam (April 4, 2022). "The strangest things Elon Musk has ever done on Twitter". The Independent. from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
  294. ^ Paul, Kari (October 9, 2019). "Elon Musk claims his investigator tricked him about diver he called a 'pedo'". The Guardian. from the original on May 15, 2022. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
  295. ^ . BBC News. September 17, 2018. Archived from the original on May 26, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  296. ^ Rawlinson, Kevin (September 17, 2018). . The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  297. ^ Wong, Julia Carrie (December 4, 2019). . The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020.
  298. ^ Kolodny, Lora (May 10, 2019). . CNBC. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  299. ^ Groom, Nichola; Parsons, Rachel (December 6, 2019). "Tesla boss Elon Musk wins defamation trial over his 'pedo guy' tweet". Reuters. from the original on June 3, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  300. ^ . USA Today. Archived from the original on August 25, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2018.

August 21, 2023
elon, musk, elon, reeve, musk, born, june, 1971, business, magnate, investor, musk, founder, chairman, chief, technology, officer, spacex, angel, investor, product, architect, tesla, owner, chairman, corp, founder, boring, company, founder, neuralink, openai, . Elon Reeve Musk ˈ iː l ɒ n EE lon born June 28 1971 is a business magnate and investor Musk is the founder chairman CEO and chief technology officer of SpaceX angel investor CEO and product architect of Tesla Inc owner chairman and CTO of X Corp founder of the Boring Company a co founder of Neuralink and OpenAI and the president of the Musk Foundation He is the wealthiest person in the world with an estimated net worth of US 217 billion as of August 2023 update according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and 219 billion according to Forbes primarily from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX 3 4 5 Elon MuskFRSMusk in 2022BornElon Reeve Musk 1971 06 28 June 28 1971 age 52 Pretoria Transvaal South AfricaEducationUniversity of Pennsylvania BA BS TitleFounder CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX CEO and product architect of Tesla Inc Owner and CTO of Twitter President of the Musk Foundation Founder of the Boring Company X Corp and xAI Co founder of Neuralink OpenAI Zip2 and X com part of PayPal SpousesJustine Wilson m 2000 div 2008 wbr Talulah Riley m 2010 div 2012 wbr m 2013 div 2016 wbr PartnerGrimes 2018 2021 1 Children10 2 ParentsErrol MuskMaye MuskFamilyMusk familySignatureMusk was born in Pretoria South Africa and briefly attended the University of Pretoria before immigrating to Canada at age 18 acquiring citizenship through his Canadian born mother 6 Two years later he matriculated at Queen s University in Kingston Ontario Musk later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania and received bachelor s degrees in economics and physics there He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University However Musk dropped out after two days and with his brother Kimbal co founded online city guide software company Zip2 The startup was acquired by Compaq for 307 million in 1999 and with 12 million of the money he made that same year Musk co founded X com a direct bank X com merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal In 2002 eBay acquired PayPal for 1 5 billion and that same year with 100 million of the money he made Musk founded SpaceX a spaceflight services company In 2004 he became an early investor in electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc now Tesla Inc He became its chairman and product architect assuming the position of CEO in 2008 In 2006 Musk helped create SolarCity a solar energy company that was acquired by Tesla in 2016 and became Tesla Energy In 2013 he proposed a hyperloop high speed vactrain transportation system In 2015 he co founded OpenAI a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company The following year Musk co founded Neuralink a neurotechnology company developing brain computer interfaces and the Boring Company a tunnel construction company In 2022 he acquired Twitter for 44 billion and subsequently merged the company into newly created X Corp and rebranded the service as X the following year In March 2023 he founded xAI an artificial intelligence company Musk has expressed views that have made him a polarizing figure He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements including that of spreading COVID 19 misinformation and promoting conspiracy theories 7 8 9 His Twitter ownership has been similarly controversial including letting off a large number of employees 10 an increase in hate speech on the platform 11 and features such as Twitter Blue and the implementation of limits on the amount of viewable Tweets per day being criticized 12 13 14 15 In 2018 the U S Securities and Exchange Commission SEC sued him for falsely tweeting that he had secured funding for a private takeover of Tesla To settle the case Musk stepped down as the chairman of Tesla and paid a 20 million fine Contents 1 Early life 1 1 Childhood and family 1 2 Education 2 Business career 2 1 Zip2 2 2 X com and PayPal 2 3 SpaceX 2 3 1 Starlink 2 4 Tesla 2 4 1 SEC and shareholder lawsuits regarding tweets 2 4 2 SolarCity and Tesla Energy 2 5 Neuralink 2 6 The Boring Company 2 7 Twitter 2 8 xAI 2 9 Leadership style 3 Other activities 3 1 Musk Foundation 3 2 Hyperloop 3 3 OpenAI 3 4 Tham Luang cave rescue and defamation case 3 5 2018 Joe Rogan podcast appearance 3 6 Music 3 7 Private jet 4 Wealth 4 1 Net worth 4 2 Sources of wealth 5 Personal views and Twitter later X usage 5 1 Existential threats 5 2 Politics 5 3 COVID 19 5 4 Finance 5 5 Technology 6 Personal life 6 1 Relationships and children 6 2 Legal matters 7 Public perception 8 Notes and references 8 1 Notes 8 2 Citations 8 3 Works citedEarly lifeChildhood and family Further information Musk family Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28 1971 in Pretoria one of South Africa s capital cities 16 17 Musk has British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry 18 19 His mother Maye Musk nee Haldeman is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan Canada and raised in South Africa 20 21 22 His father Errol Musk is a South African electromechanical engineer pilot sailor consultant and property developer who partly owned a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika 23 24 25 26 Musk has a younger brother Kimbal and a younger sister Tosca 22 27 Musk s family was wealthy during his youth 26 His father was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti apartheid Progressive Party and has said that his children shared their father s dislike of apartheid 16 His maternal grandfather Joshua Haldeman was an American born Canadian who took his family on record breaking journeys to Africa and Australia in a single engine Bellanca airplane 28 29 30 After his parents divorced in 1980 Musk chose to live primarily with his father 18 Musk later regretted his decision and became estranged from his father 31 He has a paternal half sister and a half brother 28 32 Maye Musk has said of her son that he was shy and awkward at school and didn t have many friends 33 At age ten he developed an interest in computing and video games teaching himself how to program from the VIC 20 user manual 34 At age twelve he sold his BASIC based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately 500 35 36 Education Musk graduated from Pretoria Boys High School in South AfricaMusk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School Bryanston High School and Pretoria Boys High School from where he graduated 37 Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian born mother 38 39 knowing that it would be easier to immigrate to the United States this way 40 While waiting for his application to be processed he attended the University of Pretoria for five months 41 Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989 and lived with a second cousin in Saskatchewan for a year 42 working odd jobs at a farm and lumber mill 43 In 1990 he entered Queen s University in Kingston Ontario 44 45 Two years later he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania UPenn where he completed studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the Wharton School 46 47 48 49 Although Musk claims he earned the degrees in 1995 UPenn maintains it awarded them in 1997 50 He reportedly hosted large ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition and wrote a business plan for an electronic book scanning service similar to Google Books 51 In 1994 Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute which investigated electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage and another at Palo Alto based startup Rocket Science Games 52 53 In 1995 he was accepted to a PhD program in materials science at Stanford University 54 55 However Musk decided to join the Internet boom dropping out two days after being accepted and applied for a job at Netscape to which he reportedly never received a response 56 38 Business careerZip2 Main article Zip2 External video Musk speaks of his early business experience during a 2014 commencement speech at USC on YouTubeIn 1995 Musk his brother Kimbal and Greg Kouri founded Zip2 57 58 Errol Musk provided them with 28 000 in funding 59 The company developed an Internet city guide with maps directions and yellow pages and marketed it to newspapers 60 They worked at a small rented office in Palo Alto 61 with Musk coding the website every night 61 Eventually Zip2 obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune 51 The brothers persuaded the board of directors to abandon a merger with CitySearch 62 however Musk s attempts to become CEO were thwarted 63 Compaq acquired Zip2 for 307 million in cash in February 1999 64 65 and Musk received 22 million for his 7 percent share 66 X com and PayPal Main articles X com bank PayPal and PayPal Mafia Later in 1999 Musk co founded X com an online financial services and e mail payment company with 12 million of the money he made from the Compaq acquisition 67 X com was one of the first federally insured online banks and over 200 000 customers joined in its initial months of operation 68 Even though Musk founded the company investors regarded him as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year 69 In 2000 X com merged with online bank Confinity to avoid competition 61 69 70 as the latter s money transfer service PayPal was more popular than X com s service 71 Musk then returned as CEO of the merged company His preference for Microsoft over Unix based software caused a rift among the company s employees and eventually led Confinity co founder Peter Thiel to resign 72 With the company suffering from compounding technological issues and the lack of a cohesive business model the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000 73 a Under Thiel the company focused on the money transfer service and was renamed PayPal in 2001 75 76 In 2002 PayPal was acquired by eBay for 1 5 billion in stock of which Musk PayPal s largest shareholder with 11 72 of shares received 175 8 million 77 78 In 2017 more than 15 years later Musk purchased the X com domain from PayPal for its sentimental value 79 80 In 2022 Musk discussed a goal of creating X the everything app 81 SpaceX Main article SpaceX Then NASA Administrator Charles Bolden congratulates Musk by the SpaceX Dragon following its 2012 missionIn early 2001 Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth chamber for plants on Mars 82 In October of the same year he traveled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell and Adeo Ressi to buy refurbished intercontinental ballistic missiles ICBMs that could send the greenhouse payloads into space He met with the companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras however Musk was seen as a novice 83 and the group returned to the United States empty handed In February 2002 the group returned to Russia with Mike Griffin president of In Q Tel to look for three ICBMs They had another meeting with Kosmotras and were offered one rocket for 8 million which Musk rejected He instead decided to start a company that could build affordable rockets 83 With 100 million of his own money 84 Musk founded SpaceX in May 2002 and became the company s CEO and Chief Engineer 85 86 SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006 87 Though the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA Administrator and former SpaceX consultant 88 Mike Griffin later that year 89 90 After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk and his companies to go bankrupt 87 SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008 91 Later that year SpaceX received a 1 6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract from NASA for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement 92 In 2012 the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS a first for a commercial spacecraft 93 Musk examining F9R Dev1 debris in 2014Working towards its goal of reusable rockets in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 on an inland platform 94 Later landings were achieved on autonomous spaceport drone ships an ocean based recovery platform 95 In 2018 SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy the inaugural mission carried Musk s personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload 96 97 Since 2019 98 SpaceX has been developing Starship a fully reusable super heavy lift launch vehicle intended to replace the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy 99 In 2020 SpaceX launched its first crewed flight the Demo 2 becoming the first private company to place astronauts into orbit and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS 100 Starlink