It would not be an overstatement to say that Elon Musk is one of the greatest minds of contemporary times. He is not just a businessman or an entrepreneur, but an innovator and pioneer, who is reshaping the world and global economy. The Tesla CEO surpassed Jeff Bezos in January to become the richest person in the world. Although Amazon’s head may have reclaimed the position, Elon Musk continues to be one of the wealthiest people in the world with a net worth of over $165 billion.
Now, you might think that you know a lot about this tech mogul, but there’s more to him than what meets the eye. That is why we bring you today some interesting facts about Elon Musk. Some of these are certainly going to raise some eyebrows.
Now without any further ado, let’s begin. Here are some unknown facts about Elon Musk.
Interesting Facts about Elon Musk
He was born in South Africa
Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, where he spent most of his childhood. At the age of 17, he moved to Canada. He currently holds the citizenships of South Africa, Canada and the United States of America.
He created and sold a video game when he was 12
This is another interesting fact about Elon Musk that not many people know of. At the tender age of 12, Musk created a video game called ‘Blastar’, which he sold to a magazine for $500.
He studied at Stanford for 2 days
Elon enrolled at Stanford to earn his Bachelor’s degree in Physics. However, the future billionaire dropped out in just two days to make the most of the internet boom.
He sold his first company for $307 million
After dropping out of Stanford, Elon Musk founded Zip2 to provide business directories and maps to online newspapers. The company was eventually sold in 1999 for $307 million.
He co-founded PayPal
After selling off his first company, Elon Musk zeroed in on developing a payment tool to aid online businesses and co-founded X.com. It later became PayPal and was sold to eBay for a whopping $1.5 billion.
He has married thrice and has six children
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2020
Elon married his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, in 2000 and shares custody of his five sons with her. After his divorce, he married English actress Talulah Riley twice in 2010 and 2013. He is currently dating musician Grimes, with whom he has a daughter named X Æ A-Xii.
He was the inspiration behind the character Tony Stark
Everyone loves the charming and ingenious character of Tony Stark played by Robert Downey Jr. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but no one knows that the character was inspired by Elon Musk. Musk even did a cameo in Iron Man 2 and several scenes of the film were shot at SpaceX.
He has made several TV appearances
Apart from his cameo in Iron Man 2, Elon Musk has also made appearances on Saturday Night Live, South Park, The Big Bang Theory and The Simpsons.
He has promised to donate half of his fortune to charity
Here’s another interesting fact about Elon Musk that not many people know. Elon Musk has not only made billions of dollars but has pledged to donate at least half of his wealth as well. In 2012, with a net worth of $ 2 billion, he signed the Giving Pledge. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Sir Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg are some other ultra-rich people who have also signed the pledge.
Also check out: Most Expensive Shares in India
He is a ‘thrillionaire’
Not sure what thrillionaire means? Well, the term refers to an elite class of tech billionaires who use their fortune to turn science-fiction into reality.
How many of these interesting facts about Elon Musk did you know?