After Elon Musk Revealed Where He Sleeps, A Tesla Fan Set Up A GoFundMe Page To Help The Billionaire
With a fortune of more than $20 billion, Elon Musk may be the world’s 53rd wealthiest person, but the entrepreneur’s current sleeping arrangements are more pauper than prince. Here’s why one Californian man felt compelled to help him get a good night’s rest.
Born in South Africa in 1971, Elon Musk was largely raised by his electromechanical engineer father after his parents’ divorce in 1980. By the age of 12, he’d mastered the art of computer programming. And after briefly moving to Canada, he obtained degrees in physics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania and Wharton School of Business, respectively. He eventually gained U.S. citizenship in 2002.
Musk co-founded his first company with brother Kimbal in 1995. This was web software provider Zip2, which four years later Compaq bought for $307 million. Musk then used his share of the proceeds to form online financial service X.com, which later became PayPal. He left the company in 2000 over a dispute about infrastructure, but as a major shareholder still received $165 million after eBay acquired it.
Musk first moved into the field he was to become most renowned for in 2002 when he founded SpaceX. The aerospace manufacturer and transportation company was created with the goal of colonizing Mars. It’s since been responsible for several space milestones and partnered with NASA to fly 13 International Space Station missions.
In 2004 Musk joined the board of directors at Tesla, Inc., the Californian company specializing in energy storage, electric vehicles and manufacturing solar panels. As with SpaceX, Musk set a major goal – to make electric cars much cheaper to the public. By 2018 the company had produced more than 300,000 vehicles.