Main article Starlink See also Starlink in Ukraine 50 Starlink satellites shortly before deployment to low Earth orbit 2019In 2015 SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low Earth orbit satellites to provide satellite Internet access 101 with the first two prototype satellites launched in February 2018 A second set of test satellites and the first large deployment of a piece of the constellation occurred in May 2019 when the first 60 operational satellites were launched 102 The total cost of the decade long project to design build and deploy the constellation is estimated by SpaceX to be about 10 billion 103 b Some critics including the International Astronomical Union have alleged that Starlink blocks the view of the sky and poses a collision threat to spacecraft 106 107 108 During the Russian invasion of Ukraine Musk sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine to provide Internet access and communication 109 However Musk refused to block Russian state media on Starlink declaring himself a free speech absolutist 110 111 In October 2022 Musk stated that about 20 000 satellite terminals had been donated to Ukraine together with free data transfer subscriptions which cost SpaceX 80 million After asking the United States Department of Defense to pay for further units and future subscriptions on behalf of Ukraine 112 Musk publicly stated that SpaceX would continue to provide Starlink to Ukraine for free at a yearly cost to itself of 400 million 113 114 115 Tesla Main article Tesla Inc Musk next to a Tesla Model S 2011Tesla Inc originally Tesla Motors was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning who financed the company until the Series A round of funding Both men played active roles in the company s early development prior to Musk s involvement 116 Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004 he invested 6 5 million became the majority shareholder and joined Tesla s board of directors as chairman 117 Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design but was not deeply involved in day to day business operations 118 Following a series of escalating conflicts in 2007 and the financial crisis of 2007 2008 Eberhard was ousted from the firm 119 page needed 120 Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008 121 A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co founder along with Tarpenning and two others 122 123 As of 2019 Musk was the longest tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally 124 In 2021 Musk nominally changed his title to Technoking while retaining his position as CEO 125 Musk before a Model X at the 2014 Tesla Inc annual shareholder meetingTesla began delivery of an electric sports car the Roadster in 2008 With sales of about 2 500 vehicles it was the first serial production all electric car to use lithium ion battery cells 126 Tesla began delivery of its four door Model S sedan in 2012 127 A cross over the Model X was launched in 2015 128 A mass market sedan the Model 3 was released in 2017 129 The Model 3 is the all time bestselling plug in electric car worldwide and in June 2021 it became the first electric car to sell 1 million units globally 130 131 A fifth vehicle the Model Y crossover was launched in 2020 132 The Cybertruck an all electric pickup truck was unveiled in 2019 133 Under Musk Tesla has also constructed multiple lithium ion battery and electric vehicle factories named Gigafactories 134 Since its initial public offering in 2010 135 Tesla stock has risen significantly it became the most valuable carmaker in summer 2020 136 137 and it entered the S amp P 500 later that year 138 139 In October 2021 it reached a market capitalization of 1 trillion the sixth company in U S history to do so 140 In November 2021 Musk proposed on Twitter to sell 10 of his Tesla stock since much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance 141 After more than 3 5 million Twitter accounts supported the sale Musk sold 6 9 billion of Tesla stock within a week 141 and a total of 16 4 billion by year end reaching the 10 target 142 In February 2022 The Wall Street Journal reported that both Elon and Kimbal Musk were under investigation by the SEC for possible insider trading related to the sale 143 In 2022 Musk unveiled a robot developed by Tesla Optimus 144 On June 20 2023 Musk met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York City suggesting that he might be interested in investing in India as soon as humanly possible 145 SEC and shareholder lawsuits regarding tweets In 2018 Musk was sued by the SEC for a tweet claiming that funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private 146 c The lawsuit characterized the tweet as false misleading and damaging to investors and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies 146 150 151 Two days later Musk settled with the SEC without admitting or denying the SEC s allegations As a result Musk and Tesla were fined 20 million each and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman but was able to remain as CEO 152 Musk has stated in interviews that he does not regret posting the tweet that triggered the SEC investigation 153 154 In April 2022 the shareholder who sued Musk over the tweet along with several Tesla shareholders said that a federal judge had ruled that the tweet was false although the ruling in question has not been unsealed 155 In February 2023 the jury found Musk and Tesla not liable 156 In 2019 Musk stated in a tweet that Tesla would build half a million cars that year 157 The SEC reacted to Musk s tweet by filing in court asking the court to hold him in contempt for violating the terms of a settlement agreement with such a tweet the accusation was disputed by Musk This was eventually settled by a joint agreement between Musk and the SEC clarifying the previous agreement details 158 The agreement included a list of topics that Musk would need preclearance before tweeting about 159 In 2020 a judge prevented a lawsuit from proceeding that claimed a tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price too high imo violated the agreement 160 161 FOIA released records showed that the SEC itself concluded Musk has subsequently violated the agreement twice by tweeting regarding Tesla s solar roof production volumes and its stock price 162 SolarCity and Tesla Energy Main articles SolarCity and Tesla Energy SolarCity solar panel installation vans in 2009Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006 163 By 2013 SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States 164 In 2014 Musk promoted the idea of SolarCity building an advanced production facility in Buffalo New York triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States 165 Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017 It operated as a joint venture with Panasonic until early 2020 166 167 Tesla acquired SolarCity for over 2 billion in 2016 and merged it with its battery unit to create Tesla Energy The deal s announcement resulted in a more than 10 drop in Tesla s stock price At the time SolarCity was facing liquidity issues 168 Multiple shareholder groups filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla s directors claiming that the purchase of SolarCity was done solely to benefit Musk and came at the expense of Tesla and its shareholders 169 170 Tesla directors settled the lawsuit in January 2020 leaving Musk the sole remaining defendant 171 172 Two years later the court ruled in Musk s favor 173 Neuralink Main article Neuralink Musk discussing a Neuralink device during a live demonstration in 2020In 2016 Musk co founded Neuralink a neurotechnology startup company with an investment of 100 million 174 175 Neuralink aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence AI by creating devices that are embedded in the brain to facilitate its merging with machines Such technology could enhance memory or allow the devices to communicate with software 175 176 The company also hopes to develop devices with which to treat neurological conditions such as Alzheimer s disease dementia and spinal cord injuries 177 In 2019 Musk announced work on a device akin to a sewing machine that could embed threads into a human brain 174 He is listed as the sole author of an October 2019 paper that details some of Neuralink s research 178 although Musk s being listed as such rankled the Neuralink team s researchers 179 At a 2020 live demonstration Musk described one of their early devices as a Fitbit in your skull that could soon cure paralysis deafness blindness and other disabilities Many neuroscientists and publications criticized these claims 180 181 182 with MIT Technology Review describing them as highly speculative and neuroscience theater 180 During the demonstration Musk revealed a pig with a Neuralink implant that tracked neural activity related to smell 177 In 2022 Neuralink announced that clinical trials would begin by the end of the year 183 Neuralink has conducted further animal testing on macaque monkeys at the University of California Davis Primate Research Center In 2021 the company released a video in which a Macaque played the video game Pong via a Neuralink implant The company s animal trials which have caused the deaths of some monkeys have led to claims of animal cruelty The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has alleged that Neuralink s animal trials have violated the Animal Welfare Act 184 Employees have complained that pressure from Musk to accelerate development has led to botched experiments and unnecessary animal deaths In 2022 a federal probe was launched into possible animal welfare violations by Neuralink 185 The Boring Company Main article The Boring Company Musk during the 2018 inauguration of the Boring Test Tunnel in Hawthorne CaliforniaIn 2017 Musk founded the Boring Company to construct tunnels and revealed plans for specialized underground high occupancy vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour 240 km h and thus circumvent above ground traffic in major cities 186 187 Early in 2017 the company began discussions with regulatory bodies and initiated construction of a 30 foot 9 1 m wide 50 foot 15 m long and 15 foot 4 6 m deep test trench on the premises of SpaceX s offices as that required no permits 188 The Los Angeles tunnel less than two miles 3 2 km in length debuted to journalists in 2018 It used Tesla Model Xs and was reported to be a rough ride while traveling at suboptimal speeds 189 Two tunnel projects announced in 2018 in Chicago and West Los Angeles have been canceled 190 191 However a tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2021 192 Local officials have approved further expansions of the tunnel system 193 In 2021 tunnel construction was approved for Fort Lauderdale Florida 194 Twitter Further information Acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk Elon Musk Twitter elonmusk I made an offerhttps sec gov Archives edgar April 14 2022 195 Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter as early as 2017 196 and had previously questioned the platform s commitment to freedom of speech 197 198 In January 2022 Musk started purchasing Twitter shares reaching a 9 2 stake by April 199 making him the largest shareholder 200 d When this was publicly disclosed Twitter shares experienced the largest intraday price surge since the company s 2013 IPO 202 On April 4 Musk agreed to a deal that would appoint him to Twitter s board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14 9 of the company 203 204 However on April 13 Musk made a 43 billion offer to buy Twitter launching a takeover bid to buy 100 of Twitter s stock at 54 20 per share 200 205 In response Twitter s board adopted a poison pill shareholder rights plan to make it more expensive for any single investor to own more than 15 of the company without board approval 206 Nevertheless by the end of the month Musk had successfully concluded his bid for approximately 44 billion 207 This included about 12 5 billion in loans against his Tesla stock and 21 billion in equity financing 208 209 Tesla s stock market value sank by over 100 billion the next day in reaction to the deal causing Musk to lose around 30 billion of his net worth 210 211 He subsequently tweeted criticism of Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde s policies to his 86 million followers which led to some of them engaging in sexist and racist harassment against her 212 Exactly a month after announcing the takeover Musk stated that the deal was on hold following a report that 5 of Twitter s daily active users were spam accounts 213 causing Twitter shares to drop more than 10 percent 214 Although he initially affirmed his commitment to the acquisition 215 he sent notification of his termination of the deal in July Twitter s Board of Directors responded that they were committed to holding him to the transaction 216 On July 12 2022 Twitter formally sued Musk in the Chancery Court of Delaware for breaching a legally binding agreement to purchase Twitter 217 In October 2022 Musk reversed again offering to purchase Twitter at 54 20 per share 218 The acquisition was officially completed on October 27 219 Immediately after the acquisition Musk fired several top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal 219 220 Musk became the CEO instead 221 He instituted a 7 99 monthly subscription for a blue check 222 223 224 and laid off a significant portion of the company s staff 225 226 Musk lessened content moderation 227 and in December Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter s moderation of Hunter Biden s laptop controversy in the leadup to the 2020 presidential election 228 The Southern Poverty Law Center noted that Twitter has verified numerous extremists 229 and a study of millions of tweets following the acquisition indicated that hate speech on the platform has become more visible under Musk s leadership 230 Within the first weeks of ownership Musk made a series of decisions