Elon Musk, the founder of electric car company Tesla, is an American genius who has been known for his charisma and innovativeness. But his fortunes have come and gone. Here is a look at his life and the loss of his fortune, along with his reputation.
Early life
Elon Musk’s early life is full of ups and downs. He’s an introvert and has been subject to bullying at school. One time, he was hospitalized after a group of kids threw him down a flight of stairs. Another time, doctors thought he was partially deaf.
His parents divorced in 1980 and Elon Musk chose to live mostly with his father at the age of nine. It’s a decision that he eventually regretted. Elon Musk has a complicated relationship with his father and is no longer close to him.
At age ten, Elon Musk developed an interest in creating video games. He taught himself how to program and, at he age of twelve, he designed a video game called Blaster. He sold the video game to PC and Office Technology magazine for $500. This was the first step towards entrepreneurship for Elon.
At age 17, Elon moved to Canada and avoided military service under South Africa’s Apartheid regime. During this time, he worked on a farm and in a lumber mill.
After high school, Elon went to college. He studied at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario for a couple of years before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania where he ultimately earned degrees in physics and economics.
Despite the difficult times in his early life, Elon Musk has managed to succeed. Elon Musk is a self-made billionaire. His biggest fortune is from the electric car company Tesla, but he also has investments in renewable energy sources and the internet.
Career
Elon Musk is an American entrepreneur and investor who has made his name in the business world. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Motors, which produces high-end battery products and electric cars. In addition, he is also the chairman of SolarCity, which sells residential solar roofs and energy storage systems.
Elon’s career started early, at the age of 12. Musk sold software that he developed for a video game for $500. This was only the start of his fortunes.
His first major business, Zip2, was an online city guide. Elon co-founded it with his brother Kimbal. Elon’s father, Errol Musk, provided $28,000 in funding. The company eventually landed contracts with the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times. In 1999, Zip2 was sold to Compaq Computer Corporation for over $300 million.
Later that year, Musk began to take advantage of the internet boom and co-founded X.com, which was an online financial services company. During the following year, X.com merged with Coinfinity as an effort to to avoid competition since Coinfinity’s money-transfer service PayPal was widely more popular at the time. X.com was eventually renamed to PayPal in 2001 and was ultimately acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock in 2002.
Then in 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX, a private rocket manufacturing company, using $100 million of his own money. Initially, he hoped to build affordable rockets. However, the company was plagued with problems and faced numerous near-bankruptcies. In 2008, SpaceX successfully launched Falcon 1 into orbit and later that year received a $1.6 billion contract from NASA. Today, the company is worth about $140 billion according to a recent valuation article posted by Bloomberg.
In 2003, Tesla Motors was founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. They financed the company until the Series A round of funding. Musk led the Series A round and invested $6.5 million becoming the majority shareholder at the time. Elon also joined the Tesla’s board of directors as chairman.
Tesla stock
The value of Elon Musk’s fortune and Tesla stock has risen dramatically over the past five years. While this may be a good thing for the scion of the tech industry, the company is facing increasing competition from automakers in China and Europe. Its share price is also underperforming the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Musk’s fortune is mostly tied to his shareholdings in Tesla and SpaceX. These two companies combined are worth more than 12 of the largest automakers in the U.S. He has also amassed a substantial amount of cash.
Musk is also one of the richest men in the world. His wealth is estimated at around $266 billion, but he has been borrowing against his shares to keep up with his growing empire.
This year has seen the largest drop in Tesla’s share price since it went public in 2007. That’s a 60% drop, but it’s still more than the 30% drop in the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
The company’s third-quarter results showed weak sales. In a nutshell, Tesla’s vehicles aren’t performing as well as expected. However, the company is still on track to meet its revenue goals for the year.
Musk’s most recent bid to buy Twitter for $44 billion drew a lot of attention. His purchase was a success, but he may have to sell a few billion dollars’ worth more of his own stock in order to make the deal work. Axios reports that Fidelity has slashed Twitter’s value by 56%.
Loss of fortune
Elon Musk’s fortune has taken a major hit. The CEO of Tesla and Twitter has lost almost $200 billion over the past year, and he is the first person in modern history to suffer such a massive loss.
Musk is the chief executive officer of Tesla, which makes electric cars. He also holds a significant stake in SpaceX, a space exploration company. However, his fortune has plummeted after Tesla shares fell by more than half in the last two years.
The stock price of Tesla has plummeted in the last year, and it is believed that Musk has sold a lot of his own shares. This has added to the stress on Musk.
While his fortune has not yet hit rock bottom, he is still one of the richest people in the world. However, he is losing more than any other billionaire in the world, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates that Musk’s net worth is now $137 billion. It excludes taxes. Other sources say it could be higher.
Elon Musk’s wealth is still well ahead of the rest of the US tech billionaires. The only other person with a net worth as high as Musk’s is Bernard Arnault, the co-founder and CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH.
Elon Musk has been criticized for his treatment of journalists and for his tweets. But he has also managed to create a lucrative tech conglomerate, and his fortune is now tied to his holdings.
As for his Twitter position, he has been urged to find someone else to take it over. According to a survey, 58% of respondents said they would accept Musk’s resignation.
Reputation
The reputation of Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been under scrutiny. He has been in the news lately for an argument with Senator Elizabeth Warren, his growing turn toward far-right politics, and a series of tweets that have caused negative feedback for him.
While some may dismiss Elon Musk as a crazy CEO, others have questioned the credibility of his brands. His tweets about bitcoin and space travel have been especially baffling, particularly considering the fact that his Tesla is down year-over-year in the U.S.
But despite his reputation as a jerk, he has managed to create a brand image for himself. Musk has built his reputation on defying expectations and the ability to build trust.
As CEO of SpaceX, he has revolutionized the industry of artificial intelligence and space tourism. Aside from SpaceX, Musk has also co-founded Neuralink and Tesla. These companies have also become successful.
While many of Musk’s accomplishments have been in the tech and car industries, he has also gotten into the crypto world. It is not unusual for Wall Street executives to step into the crypto scene, but his actions on Twitter have put his reputation on a downward spiral.
One of the most notable developments was the announcement that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin as a payment. In the aftermath, the price of bitcoin plunged.
This is a huge problem for Elon Musk, who is one of the leading minds in the EV car market. And it could even hurt his company as a whole.
As the number of people with positive opinions about Musk dwindled in May, the positive to negative sentiment of tweets about the CEO also went down. Interestingly, the total number of negative hashtags was larger than the number of positive hashtags.
Conclusion
It’s hard to watch the fall of a successful business man happen right before your eyes. However, I think it is incredibly important to remember where Elon Musk started and how he was able to grow a single business into multiple successful businesses. We should take hold of the good and learn from the mistakes of others.