and changes that he quickly reversed including the paid blue checkmark 231 creating an official label 232 and forbidding linking to one s profiles on other social media platforms 233 Under Musk s management Twitter experienced several large scale outages 234 In April 2022 The Washington Post reported that Musk privately claimed that supposed censorship on the platform including the banning of accounts such as The Babylon Bee had prompted him to begin the acquisition The New York Post revealed that Musk s ex wife Talulah Riley had encouraged Musk to purchase Twitter specifically citing the Bee s ban 235 Following the acquisition he made reinstatement of accounts like the Bee an immediate priority 236 The Independent reported that Musk has appealed to far right activists and influencers and unleashed a wave of hate speech and abuse aimed at LGBT people since taking control of Twitter 237 On December 18 Musk posted a poll to his Twitter account asking users to decide whether he should step down as the head of Twitter with 57 5 out of the more than 17 5 million votes supporting that decision 238 Musk then announced that he would resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job 239 On May 11 2023 Musk announced that he would be stepping down from the CEO position and instead moving to exec chair amp CTO overseeing product software amp sysops and announced the new CEO former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino 240 241 xAI On July 12 2023 Elon Musk launched an artificial intelligence company called xAI which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like ChatGPT The company has reportedly hired engineers from Google and OpenAI 242 Leadership style Musk giving a speech to SpaceX employees in 2012Musk is often described as a micromanager and has called himself a nano manager 243 The New York Times has characterized his approach as absolutist 244 Musk does not make formal business plans 244 instead he says he prefers to approach engineering problems non sequitur with an iterative design methodology and tolerance for failures 245 He has forced employees to adopt the company s own jargon and launched ambitious risky and costly projects against his advisors recommendations such as removing front facing radar from Tesla Autopilot His insistence on vertical integration causes his companies to move most production in house While this resulted in saved costs for SpaceX s rocket 246 vertical integration has caused many usability problems for Tesla s software 243 Musk s handling of employees whom he communicates with directly through mass emails has been characterized as carrot and stick rewarding those who offer constructive criticism while also being known to impulsively threaten swear at and fire his employees 247 248 249 Musk said he expects his employees to work for long hours sometimes for 80 hours per week 250 He has his new employees sign strict non disclosure agreements and often fires in sprees 251 252 such as during the Model 3 production hell in 2018 252 In 2022 Musk revealed plans to fire 10 percent of Tesla s workforce due to his concerns about the economy 253 That same month he suspended remote work at SpaceX and Tesla and threatened to fire employees who do not work 40 hours per week in the office 254 Musk s leadership has been praised by some who credit it with the success of Tesla and his other endeavors 243 and criticized by others who see him as callous and his managerial decisions as show ing a lack of human understanding 249 255 The 2021 book Power Play contains anecdotes of Musk berating employees 256 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 with some employees resigning in consequence 257 Other activitiesMusk Foundation Musk is president of the Musk Foundation he founded in 2001 258 259 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 260 From 2002 to 2018 the foundation gave 25 million directly to non profit organizations nearly half of which went to Musk s OpenAI 261 which was a non profit at the time 262 Since 2002 the foundation has made over 350 donations Around half of them were made to scientific research or education nonprofits Notable beneficiaries include the Wikimedia Foundation his alma mater the University of Pennsylvania and his brother Kimbal s non profit Big Green 263 In 2012 Musk took the Giving Pledge thereby committing to give the majority of his wealth to charitable causes either during his lifetime or in his will 264 He has endowed prizes at the X Prize Foundation including 100 million to reward improved carbon capture technology 265 Vox said the Musk Foundation is almost entertaining in its simplicity and yet is strikingly opaque noting that its website was only 33 words in plain text 261 The foundation has been criticized for the relatively small amount of wealth donated 266 In 2020 Forbes gave Musk a philanthropy score of 1 because he had given away less than 1 of his net worth 263 In November 2021 Musk donated 5 7 billion of Tesla s shares to charity according to regulatory filings 267 However Bloomberg News noted that all of it went to his own foundation bringing Musk Foundation s assets up to 9 4 billion at the end of 2021 The foundation disbursed 160 million to non profits that year 268 Hyperloop Main articles Hyperloop and Hyperloop pod competition A tube part of the 2017 Hyperloop pod competition sponsored by SpaceXIn 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 269 Later that year Musk unveiled the concept which he dubbed the hyperloop 270 The alpha design for the system was published in a whitepaper posted to the Tesla and SpaceX blogs 271 The document scoped out the technology and outlined a notional route where such a transport system could be built between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area at an estimated cost of 6 billion 272 The proposal if technologically feasible at the costs cited would make Hyperloop travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances 273 In 2015 Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop pods to operate on a SpaceX sponsored mile long track for a 2015 2017 Hyperloop pod competition The track was used in January 2017 and Musk also announced that the company had started a tunnel project with Hawthorne Municipal Airport as its destination 274 In July 2017 Musk claimed that he had received verbal government approval to build a hyperloop from New York City to Washington D C with stops in both Philadelphia and Baltimore 275 Mention of the projected DC to Baltimore leg was removed from the Boring Company website in 2021 276 The tunnel project to Hawthorne was discontinued in 2022 and is cited to be converted into parking spots for SpaceX workers 277 Biographer Ashlee Vance has noted that Musk hoped Hyperloop would make the public and legislators rethink the high speed train proposal current in California at the time and consider more creative ideas 278 OpenAI Main article OpenAI In 2015 Musk co founded OpenAI a not for profit artificial intelligence AI research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence intended to be safe and beneficial to humanity 279 A particular focus of the company is to democratize artificial superintelligence systems against governments and corporations 31 Musk pledged 1 billion of funding to OpenAI 280 In 2023 Musk tweeted that he had ended up giving a total of 100 million to OpenAI TechCrunch later reported that according to its own investigation of public records only 15 million of OpenAI s funding could be definitively traced to Musk Musk subsequently stated that he had donated about 50 million 281 In 2018 Musk left the OpenAI board to avoid possible future conflicts with his role as CEO of Tesla as the latter company increasingly became involved in AI through Tesla Autopilot 282 Since then OpenAI has made significant advances in machine learning producing neural networks such as GPT 3 producing human like text 283 and DALL E generating digital images from natural language descriptions 284 Tham Luang cave rescue and defamation case Further information Tham Luang cave rescue During the Tham Luang cave rescue pictured Musk had proposed a mini submarine to evacuate the children which was rejectedIn July 2018 Musk arranged for his employees to build a mini submarine to assist the rescue of children trapped in a flooded cavern in Thailand 285 Richard Stanton leader of the international rescue diving team urged Musk to facilitate the construction of the vehicle as a back up in case flooding worsened 286 Engineers at SpaceX and the Boring Company built the mini submarine from a Falcon 9 liquid oxygen transfer tube in eight hours and personally delivered it to Thailand 287 288 By this time however eight of the 12 children had already been rescued the rescuers employing full face masks oxygen and anesthesia consequently Thai authorities declined to use the submarine 285 In March 2019 Musk was later one of the 187 people who received various honors conferred by the King of Thailand for involvement in the rescue effort 289 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 maintaining that Musk had no conception of what the cave passage was like and can stick his submarine where it hurts Musk asserted on Twitter that the device would have worked and referred to Unsworth as a pedo guy 290 He deleted the tweets 290 and apologized 291 and he deleted his responses to critical tweets from Cher Scarlett a software engineer which had caused his followers to harass her 292 In an email to BuzzFeed News Musk later called Unsworth a child rapist and said that he had married a child 293 294 In September Unsworth filed a defamation suit in the District Court for the Central District of California 295 296 In his defense Musk argued that pedo guy was a common insult used in South Africa when I was growing up synonymous with creepy old man and is used to insult a person s appearance and demeanor 37 The defamation case began in December 2019 with Unsworth seeking 190 million in damages 297 During the trial Musk apologized to Unsworth again for the tweet On December 6 the jury found in favor of Musk and ruled he was not liable 298 299 2018 Joe Rogan podcast appearance In 2018 Musk appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and discussed various topics for over two hours During the interview Musk sampled a puff from a cigar consisting the host claimed of tobacco laced with cannabis Tesla stock dropped after the incident which coincided with the confirmation of the departure of Tesla s vice president of worldwide finance earlier that day 300 Fortune wondered if the cannabis use could have ramifications for SpaceX contracts with the United States Air Force though an Air Force spokesperson told The Verge that there was no investigation and that the Air Force was still determining the facts 301 In 2022 Musk claimed that he and other Space X employees were subjected to random drug tests for about a year following the incident 302 In a 60 Minutes interview Musk said of the incident I do not smoke pot As anybody who watched that podcast could tell I have no idea how to smoke pot 303 Music In 2019 Musk through Emo G Records released a rap track RIP Harambe on SoundCloud The track which refers to the killing of Harambe the gorilla and the subsequent Internet sensationalism surrounding the event was performed by Yung Jake written by Yung Jake and Caroline Polachek and produced by BloodPop 304 305 The following year Musk released an EDM track Don t Doubt Ur Vibe featuring his own lyrics and vocals 306 While Guardian critic Alexi Petridis described it as indistinguishable from umpteen competent but unthrilling bits of bedroom electronica posted elsewhere on Soundcloud 307 TechCrunch said it was not a bad representation of the genre 306 Private jet Main articles ElonJet and 2022 Twitter suspensions In 2003 Musk said his favorite plane he owned was an L 39 Albatros 308 He uses a private jet owned by Falcon Landing LLC a SpaceX linked company and acquired a second jet in August 2020 309 310 His heavy use of the jet it flew over 150 000 miles in 2018 and the consequent fossil fuel usage has received criticism 309 311 His flight usage is tracked on social media through ElonJet The Twitter version of the account was blocked in December 2022 after Musk claimed that his son X AE A XII had been harassed by a stalker after the account posted the airport at which his jet had landed 312 313 314 This led to Musk banning the ElonJet account on Twitter as well as the accounts of journalists that posted stories regarding the incident including Donie O Sullivan Keith Olbermann and journalists from The New York Times The Washington Post CNN and The Intercept 315 Musk equated the reporting to doxxing 316 The police do not believe there is a link between the account and alleged stalker 317 Musk later took a Twitter poll on whether the journalists accounts should be reinstated which resulted in reinstating the accounts 318 WealthNet worth Musk s net worth from 2013 to 2023 as estimated by Forbes magazineMusk made 175 8 million when PayPal was sold to eBay in 2002 319 He was first listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012 with a net worth of 2 billion 320 At the start of 2020 Musk had a net worth of 27 billion 321 By the end of the year his net worth had increased by 150 billion mostly driven by his ownership of around 20 of Tesla stock 322 During this period Musk s net worth was often volatile For example it dropped 16 3 billion in September the largest single day plunge in Bloomberg Billionaires Index s history 323 In November of that year Musk passed Facebook co founder Mark Zuckerberg to become the third richest person in the world a week later he passed Microsoft co founder Bill Gates to become the second richest 324 In January 2021 Musk with a net worth of 185 billion surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the richest person in the world 325 Bezos reclaimed the top spot the following month 326 On September 27 2021 after Tesla stock surged Forbes announced that Musk had a net worth of over 200 billion and was the richest person in the world 327 In November 2021 Musk became the first person to have a net worth of more than 300 billion 328 On December 30 2022 it was reported that Musk had lost 200 billion from his net worth due to declining stock values in Tesla becoming the first person in history to lose such a large sum of money 329 330 In January 2023 Musk was recognized by Guinness World Records for experiencing the largest loss of personal fortune in history with regards to his financial losses since November 2021 which Guinness quoted a Forbes estimate of 182 billion 331 Musk s personal wealth is managed by his family office called Excession LLC which was formed in 2016 and run by Jared Birchall 332 259 Sources of wealth Around 75 of Musk s wealth derived from Tesla stock in November 2020 324 a proportion that fell to about 37 as of December 2022 e after selling nearly 40 billion in company shares since late 2021 333 Musk does not receive a salary from Tesla he agreed with the board in 2018 to a compensation plan that ties his personal earnings to Tesla s valuation and revenue 322 The deal stipulated that Musk only receives the compensation if Tesla reaches certain market values 334 It was the largest such deal ever done between a CEO and a company board 335 In the first award given in May 2020 he was eligible to purchase 1 69 million Tesla shares about 1 of the company at below market prices which was worth about 800 million 335 334 Musk paid 455 million in taxes on 1 52 billion of income between 2014 and 2018 336 According to ProPublica Musk paid no federal income taxes in 2018 337 He claimed his 2021 tax bill was estimated at 12 billion based on his sale of 14 billion worth of Tesla stock 336 Musk has repeatedly described himself as cash poor 338 339 and has professed to have little interest in the material trappings of wealth 338 In May 2020 he pledged to sell almost all physical possessions 339 Musk has defended his wealth by saying he is accumulating resources for humanity s outward expansion to space 340 Personal views and Twitter later X usageMain article Views of Elon Musk Since joining Twitter now known as X in 2009 341 Musk has been an active user and has over 100 million followers as of June 2022 update 342 He posts memes promotes business interests and comments on contemporary political and cultural issues 343 Musk s statements have provoked controversy such as for mocking preferred gender pronouns 344 345 and comparing Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler 346 The New York Times describes his contributions to international relations as chaotic and critics of Musk argue that there is a lack of separation between his opinions and his business interests 347 As CEO of Twitter Musk emerged as a source of misinformation for example by suggesting online details about mass murderer Mauricio Garcia s apparent interest in Nazism could have been planted as part of a psyop 348 Allegations of him being transphobic appeared as well in response to actions taken by Twitter under his guidance 349 350 The Israel government and several media outlets accused Musk of antisemitism due to him spreading George Soros conspiracy theories 351 352 353 although some Israeli officials defended Musk 354 Existential threats Musk giving details about Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft at the 2006 Mars Society ConferenceMusk has been described as believing in longtermism emphasizing the needs of future populations 355 Accordingly Musk has stated that artificial intelligence poses the greatest existential threat to humanity 356 357 He has warned of a Terminator like AI apocalypse and suggested that the government should regulate its safe development 358 359 In 2015 Musk was a cosignatory along with Stephen Hawking and hundreds of others of the Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence which called for the ban of autonomous weapons 360 Musk s AI stances have been called alarmist and sensationalist by critics such as computer scientist Yann LeCun and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg 361 362 and led the think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation to award Musk its Annual Luddite Award in 2016 363 Musk has described climate change as the greatest threat to humanity after AI 364 and has advocated for a carbon tax 365 Musk was a critic of President Donald Trump s stance on climate change 366 367 and resigned from two presidential business advisory councils following Trump s 2017 decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement 368 Musk has long promoted the colonization of Mars and argues that humanity should become a multiplanetary species 369 He has suggested the use of nuclear weapons to terraform Mars 370 371 He envisioned establishing a direct democracy on Mars with a system in which more votes would be required to create laws than remove them 372 Musk has also voiced concerns about human population decline 373 374 saying that Mars has zero human population We need a lot of people to become a multiplanet civilization 375 Speaking at The Wall Street Journal s CEO Council session in 2021 Musk stated that a declining birth rate and consequent population decline is one of the biggest risks to human civilization 376 Politics Musk with Senator Dianne Feinstein at the opening of the Tesla Fremont Factory 2010 and with Vice President Mike Pence at the Kennedy Space Center before SpaceX s Crew Dragon Demo 2 launch 2020 While often described as libertarian Musk has called himself politically moderate and was a registered independent voter when he lived in California The New York Times wrote that Musk expresses views that don t fit neatly into the American binary left right political framework 377 Historically Musk has donated to both Democrats and Republicans 378 many of whom are in states in which he has a vested interest 377 Beginning in the late 2010s Musk s political contributions have shifted to almost entirely supporting Republicans 379 Musk voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U S presidential election 380 In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries Musk endorsed candidate Andrew Yang and expressed support for his proposed universal basic income 381 He also endorsed Kanye West s 2020 presidential campaign 382 He said he voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 U S presidential election 380 In 2022 Musk said that he could no longer support the Democrats because they are the party of division amp hate 383 384 and wrote a tweet encouraging independent minded voters to vote Republican in the 2022 U S elections which was an outlier among social media executives who typically avoid partisan political advocacy 385 386 He has supported Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 U S presidential election and Twitter hosted DeSantis s campaign announcement on a Twitter Spaces event 387 388 389 As of May 2023 Musk was declining to endorse any specific candidate 388 Musk opposes a billionaire s tax 390 and has argued on Twitter with more left leaning Democratic politicians such as Bernie Sanders 391 392 Alexandria Ocasio Cortez 393 and Elizabeth Warren 394 He has raised questions about the Black Lives Matter protests partially based on the fact that the phrase Hands up don t shoot was made up 395 396 Musk also promoted a baseless theory relating to the attack of Speaker Nancy Pelosi s husband but Musk deleted his tweet 397 Musk has praised China and has been described as having a close relationship with the Chinese government allowing access to its markets for Tesla 398 After Gigafactory Shanghai produced its first batch of vehicles Musk thanked the Chinese government and Chinese people while criticizing the United States and its people 399 207 208 In 2022 Musk wrote an article for China Cyberspace the official publication of Cyberspace Administration of China which enforces Internet censorship in China His writing the article was described as conflicting with his advocacy for free speech 400 401 Musk later advocated for Taiwan to become a special administrative zone of China which drew cross party criticism from Taiwanese lawmakers 402 403 404 In October 2022 Musk posted a Twitter poll and peace plan to resolve the Russian invasion of Ukraine 405 406 It was reported that Musk allegedly spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the proposal which Musk denied 407 408 409 410 COVID 19 Musk wears a bandana as a face mask during the COVID 19 pandemicMusk was criticized for his public comments and conduct related to the COVID 19 pandemic 411 412 He spread misinformation about the virus including promoting a widely discredited paper on the benefits of chloroquine and claiming that COVID 19 death statistics were inflated 413 In March 2020 Musk stated The coronavirus panic is dumb 414 415 In an email to Tesla employees Musk referred to COVID 19 as a specific form of the common cold and predicted that confirmed COVID 19 cases would not exceed 0 1 of the U S population 411 On March 19 2020 Musk predicted that there would be probably close to zero new cases in the U S by end of April 412 Politico labeled this statement one of the most audacious confident and spectacularly incorrect prognostications of 2020 416 Musk also claimed falsely that children are essentially immune to COVID 19 417 418 Musk condemned COVID 19 lockdowns and initially refused to close the Tesla Fremont Factory in March 2020 defying the local shelter in place order 411 419 420 In May 2020 he reopened the Tesla factory defying the local stay at home order 421 422 and warned workers that they would be unpaid and their unemployment benefits might be jeopardized if they did not report to work 422 In December 2022 Musk called for prosecution of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci 423 424 In March 2020 Musk promised that Tesla would make ventilators for COVID 19 patients if there were a shortage 425 After figures like New York City mayor Bill de Blasio responded to Musk s offer 426 Musk offered to donate ventilators which Tesla would build or buy from a third party 425 However Musk ended up buying and donating BiPAP and CPAP machines which are devices that support respirations of someone able to breathe on their own rather than the much more expensive and sought after mechanical ventilator machines that are able to breathe for a patient entirely 427 428 In September 2020 Musk stated that he would not get the COVID 19 vaccine because he and his children were not at risk for COVID 429 430 Two months later Musk contracted COVID 19 and suggested his COVID 19 rapid antigen test results were dubious after which the phrase Space Karen trended on Twitter in reference to Musk 431 432 However in December 2021 Musk revealed that he and his eligible children had received the vaccine 433 Finance Musk said that the U S government should not provide subsidies to companies but impose a carbon tax to discourage poor behavior 434 435 The free market in his view would achieve the best solution and producing environmentally unfriendly vehicles should have consequences 436 Tesla has received billions of dollars in subsidies 437 In addition Tesla made large sums from government initiated systems of zero emissions credits offered in California and at the United States federal level which facilitated initial consumer adoption of Tesla vehicles as the tax credits given by governments enabled Tesla s battery electric vehicles to be price competitive in comparison with existing lower priced internal combustion engine vehicles 438 Notably Tesla generates some of its revenue from its sales of carbon credits granted to the company by both the European Union Emissions Trading System and the Chinese national carbon trading scheme 439 440 441 442 Musk a longtime opponent of short selling has repeatedly criticized the practice and argued it should be illegal 443 444 Wired magazine speculated that Musk s opposition to short selling stems from how short sellers have an incentive to find and promote unfavorable information about his companies 445 In early 2021 he encouraged the GameStop short squeeze 446 447 In December 2022 Musk sold 3 6 billion of his stock in Tesla equal to 22 million shares in the company 448 despite pledging earlier in the year that he would not sell any additional shares 449 Technology Musk has promoted cryptocurrencies and supports them over traditional government issued fiat currencies 450 Given the influence of Musk s tweets in moving cryptocurrency markets 451 his statements about cryptocurrencies have been viewed as market manipulation by some such as economist Nouriel Roubini 452 Musk s social media praising of Bitcoin and Dogecoin was credited for increasing their prices Consequently Tesla s 2021 announcement against the backdrop of Musk s social media behavior that it bought 1 5 billion worth of Bitcoin raised questions 453 Tesla s announcement that it would accept Bitcoin for payment was criticized by environmentalists and investors due to the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining A few months later in response to the criticism Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would no longer accept payments in Bitcoin and would not engage in any Bitcoin transactions until the environmental issues are solved 454 455 Despite the Boring Company s involvement in building mass transit infrastructure Musk has criticized public transport and promoted individualized transport private vehicles 456 457 458 His comments have been called elitist and have sparked widespread criticism from both transportation and urban planning experts who have pointed out that public transportation in dense urban areas is more economical more energy efficient and requires much less space than private cars 457 459 458 Personal lifeFrom the early 2000s until late 2020 Musk resided in California where both Tesla and SpaceX were founded 460 In 2020 he relocated to Texas saying that California had become complacent about its economic success 460 461 While hosting Saturday Night Live in May 2021 Musk revealed that he has Asperger syndrome 462 Musk is also a practitioner of Brazilian jiu jitsu 463 Relationships and children Musk met his first wife Canadian author Justine Wilson while attending Queen s University in Ontario Canada and they married in 2000 464 In 2002 their first child died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 10 weeks 465 After his death the couple decided to use IVF to continue their family 466 They had twins in 2004 followed by triplets in 2006 466 The couple divorced in 2008 and shared custody of their children 467 468 In 2022 one of the twins officially changed her name to reflect her gender identity as a trans woman and to use Wilson as her last name because she no longer wished to be associated with Musk 469 Musk blamed the estrangement of his daughter on what the Financial Times characterized as the supposed takeover of elite schools and universities by neo Marxists 470 In 2008 Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley 471 They married two years later at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland 472 473 In 2012 the couple divorced before remarrying the following year 474 After briefly filing for divorce in 2014 474 Musk finalized a second divorce from Riley in 2016 475 Musk then dated Amber Heard for several months in 2017 476 he had reportedly been pursuing her since 2012 477 Johnny Depp later accused Musk of having an affair with Heard while she was still married to Depp 478 479 Musk and Heard both denied the affair 478 In 2018 Musk and Canadian musician Grimes revealed that they were dating 480 Grimes gave birth to their son in May 2020 481 482 According to Musk and Grimes his name was X AE A 12 ɛ k s ae ʃ eɪ ˈ t w ɛ l v however the name would have violated California regulations as it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet 483 484 and was then changed to X AE A Xii This drew more confusion as AE is not a letter in the modern English alphabet 485 The child was eventually named X AE A XII Musk with X as a first name AE A XII as a middle name and Musk as surname 486 In December 2021 Grimes and Musk had a second child a daughter named Exa Dark Siderael Musk nicknamed Y born via surrogacy 1 Despite the pregnancy Musk confirmed reports that the couple were semi separated in September 2021 in an interview with Time in December 2021 he said he was single 487 488 In March 2022 Grimes said of her relationship with Musk I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend but we re very fluid 1 Later that month Grimes tweeted that she and Musk had broken up again but remained on good terms 489 In July 2022 Insider published court documents revealing that Musk had had twins with Shivon Zilis director of operations and special projects at Neuralink in November 2021 2 They were born weeks before Musk and Grimes had their second child via surrogate in December The news raise d questions about workplace ethics given that Zilis directly reported to Musk 490 Also in July 2022 The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk allegedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan the wife of Google co founder Sergey Brin in 2021 leading to their divorce the following year 491 Musk denied the report 492 Legal matters Main articles List of lawsuits involving Tesla Inc and Criticism of Tesla Inc In May 2022 Business Insider cited an anonymous friend of an unnamed SpaceX contract flight attendant alleging that Musk engaged in sexual misconduct in 2016 The source stated that in November 2018 Musk SpaceX and the former flight attendant entered into a severance agreement granting the attendant a 250 000 payment in exchange for a promise not to sue over the claims 493 Musk responded If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30 year career that it comes to light He accused the article from Business Insider of being a politically motivated hit piece 494 495 After the release of the Business Insider article Tesla s stock fell by more than 6 496 decreasing Musk s net worth by 10 billion 497 Barron s wrote some investors considered key man risk the danger that a company could be badly hurt by the loss of one individual 498 In April 2023 the government of the U S Virgin Islands sought to subpoena Musk for documents in a lawsuit alleging that JPMorgan Chase profited from Jeffrey Epstein s sex trafficking operation 499 In May a judge granted the U S Virgin Islands request to serve Musk electronically through Tesla after the U S territory had difficulty locating him 499 The efforts to subpoena Musk for documents do not implicate him in any wrongdoing and do not seek to have Musk testify under oath 499 Public perceptionSee also Elon Musk filmography and List of awards and honors received by Elon Musk Though Musk s ventures were influential within their own industries in the 2000s he only became a public figure in the early 2010s He has often been described as an eccentric who makes spontaneous and controversial statements contrary to other billionaires who prefer reclusiveness to protect their businesses 500 501 Celebrated by fans and hated by critics Musk was described by Vance as having become very polarizing because of his part philosopher part troll role on Twitter 502 With Steve Jobs and Donald Trump Musk served as inspiration for the characterization of Tony Stark in the Marvel film Iron Man 2008 503 Musk had a cameo appearance in the film s 2010 sequel Iron Man 2 504 Musk has made cameos and appearances in other films such as Machete Kills 2013 505 Why Him 2016 506 and Men in Black International 2019 507 Television series in which he has appeared include The Simpsons The Musk Who Fell to Earth 2015 508 The Big Bang Theory The Platonic Permutation 2015 509 South Park Members Only 2016 510 511 Young Sheldon A Patch a Modem and a Zantac 2017 512 Rick and Morty One Crew over the Crewcoo s Morty 2019 513 514 and Saturday Night Live 2021 515 He contributed interviews to the documentaries Racing Extinction 2015 and the Werner Herzog directed Lo and Behold 2016 516 517 Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society FRS in 2018 518 In 2015 he received an honorary doctorate in engineering and technology from Yale University 519 and IEEE Honorary Membership 520 Awards for his contributions to the development of the Falcon rockets include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Transportation Award in 2008 521 the Federation Aeronautique Internationale Gold Space Medal in 2010 522 and the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal in 2012 523 Time has listed Musk as one of the most influential people in the world on four occasions in 2010 524 2013 525 2018 526 and 2021 527 Musk was selected as Time s Person of the Year for 2021 Time editor in chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that Person of the Year is a marker of influence and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth and potentially life off Earth too 528 529 In February 2022 Musk was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering 530 Notes and referencesNotes Musk remained on the board and served as an advisor 74 75 SpaceX received nearly 900 million in Federal Communications Commission subsidies for Starlink 104 105 Musk stated he was considering taking Tesla private at a price of 420 a share an alleged reference to marijuana 147 Members of Tesla s board and rapper Azealia Banks alleged that Musk may have been under the influence of recreational drugs when he wrote the tweet 148 149 He did not file the necessary SEC paperwork within 10 days of his stake passing 5 a violation of U S securities laws 201 According to the Wall Street Journal he was worth 140 billion with 52 billion of that attributable to his ownership of Tesla stock Citations a b c Gordon Devin March 10 2022 Infamy Is Kind Of Fun Grimes on Music Mars and Surprise Her Secret New Baby With Elon Musk Vanity Fair Archived from the original on May 21 2022 Retrieved March 10 2022 a b Southern Keiran July 7 2022 Written at Los Angeles Elon Musk had twins with one of his executives The Times London Archived from the original on July 7 2022 Retrieved July 7 2022 Mohamed Theron December 15 2022 Elon Musk just cashed in another 3 6 billion of Tesla stock as he wrestles with mounting interest payments at Twitter and a looming recession Business Insider Bloomberg Billionaires Index Bloomberg L P Real Time Billionaires Forbes Hopper Tristin July 12 2022 Why does Elon Musk keep conceiving children with Canadians National Post Retrieved August 6 2023 Musk himself has Canadian citizenship through his mother Ghaffary Shirin May 20 2023 Elon Musk won t stop tweeting his way into trouble Vox Elon Musk says so be it to consequences of his tweeting NBC News May 16 2023 Chen Pauline Lockwood Heather July 23 2023 Elon Musk says Twitter logo to change birds to be gradually abandoned CNN a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link In Latest Round of Job Cuts Twitter Is Said to Lay Off at Least 200 Employees February 27 2023 Retrieved August 19 2023 Hate Speech s Rise on Twitter Is Unprecedented Researchers Find December 2 2022 Retrieved August 19 2023 Ghaffary Shirin April 25 2023 Elon s blue check disaster is getting worse Vox Retrieved August 19 2023 Twitter starts removing blue check marks from users who don t pay CBS News www cbsnews com April 20 2023 Retrieved August 19 2023 Singh Manish July 1 2023 Twitter limits the number of tweets users can read amid extended outage TechCrunch Retrieved August 19 2023 Inskeep 1 Allyn 2 Steve 1 Bobby 2 July 3 2023 Why Twitter is limiting the number of Tweets a user can view NPR a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link a b Eligon John Chutel Lynsey May 5 2022 Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege The New York Times Archived from the original on November 11 2022 Retrieved May 5 2022 Vance 2017 pp 25 31 a b Hall Dana April 11 2014 Rocket Man The otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk The Mercury News Archived from the original on April 14 2014 Retrieved April 14 2014 Elliott Hannah March 26 2012 At Home With Elon Musk The Soon to Be Bachelor Billionaire Forbes Archived from the original on May 27 2012 Retrieved May 30 2015 His biography author Ashlee Vance interviewed on the TV show Triangulation on the TWiT tv network discussion of his family starts around the 15th minute Vargas Chanel March 6 2018 11 Things to Know About Stunning 69 Year Old Model Maye Musk Town amp Country Archived from the original on March 7 2018 Retrieved March 25 2020 a b Usborne Simon February 21 2018 Meet the Musks who s who in Elon s extended family The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Archived from the original on May 27 2020 Retrieved March 25 2020 May Dana Hull and Patrick Exploring the otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk The Buffalo News Archived from the original on September 26 2022 Retrieved October 24 2021 Friend Tad August 17 2009 Plugged In The New Yorker Archived from the original on March 8 2022 Dolan Kerry A How To Raise A Billionaire An Interview With Elon Musk s Father Errol Musk Forbes Archived from the original on July 3 2015 Retrieved March 25 2020 a b Smith Adam June 28 2021 50 years of Elon Musk s huge wealth from emeralds to SpaceX and Tesla The Independent Archived from the original on November 25 2021 Retrieved December 20 2021 Lieberman Hallie The Musk of Romance Wired Archived from the original on September 2 2020 Retrieved September 2 2020 a b Hull Dana May Patrick April 10 2014 2014 Rocket Man The otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk The Mercury News Archived from the original on September 6 2016 Retrieved April 7 2021 Keating Joseph C Jr September 1995 Joshua N Haldeman DC the Canadian Years 1926 1950 The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association PMC 2485067 Vance 2017 pp 26 30 a b Strauss Neil November 15 2017 Elon Musk The Architect of Tomorrow Rolling Stone Archived from the original on August 17 2020 Retrieved November 15 2017 Crilly Rob March 25 2018 Elon Musk s father has baby with step daughter he has known since she was four The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on April 26 2021 Florio Gina January 5 2023 Elon Musk And His Mother Reveal Details Of His Very Violent Childhood That Included Domestic Abuse And Severe Bullying EvieMagazine com Archived from the original on April 19 2023 Vance 2017 p 38 O Kane Sean June 9 2015 Play the PC game Elon Musk wrote as a pre teen The Verge Archived from the original on February 7 2018 Retrieved January 12 2019 Belfiore 2007 pp 166 95 a b Mak Aaron December 4 2019 Elon Musk Says Pedo Guy Was a Common Insult in His Youth We Checked With His Schoolmates Slate Archived from the original on October 6 2020 Retrieved December 7 2019 a b Clifford Catherine June 12 2018 Multi billionaire Elon Musk I arrived in North America at 17 with 2 000 CNBC Archived from the original on August 2 2020 Retrieved September 14 2020 Vance 2017 p 44 Junod Tom November 15 2012 Elon Musk Triumph of His Will Esquire Archived from the original on August 18 2020 Retrieved May 29 2020 Vance 2017 pp 43 44 Vance 2017 p 45 Vance 2017 p 46 Vance 2017 pp 46 47 Locke Taylor December 20 2019 Elon Musk s college pal This is what differentiates Elon from the rest of humanity CNBC Archived from the original on December 14 2020 Retrieved January 8 2021 Encyclopedia Britannica Elon Musk Archived from the original on September 4 2015 Retrieved January 11 2023 Vance 2017 Appendix 1 Meisenzahl Elizabeth SpaceX founded by Penn graduate Elon Musk launches U S astronauts into space The Daily Pennsylvanian Archived from the original on August 7 2020 Retrieved June 1 2020 McCray Patrick W June 11 2012 A pioneer in space and on Earth CNN Archived from the original on November 28 2022 Retrieved November 19 2022 Kasprak Alex December 21 2022 Does Elon Musk Have an Undergraduate Degree in Physics Snopes Archived from the original on December 23 2022 Retrieved December 23 2022 a b Hern Alex February 9 2018 Elon Musk the real life Iron Man The Guardian Archived from the original on June 11 2022 Retrieved November 3 2022 How internships helped Elon Musk figure out his future CNBC July 16 2018 Archived from the original on December 28 2019 Retrieved December 28 2019 Soni Jimmi February 22 2022 The little known story about Elon Musk s first post grad internship Fortune Archived from the original on March 7 2022 Vance 2017 p 368 Feeley Jef August 31 2022 Stanford Pulled Into Dropout Musk s Legal Fight With Twitter Bloomberg Archived from the original on September 3 2022 Retrieved November 19 2022 Maidment Paul March 15 2016 7 college dropouts who made millions CNBC Archived from the original on May 15 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 Delevett Peter Hull Dana August 13 2012 Greg Kouri early investor in PayPal dies in New York The Mercury News Archived from the original on October 6 2022 Retrieved October 1 2022 Huddleston Tom Jr June 19 2018 How Elon Musk founded Zip2 with his brother Kimbal CNBC Archived from the original on November 9 2022 Retrieved October 1 2022 Vance Ashlee 2017 2015 Elon Musk Tesla SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future 2nd ed New York Ecco p Ch 4 ISBN 978 0 06 230125 3 Errol Musk gave his sons 28 000 to help them through this period but they were more or less broke after getting the office space licensing software and buying some equipment Chafkin Max December 1 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 Elon Musk Inc Archived from the original on December 28 2007 Retrieved February 22 2022 a b c Huddleston Tom Jr June 19 2018 Elon Musk slept on his office couch and showered at the YMCA while starting his first company CNBC Archived from the original on August 18 2020 Retrieved September 4 2020 Kidder 2013 pp 224 228 Vance 2017 p 67 Vance 2017 p 14 Junnarkar Sandeep February 16 1999 Compaq buys Zip2 CNET Archived from the original on October 21 2014 Retrieved December 13 2020 Vance 2017 p 109 Vance 2017 p 78 Vance 2017 p 84 a b Vance 2017 p 86 Jackson 2004 pp 40 69 130 163 Vance 2017 pp 85 86 Vance 2017 pp 85 87 Vance 2017 pp 87 88 The PayPal Mafia Fortune Archived from the original on May 23 2017 Retrieved July 4 2015 a b Vance 2017 p 89 Odell Mark September 30 2014 Timeline The rise of PayPal Financial Times Archived from the original on June 22 2020 Retrieved April 3 2020 SEC 10 K PayPal December 31 2001 Archived from the original on August 25 2020 Vance 2017 pp 116 Huang Echo Elon Musk bought a web domain worth millions with sentimental value to him Quartz Archived from the original on June 25 2020 Retrieved April 3 2020 Statt Nick July 10 2017 Elon Musk now owns X com the defunct domain of his second startup The Verge Archived from the original on June 25 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 Kleinman Zoe October 5 2022 Elon Musk Twitter and the mysterious X app BBC Archived from the original on October 21 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 Vance 2017 pp 99 102 103 a b Vance Ashlee May 14 2015 Elon Musk s space dream almost killed Tesla Bloomberg L P Archived from the original on February 23 2017 Retrieved June 7 2015 Wayne Leslie February 5 2006 A Bold Plan to Go Where Men Have Gone Before The New York Times Archived from the original on April 12 2020 Retrieved February 16 2015 California Business Search C2414622 Space Exploration Technologies Corp archived from the original on February 23 2018 retrieved December 13 2020 Koren Marina May 6 2021 Elon Musk Is Maybe Actually Strangely Going to Do This Mars Thing The Atlantic Archived from the original on May 31 2022 Retrieved June 8 2022 a b Berger 2021 pp 178 182 Friedman Josh April 22 2003 Entrepreneur Tries His Midas Touch in Space Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on October 29 2022 Retrieved October 29 2022 Malik Tariq November 21 2005 Griffin Reiterates NASA s Commitment to Commercial Cargo Space News Retrieved October 29 2022 Dunbar Brian NASA Invests in Private Sector Space Flight with SpaceX Rocketplane Kistler nasa gov Press release Archived from the original on September 8 2021 Retrieved December 2 2021 Ledur Julia May 1 2019 Falcon Flights Reuters Archived from the original on February 10 2021 Retrieved February 10 2021 Chang Kenneth May 22 2012 Big Day for a Space Entrepreneur Promising More The New York Times Archived from the original on July 1 2017 Retrieved January 11 2021 Harwood William May 31 2012 SpaceX Dragon returns to Earth ends historic trip CBS News Archived from the original on April 22 2016 Retrieved August 3 2013 SpaceX rocket in historic upright landing BBC News December 22 2015 Archived from the original on August 31 2019 Retrieved June 30 2016 O Kane Sean May 27 2016 SpaceX successfully lands a Falcon 9 rocket at sea for the third time The Verge Archived from the original on June 27 2016 Retrieved June 30 2016 Drake Nadia February 25 2018 Elon Musk s Tesla in Space Could Crash into Earth National Geographic Archived from the original on February 10 2021 Retrieved February 10 2021 Chow Denise November 6 2019 Starman and the Tesla Roadster that SpaceX launched into orbit have now cruised beyond Mars NBC News Archived from the original on February 10 2021 Retrieved February 10 2021 Berger Eric August 28 2019 Starhopper aces test sets up full scale prototype flights this year Ars Technica Archived from the original on January 21 2021 Retrieved December 15 2021 Roulette Joey March 28 2022 SpaceX ending production of flagship crew capsule Reuters Archived from the original on March 29 2022 Retrieved March 31 2022 Wattles Jackie May 30 2020 SpaceX and NASA launch Crew Dragon in Florida Live updates CNN Archived from the original on August 29 2020 Retrieved May 30 2020 Johnson Eric M Roulette Joey October 31 2018 Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window sources Reuters Archived from the original on May 18 2020 Retrieved March 28 2021 Hall Shannon June 1 2019 After SpaceX Starlink Launch a Fear of Satellites That Outnumber All Visible Stars Images of the Starlink constellation in orbit have rattled astronomers around the world The New York Times Archived from the original on August 21 2020 Retrieved June 1 2019 Shepardson David Roulette Joey July 30 2020 Taking on SpaceX Amazon to invest 10 billion in satellite broadband plan Reuters Archived from the original on January 7 2021 Retrieved January 12 2021 Sheetz Michael December 7 2020 SpaceX s Starlink wins nearly 900 million in FCC subsidies to bring internet to rural areas CNBC Archived from the original on December 16 2020 Retrieved January 12 2021 Wattles Jackie December 8 2020 SpaceX gets almost 900 million in federal subsidies to deliver broadband to rural America CNN Archived from the original on December 18 2020 Retrieved January 12 2021 Griffin Andrew December 30 2021 Elon Musk rejects criticism that his satellite fleet is dangerous The Independent Archived from the original on December 30 2021 Retrieved December 31 2021 Elon Musk rejects claims that his satellites are hogging space BBC News December 30 2021 Archived from the original on December 31 2021 Retrieved December 31 2021 Smith Adam February 7 2021 Astronomers create new global force to stop Elon Musk s internet satellites hiding killer asteroids The Independent Archived from the original on May 27 2022 Retrieved June 30 2022 Sheetz Michael March 22 2022 Elon Musk s SpaceX sent thousands of Starlink satellite internet dishes to Ukraine company s president says CNBC Archived from the original on March 27 2022 Retrieved March 28 2022 SpaceX s Musk says Starlink has been told by some governments to block Russian news Reuters March 6 2022 Archived from the original on April 4 2022 Retrieved April 5 2022 Porter Jon April 4 2022 Elon Musk buys 9 2 percent of Twitter amid complaints about free speech The Verge Archived from the original on April 4 2022 Retrieved April 5 2022 Marquardt Alex October 13 2022 Exclusive Musk s SpaceX says it can no longer pay for critical satellite services in Ukraine asks Pentagon to pick up the tab CNN Archived from the original on October 24 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 Capoot Ashley October 15 2022 The hell with it Elon Musk tweets SpaceX will keep funding Ukraine govt for free amid Starlink controversy CNBC Archived from the original on November 3 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 Hern Alex October 15 2022 Musk says SpaceX will keep funding Ukraine Starlink internet BBC News Archived from the original on December 5 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 Elon Musk says SpaceX will keep funding Starlink internet in Ukraine The Guardian October 16 2022 Archived from the original on October 24 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 Reed Eric February 4 2020 History of Tesla Timeline and Facts TheStreet com Archived from the original on December 20 2021 Retrieved January 10 2023 Vance 2017 pp 153 154 Vance 2017 p 159 Schilling Melissa 2018 Quirky The remarkable story of the traits foibles and genius of breakthrough innovators who changed the world PublicAffairs ISBN 9781610397926 Morrison Chris October 15 2008 Musk steps in as CEO The New York Times Archived from the original on February 4 2016 Retrieved December 13 2020 Elon Musk The Story of a Maverick interestingengineering com August 13 2020 Archived from the original on March 16 2021 Retrieved April 3 2021 LaMonica Martin September 2009 Tesla Motors founders Now there are five CNET Archived from the original on November 15 2020 Retrieved April 17 2020 Tesla Motors and co founder Martin Eberhard announced an agreement over who can claim to be a founder of the company on Monday Schwartz Ariel September 21 2009 Tesla Lawsuit Drama Ends as Five Company Founders Emerge Fast Company Archived from the original on June 6 2015 Retrieved April 14 2020 Eberhard and Musk have reached a rather unexpected resolution instead of agreeing to share the title of founder the pair has designated five people as company founders including Musk Eberhard JB Straubel Mark Tarpenning and Ian Wright Royse Dave July 8 2019 Industry Shift With Four Departures This Year Who Is The Longest Tenured Automotive CEO Yahoo Archived from the original on December 29 2019 Retrieved June 8 2022 Shead Sam March 15 2021 Elon Musk has officially been made the Technoking of Tesla CNBC Archived from the original on January 12 2022 Retrieved January 28 2022 Wilson Kevin A March 15 2018 Worth the Watt A Brief History of the Electric Car 1830 to Present Car and Driver Archived from the original on March 17 2021 Retrieved March 30 2021 Boudreau John June 22 2012 In a Silicon Valley milestone Tesla Motors begins delivering Model S electric cars The Mercury News Archived from the original on November 24 2012 Retrieved June 22 2012 Ruddick Graham September 30 2015 Tesla s Model X electric car spreads falcon wings at U S launch The Guardian Archived from the original on June 2 2017 Retrieved November 4 2015 Vlasic Bill July 29 2017 In Pivotal Moment Tesla Unveils Its First Mass Market Sedan The New York Times Archived from the original on February 9 2021 Retrieved February 9 2021 Shahan Zachary August 26 2021 Tesla Model 3 Has Passed 1 Million Sales CleanTechnica Archived from the original on September 4 2021 Retrieved August 26 2021 Holland Maximilian March 10 2020 Tesla Passes 1 Million EV Milestone amp Model 3 Becomes All Time Best Seller CleanTechnica Archived from the original on April 12 2020 Retrieved April 20 2020 O Kane Sean March 16 2020 Tesla Model Y deliveries begin in the US The Verge Archived from the original on March 17 2020 Retrieved February 14 2021 Huddleston Tom Jr November 22 2019 This is the James Bond sports car Elon Musk bought for nearly 1 million that inspired Tesla Cybertruck CNBC Archived from the original on November 27 2019 Retrieved September 19 2020 Eddy Melissa March 4 2022 Tesla Wins Approval to Open European Assembly Plant The New York Times Archived from the original on September 4 2022 Retrieved September 4 2022 With First Share Offering Tesla Bets on Electric Car s Future The New York Times Associated Press June 28 2010 Archived from the original on February 10 2021 Retrieved February 9 2021 Tesla overtakes Toyota to become world s most valuable carmaker BBC News July 1 2020 Archived from the original on February 10 2021 Retrieved February 9 2021 Boudette Neal E July 2 2020 Tesla Shines During the Pandemic as Other Automakers Struggle The New York Times Archived from the original on February 10 2021 Retrieved February 9 2021 Li Yun December 20 2021 Tesla shares fall 6 as it enters the S amp P 500 with 1 69 weighting fifth largest CNBC Archived from the original on February 10 2021 Retrieved February 9 2021 Tesla Stock Joins the S amp P 500 A Game Changer The Wall Street Journal December 21 2020 Archived from the original on February 10 2021 Retrieved February 9 2021 Isidore Chris October 26 2021 Tesla is now worth more than 1 trillion CNN Archived from the original on November 14 2021 Retrieved November 14 2021 a b Haselton Todd November 13 2021 Elon Musk sold about 6 9 billion in Tesla stock this week CNBC Archived from the original on June 8 2022 Retrieved November 15 2021 Jin Hyunjoo December 30 2021 Tesla s Musk exercises all of his stock options expiring next year Reuters Archived from the original on May 31 2022 Retrieved June 8 2022 Michaels Dave February 24 2022 WSJ News Exclusive SEC Probes Trading by Elon Musk and Brother in Wake of Tesla CEO s Sales The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on March 3 2022 Retrieved March 3 2022 Siddiqui Faiz September 30 2022 Elon Musk debuts Tesla robot Optimus calling it a fundamental transformation The Washington Post Archived from the original on October 22 2022 I am a fan of Modi Tesla CEO Elon Musk after meeting PM in New York Hindustan Times June 21 2023 Archived from the original on June 21 2023 Retrieved June 22 2023 a b Goldstein Matthew September 27 2018 S E C Sues Tesla s Elon Musk for Fraud and Seeks to Bar Him From Running a Public Company The New York Times Archived from the original on June 23 2020 Retrieved September 27 2018 Choudhury Saheli Roy September 28 2018 SEC says Musk chose 420 price for Tesla shares because it s a pot reference CNBC Archived from the original on October 6 2020 Retrieved September 17 2020 Swisher Kara August 23 2018 How and Why Silicon Valley Gets High The New York Times Archived from the original on August 24 2018 Retrieved May 11 2021 Woodyard Chris August 30 2018 Elon Musk s tweet on taking Tesla private now dogged by drugs claim from rapper Azealia Banks USA Today Archived from the original on May 12 2021 Retrieved May 11 2021 Patnaik Subrat Kalia Shubham September 28 2018 Factbox Funding secured SEC gives timeline surrounding tweet from Tesla s Musk Reuters Archived from the original on November 23 2019 Retrieved November 23 2018 O Kane Sean Lopatto Elizabeth September 27 2018 Elon Musk sued by SEC for securities fraud The Verge Archived from the original on July 30 2020 Retrieved September 27 2018 Elon Musk forced to step down as chairman of Tesla remains CEO The Verge Archived from the original on May 27 2020 Retrieved September 29 2018 Tesla s Elon Musk says tweet that led to 20 million fine Worth It Reuters October 27 2018 Archived from the original on May 22 2020 Retrieved December 9 2018 Youn Soo Katersky Aaron October 11 2018 Elon Musk commits to SEC settlement despite mocking tweets ABC News Archived from the original on October 23 2019 Retrieved October 17 2018 Brodkin Jon April 18 2022 Musk keeps falsely claiming Funding secured tweet was accurate judge is told Ars Technica Archived from the original on September 9 2022 Retrieved September 9 2022 Godoy Jody Jin Hyunjoo February 3 2023 Tesla s Elon Musk found not liable in trial over 2018 funding secured tweets Reuters Archived from the original on February 4 2023 Retrieved February 4 2023 Ohnsman Alan February 25 2019 Elon Musk s Tesla Tweet Puts CEO Role at Risk Again Forbes Archived from the original on May 28 2020 Retrieved February 26 2019 Wattles Jackie April 27 2019 Elon Musk and SEC reach an agreement over tweeting CNN Business Archived from the original on June 8 2020 Retrieved July 16 2019 Marino Nachison David April 26 2019 Tesla CEO Elon Musk Gets a Long Do Not Tweet List From the SEC Barrons Archived from the original on January 22 2020 Retrieved November 25 2019 Bursztynsky Jessica May 1 2020 Tesla shares tank after Elon Musk tweets the stock price is too high CNBC Archived from the original on August 18 2020 Retrieved June 14 2020 Court Rules That No One Can Stop Elon Musk From Tweeting Tesla News For Now Observer May 20 2020 Archived from the original on October 30 2020 Retrieved December 1 2020 Elliott Dave Michaels Rebecca June 2 2021 WSJ News Exclusive Tesla Failed to Oversee Elon Musk s Tweets SEC Argued in Letters The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on June 10 2021 Retrieved June 10 2021 Kanellos Michael February 15 2008 Elon Musk on rockets sports cars and solar power CNET Archived from the original on January 29 2014 2013 Top 250 Solar Contractors Solar Power World September 13 2013 Archived from the original on October 10 2017 Retrieved December 13 2020 Smith Aaron June 17 2014 Elon Musk s sunny plans for Buffalo CNNMoney Archived from the original on October 9 2017 Retrieved December 13 2020 Kolodny Lora February 26 2020 Tesla Panasonic will reportedly stop joint solar cell production at Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo CNBC Archived from the original on August 8 2020 Retrieved September 1 2020 The highs lows and legacy of Panasonic s doomed project in Buffalo The Business Journals Archived from the original on November 23 2020 Retrieved April 3 2021 Kolodny Lora Bursztynsky Jessica April 27 2022 Elon Musk wins shareholder lawsuit over Tesla s 2 6 billion SolarCity acquisition CNBC Archived from the original on May 24 2022 Retrieved June 7 2022 According to emails that were part of evidence in the trial Musk wrote an e mail to SolarCity CFO Brad Buss on Sept 18 2016 saying that to get Tesla investors on board with the deal SolarCity needed to get a handle on its liquidity problem and sign a letter of intent for a contract with Panasonic Strong Michael March 16 2020 Shareholder 2 2B Lawsuit Against Tesla CEO Musk Halted After Trial Postponed Due to Coronavirus The Detroit Bureau Archived from the original on September 14 2020 Retrieved September 1 2020 Mitchell Russ September 23 2019 Elon Musk knew SolarCity was going broke before merger with Tesla lawsuit alleges Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on July 30 2020 Retrieved September 1 2020 Hals Tom January 30 2020 Tesla directors settle isolating Musk as SolarCity trial looms Reuters Archived from the original on July 28 2020 Retrieved September 1 2020 Chase Randall August 17 2020 Judge OKs 60M settlement over Tesla buyout of SolarCity ABC Archived from the original on August 25 2020 Retrieved September 1 2020 Kolodny Lora Bursztynsky Jessica April 27 2022 Elon Musk wins shareholder lawsuit over Tesla s 2 6 billion SolarCity acquisition CNBC Archived from the original on May 24 2022 Retrieved June 7 2022 a b Markoff John July 16 2019 Elon Musk s Neuralink Wants Sewing Machine Like Robots to Wire Brains to the Internet The New York Times Archived from the original on July 20 2022 Retrieved July 26 2022 a b Statt Nick March 27 2017 Elon Musk launches Neuralink a venture to merge the human brain with AI The Verge Archived from the original on August 3 2020 Retrieved April 10 2017 Winkler Rolfe March 27 2017 Elon Musk Launches Neuralink to Connect Brains With Computers The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on October 2 2020 Retrieved October 10 2020 a b Elon Musk s Neuralink puts computer chips in pigs brains in bid to cure diseases NBC News Reuters August 29 2020 Archived from the original on April 26 2022 Retrieved July 26 2022 Zhavoronkov Alex Elon Musk s Big Neuralink Paper Should We Prepare For The Digital Afterlife Forbes Archived from the original on August 17 2022 Retrieved August 17 2022 Kahn Jeremy Vanian Jonathan January 27 2022 Inside Neuralink Elon Musk s mysterious brain chip startup A culture of blame impossible deadlines and a missing CEO Fortune Archived from the original on September 25 2022 Retrieved August 17 2022 a b Regalado Antonio August 30 2020 Elon Musk s Neuralink is neuroscience theater MIT Technology Review Archived from the original on December 13 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 Cellan Jones Rory September 1 2020 Is Elon Musk over hyping his brain hacking Neuralink tech BBC News Archived from the original on September 12 2020 Retrieved September 14 2020 Rogers Adam September 4 2020 Neuralink Is Impressive Tech Wrapped in Musk Hype Wired Archived from the original on September 6 2020 Retrieved September 14 2020 Neate Rupert January 20 2022 Elon Musk s brain chip firm Neuralink lines up clinical trials in humans The Guardian Archived from the original on July 12 2022 Retrieved July 26 2022 Ryan Hannah February 17 2022 Elon Musk s Neuralink confirms monkeys died in the project denies animal cruelty claims CNN Business Archived from the original on July 11 2022 Levy Rachel December 5 2022 Musk s Neuralink faces federal probe employee backlash over animal tests Reuters Archived from the original on December 6 2022 Retrieved December 5 2022 Petrova Magdalena July 20 2021 Why Elon Musk s Boring Company is finding that traffic is tough to fix CNBC Archived from the original on June 14 2022 Retrieved June 13 2022 McFarland Matt July 6 2022 Elon Musk s Boring Company will let you pay for a ride with Dogecoin CNN Archived from the original on July 26 2022 Retrieved July 26 2022 Heathman Amelia Elon Musk s boring machine has already built a test trench in LA Wired Archived from the original on July 18 2017 Retrieved February 19 2017 Romero Dennis December 19 2018 Elon Musk unveils his test car tunnel as a fix for traffic in Los Angeles NBC News Archived from the original on July 4 2022 Retrieved July 26 2022 Farivar Cyrus June 8 2021 Fort Lauderdale officials say Elon Musk s new tunnel to the beach can t come fast enough NBC News Archived from the original on July 3 2021 Retrieved July 27 2022 Heater Brian November 28 2018 Elon Musk s Boring Co drops LA Westside tunnel plan TechCrunch Archived from the original on November 28 2018 Retrieved July 27 2022 Boring Co underground loop to be put to the test Las Vegas Review Journal May 20 2021 Archived from the original on May 21 2021 Retrieved May 29 2021 McBride Sarah December 16 2020 Elon Musk s Proposed Vegas Strip Transit System Advanced by City Council Vote Bloomberg L P Archived from the original on January 11 2021 Retrieved January 8 2021 McFarland Matt July 7 2021 Fort Lauderdale accepts proposal for Elon Musk s Tesla beach tunnel CNN Business Archived from the original on July 24 2022 Retrieved July 26 2022 Elon Musk elonmusk April 14 2022 I made an offer www sec gov Archives edgar data 0001418091 000110465922045641 tm2212748d1 sc13da htm sec gov Archives edgar Tweet via Twitter Paul Kari April 26 2022 Chaotic and crass a brief timeline of Elon Musk s history with Twitter The Guardian Archived from the original on April 26 2022 Retrieved April 26 2022 Elon Musk snaps up 3bn Twitter stake BBC News April 4 2022 Archived from the original on April 4 2022 Retrieved April 4 2022 Jones Callum Elon Musk becomes Twitter s biggest shareholder after taking 9 2 stake The Times Archived from the original on April 4 2022 Retrieved April 4 2022 Elder Bryce April 6 2022 Musk and Twitter the timeline Financial Times Archived from the original on May 30 2022 Retrieved June 4 2022 a b Adler Maxwell Turner Giles April 14 2022 Elon Musk Makes 43 Billion Unsolicited Bid to Take Twitter Private Bloomberg L P Archived from the original on April 14 2022 Retrieved April 14 2022 Elon Musk delayed filing a form and made 156 million The Washington Post Archived from the original on April 8 2022 Retrieved April 8 2022 Imbert Fred April 4 2022 Twitter shares close up 27 after Elon Musk takes 9 stake in social media company CNBC Archived from the original on April 4 2022 Retrieved April 19 2022 Twitter shares close up 27 after Elon Musk takes 9 stake in social media company Corfield Gareth April 5 2022 Elon Musk to join Twitter board The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on April 5 2022 Retrieved April 5 2022 McLean Rob April 11 2022 Twitter CEO Elon Musk will not join Twitter board CNN Archived from the original on April 11 2022 Retrieved April 11 2022 Elon Musk launches hostile takeover bid for Twitter Agence France Presse April 14 2022 Archived from the original on April 14 2022 Retrieved April 14 2022 Feiner Lauren April 15 2022 Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk s 43 billion bid to buy company CNBC Archived from the original on April 17 2022 Retrieved April 18 2022 Stahl George Musk Twitter Deal Values Company at Around 44 Billion The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on April 25 2022 Retrieved April 25 2022 Isaac Mike Hirsch Lauren April 25 2022 With Deal for Twitter Musk Lands a Prize and Pledges Fewer Limits The New York Times Archived from the original on April 27 2022 Retrieved April 26 2022 MacMillan Douglas Siddiqui Faiz Lerman Rachel Telford Taylor April 25 2022 Elon Musk acquires Twitter for roughly 44 billion The Washington Post Archived from the original on April 25 2022 Retrieved April 26 2022 Siddiqui Faiz April 26 2022 Tesla s value dropped Tuesday by more than double the cost of Twitter The Washington Post Archived from the original on April 27 2022 Retrieved April 26 2022 Gura David April 26 2022 Tesla shares sink wipe out over 125 billion in value as Musk scores Twitter deal NPR Archived from the original on April 27 2022 Retrieved April 26 2022 Woo Erin Isaac Mike April 27 2022 In tweets Musk takes aim at Twitter executives creating outrage The New York Times Archived from the original on April 28 2022 Retrieved April 27 2022 Balu Nivedita Li Kenneth May 13 2022 Musk says 44 bln Twitter deal on hold over fake account data Reuters Archived from the original on May 13 2022 Retrieved May 13 2022 Brandon Russell May 13 2022 Twitter shares plummet as Musk raises new doubts about acquisition The Verge Archived from the original on May 13 2022 Retrieved May 13 2022 Seal Dean Needleman Sarah E Lombardo Cara May 13 2022 Elon Musk Says His 44 Billion Twitter Deal Is On Hold The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on May 13 2022 Retrieved May 13 2022 Feiner Lauren July 8 2022 Elon Musk notifies Twitter he is terminating deal CNBC Archived from the original on October 24 2022 Retrieved July 8 2022 Conger Kate Hirsch Lauren July 12 2022 Twitter Sues Musk After He Tries Backing Out of 44 Billion Deal The New York Times Archived from the original on October 24 2022 Retrieved July 12 2022 Conger Kate Hirsch Lauren Sorkin Andrew Ross October 4 2022 Elon Musk Suggests Buying Twitter at His Original Price The New York Times Archived from the original on October 24 2022 Retrieved October 8 2022 a b Klar Rebecca October 27 2022 Musk officially closes Twitter deal reports The Hill Archived from the original on October 28 2022 Retrieved October 27 2022 Musk Said to Begin Firing Twitter s Top Executives The New York Times October 27 2022 Archived from the original on October 28 2022 Mehta Chavi Dang Sheila Ghosh Sayantani October 31 2022 Elon Musk who runs four other companies will now be Twitter CEO Reuters Archived from the original on November 1 2022 Elon Musk says 8 monthly fee for Twitter blue tick BBC November 2 2022 Archived from the original on November 2 2022 Retrieved November 2 2022 Korn Jennifer November 2 2022 Musk says Twitter will charge 8 a month for account verification after criticism for 19 99 plan CNN Archived from the original on November 2 2022 Retrieved November 2 2022 Binoy Rhea November 5 2022 Musk s Twitter updates app to start charging 8 for blue checkmark Reuters Archived from the original on November 5 2022 Retrieved November 5 2022 Conger Kate Mac Ryan November 4 2022 Elon Musk Begins Layoffs at Twitter The New York Times Archived from the original on November 4 2022 Retrieved November 4 2022 Picchi Aimee November 4 2022 Elon Musk set to fire roughly half of Twitter s workers CBS News Archived from the original on November 3 2022 Retrieved November 4 2022 Ecarma Caleb November 21 2022 We re Officially in the Elon Musk Era of Content Moderation Vanity Fair Archived from the original on January 10 2023 Retrieved December 12 2022 Marshall Aarian Hoover Amanda December 3 2022 The Twitter Files Revealed One Thing Elon Musk Is Trapped Wired Archived from the original on December 13 2022 Retrieved December 3 2022 Wilson Jason November 16 2022 Twitter Blesses Extremists With Paid Blue Checks Southern Poverty Law Center Archived from the original on November 27 2022 Retrieved November 29 2022 Knight Will November 25 2022 Here s Proof Hate Speech Is More Viral on Elon Musk s Twitter Wired Archived from the original on December 13 2022 Retrieved November 25 2022 Balu Nivedita November 11 2022 Musk halts Twitter s coveted blue check amid proliferation of imposters Reuters Archived from the original on December 28 2022 Retrieved December 28 2022 via Yahoo Finance Musk reverses decision on Twitter s official label designation StreetInsider com November 9 2022 Archived from the original on December 28 2022 Retrieved December 28 2022 DeGeurin Mack December 19 2022 Twitter Suddenly Reverses Course on Policy That Banned Links to Competing Social Media Sites Gizmodo Archived from the original on December 21 2022 Retrieved December 28 2022 Twitter fixes links outage that hit thousands of users Reuters March 6 2023 Archived from the original on March 6 2023 Retrieved March 7 2023 Barrabi Thomas October 4 2022 Elon Musk s ex wife Talulah Riley surfaces in Twitter deal texts New York Post Archived from the original on January 19 2023 Retrieved January 19 2023 Zakrewski Siddiqui Faiz Siddiqui Menn Joseph November 22 2022 Musk s free speech agenda dismantles safety work at Twitter insiders say The Washington Post Archived from the original on November 22 2022 Retrieved January 19 2023 Elon Musk promotes transphobic content as hate speech surges on his far right platform The Independent Retrieved August 5 2023 Musk Elon elonmusk December 18 2022 Should I step down as head of Twitter I will abide by the results of this poll Tweet Archived from the original on December 20 2022 Retrieved December 20 2022 via Twitter Elon Musk on Twitter December 18 2022 Archived from the original on January 9 2023 Retrieved February 2 2023 Milmo Dan May 11 2023 Elon Musk announces he has found new Twitter CEO The Guardian Archived from the original on May 11 2023 Retrieved May 11 2023 Elon Musk says he has appointed new Twitter boss BBC News May 11 2023 Archived from the original on May 11 2023 Retrieved May 11 2023 Elon Musk launches his own AI company to compete with ChatGPT abc News Archived from the original on July 15 2023 Retrieved July 14 2023 a b c Kolodny Lora October 19 2018 Elon Musk s extreme micromanagement has wasted time and money at Tesla insiders say CNBC Archived from the original on May 24 2022 Retrieved July 4 2022 a b Mac Ryan Metz Cade Conger Kate May 3 2022 I Don t Really Have a Business Plan How Elon Musk Wings It The New York Times Archived from the original on June 28 2022 Retrieved May 3 2022 Berger 2021 pp 24 25 Berger 2021 pp 15 Berger 2021 pp 25 Kolodny Lora November 19 2021 Read the emails Elon Musk sent Tesla employees about music on the job and following directions CNBC Archived from the original on July 4 2022 Retrieved July 4 2022 a b Duhigg Charles December 13 2018 Dr Elon amp Mr Musk Life Inside Tesla s Production Hell Wired Archived from the original on March 21 2021 Retrieved April 25 2021 Berger 2021 pp 18 Is the world s richest person the world s worst boss What it s like working for Elon Musk Los Angeles Times November 14 2022 Archived from the original on November 16 2022 Retrieved November 16 2022 a b Duhigg Charles Dr Elon amp Mr Musk Life Inside Tesla s Production Hell Wired ISSN 1059 1028 Archived from the original on March 21 2021 Retrieved November 8 2022 Elon Musk feels super bad about economy needs to cut 10 of Tesla jobs CNBC June 3 2022 Archived from the original on June 28 2022 Retrieved July 6 2022 Mac Ryan June 1 2022 Elon Musk to Workers Spend 40 Hours in the Office or Else The New York Times Archived from the original on June 1 2022 Bilton Nick November 10 2020 Elon Musk s Totally Awful Batshit Crazy Completely Bonkers Most Excellent Year Vanity Fair Archived from the original on January 29 2021 Retrieved April 25 2021 Vance 2017 p 340 Elon s worst trait by far in my opinion is a complete lack of loyalty or human connection Many of us worked tirelessly for him for years and were tossed to the curb like a piece of litter without a second thought Maybe it was calculated to keep the rest of the workforce on their toes and scared maybe he was just able to detach from human connection to a remarkable degree What was clear is that people who worked for him were like ammunition used for a specific purpose until exhausted and discarded Wong Julia Carrie June 13 2018 Tesla workers say they pay the price for Elon Musk s big promises The Guardian Archived from the original on March 23 2021 Retrieved April 25 2021 The CEO is known for outsized claims and ambitious goals But numerous factory workers say he doesn t follow through and that his leadership sets a troubling tone Warzel Charlie November 7 2022 Elon Musk Is Bad at This Archived 2022 12 31 at the Wayback Machine The Atlantic Mitchell Charlie Sweary tirades and abrupt firings under Elon Musk new book claims The Times Archived from the original on May 31 2022 Retrieved August 6 2021 Dugan Ianthe Jeanne Spector Mike August 24 2017 Tesla s Push to Build a Self Driving Car Sparked Dissent Among Its Engineers The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on April 16 2021 Retrieved April 25 2021 Musk Foundation ProPublica May 9 2013 Archived from the original on February 10 2022 a b Carlson Kara December 13 2022 Mapping Musklandia A guide to Elon Musk related activity in the Austin area Austin American Statesman Archived from the original on December 15 2022 Musk s private foundation was founded in 2001 and is focused on renewable energy Harris Mark January 23 2019 How Elon Musk s secretive foundation hands out his billions The Guardian Archived from the original on July 28 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 a b Schleifer Theodore January 11 2021 The big decision before Elon Musk now the richest person in the world Vox Archived from the original on February 17 2021 Retrieved February 17 2021 OpenAI shifts from nonprofit to capped profit to attract capital March 11 2019 Archived from the original on April 25 2021 Retrieved April 25 2021 a b Cuccinello Hayley C September 8 2020 Elon Musk Has Promised To Give at Least Half His Fortune To Charity Here s How Much He s Donated So Far Forbes Archived from the original on December 13 2020 Retrieved December 13 2020 Pledge Signatories The Giving Pledge Archived from the original on January 9 2022 Retrieved January 30 2022 Chappell Bill February 8 2021 Elon Musk Funds 100 Million XPrize For Pursuit Of New Carbon Removal Ideas NPR Archived from the original on January 4 2022 Retrieved February 8 2022 Coren Michael J All the causes Elon Musk s foundation has donated money to since 2002 Quartz Archived from the original on April 10 2021 Retrieved April 10 2021 Elon Musk Makes Biggest Donation in History Bloomberg L P February 15 2022 Archived from the original on February 15 2022 Retrieved February 15 2022 Alexander Sophie December 12 2022 Musk s 5 7 Billion Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity Bloomberg News Archived from the original on December 12 2022 Hyperloop Update Elon Musk Will Start Developing It Himself Forbes Archived from the original on September 29 2017 Retrieved March 22 2016 Kolawole Emi August 12 2013 Elon Musk Unveils Hyperloop Plans The Washington Post Archived from the original on July 28 2022 Retrieved July 24 2022 Kirschen Philippe Burnell Edward April 6 2021 Hyperloop System Optimization arXiv 2104 03907 cs CE Vance Ashlee August 12 2013 Revealed Elon Musk Explains the Hyperloop the Solar Powered High Speed Future of Inter City Transportation Bloomberg BusinessWeek Archived from the original on January 27 2015 Retrieved April 27 2016 Ranger Steve What is Hyperloop Everything you need to know about the race for super fast travel ZDNet Archived from the original on October 30 2020 Retrieved September 19 2020 Mazza Sandy January 29 2017 Hyperloop competition brings new mass transit technology to life in Hawthorne Daily Bulletin Archived from the original on August 16 2017 Retrieved December 13 2020 Elon Musk Says He Has Verbal OK To Build N Y D C Hyperloop NPR Archived from the original on August 31 2020 Retrieved July 25 2017 Elon Musk s Boring Company removes D C Baltimore tunnel from list of projects on website The Washington Post Archived from the original on August 23 2021 Retrieved August 14 2021 McBride Sarah Musk s SpaceX Dismantles Hyperloop Prototype Puts Up a Parking Lot Bloomberg Archived from the original on November 4 2022 Retrieved November 5 2022 Sorokanich Bob August 11 2022 Did Musk Propose Hyperloop to Stop California High Speed Rail Jalopnik Archived from the original on August 19 2022 Retrieved May 20 2023 Markoff John December 11 2015 Artificial Intelligence Research Center Is Founded by Silicon Valley Investors The New York Times Archived from the original on August 30 2020 Retrieved December 15 2015 Vincent James March 24 2023 Elon Musk reportedly tried and failed to take over OpenAI in 2018 The Verge Archived from the original on June 19 2023 Retrieved June 19 2023 Why Elon Musk s 100 million donation claim to ChatGPT maker OpenAI may be wrong The Times of India May 18 2023 Archived from the original on June 19 2023 Retrieved June 19 2023 Novet Jordan February 2 2018 Elon Musk who has sounded the alarm on AI leaves the organization he co founded to make it safer CNBC Archived from the original on August 30 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 Johnson Steven Iziev Nikita April 15 2022 A I Is Mastering Language Should We Trust What It Says The New York Times Archived from the original on November 24 2022 Retrieved July 24 2022 Metz Cade April 6 2022 Meet DALL E the A I That Draws Anything at Your Command The New York Times Archived from the original on July 20 2022 Retrieved July 24 2022 a b Lee Timothy B July 10 2018 Thai official Elon Musk s submarine not practical for this mission Updated Ars Technica Archived from the original on September 19 2020 Retrieved September 13 2020 Wong Julia Carrie December 5 2019 Elon Musk trial Vernon Unsworth says entrepreneur s tweets humiliated him The Guardian Archived from the original on May 13 2022 Retrieved May 13 2022 Ferris Robert July 10 2018 Elon Musk says his mini submarine can be used for other things CNBC Archived from the original on July 13 2018 Retrieved July 13 2018 Tested for Thailand SpaceX s makeshift mini sub could serve as space escape pod GeekWire com July 8 2018 Archived from the original on December 7 2019 Retrieved December 7 2019 Thai king confers awards on two Australian divers for rescue of cave boys Reuters April 19 2019 Archived from the original on April 6 2020 Retrieved September 23 2019 a b Levin Sam July 15 2018 Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue a pedo in baseless attack The Guardian Archived from the original on August 3 2020 Retrieved July 15 2018 Browne Ryan July 18 2020 Elon Musk apologizes to British cave diver following baseless pedo guy claim CNBC Archived from the original on August 5 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 Klepper David April 27 2022 What Elon Musk s own tweets reveal about Twitter s next owner and his plans for the company Fortune Archived from the original on May 25 2022 Retrieved May 31 2022 Smith Adam April 4 2022 The strangest things Elon Musk has ever done on Twitter The Independent Archived from the original on May 21 2022 Retrieved May 15 2022 Paul Kari October 9 2019 Elon Musk claims his investigator tricked him about diver he called a pedo The Guardian Archived from the original on May 15 2022 Retrieved May 15 2022 Elon Musk sued for libel by British Thai cave rescuer BBC News September 17 2018 Archived from the original on May 26 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 Rawlinson Kevin September 17 2018 British diver sues Elon Musk for 75 000 over pedo claim The Guardian Archived from the original on July 2 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 Wong Julia Carrie December 4 2019 Elon Musk pedo guy insult was not classy but not meant literally The Guardian Archived from the original on August 3 2020 Kolodny Lora May 10 2019 Elon Musk found not liable in pedo guy defamation trial CNBC Archived from the original on August 3 2020 Retrieved December 6 2019 Groom Nichola Parsons Rachel December 6 2019 Tesla boss Elon Musk wins defamation trial over his pedo guy tweet Reuters Archived from the original on June 3 2020 Retrieved September 14 2020 Tesla exodus Another executive exits as Elon Musk struggles to build mainstream automaker USA Today Archived from the original on August 25 2020 Retrieved September 16 2018 l, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.