Elon Musk is prepared to take over Twitter, making waves around the globe as the serial entrepreneur continues to build his empire as the world's richest person, according to both Bloomberg and Forges. But what do we really know about the billionaire?
Where is Elon Musk from?
The 50-year-old CEO and founder of Space X was born and raised in South Africa. The entrepreneur showed signs of having a business mindset from an early age. The entrepreneur went door to door selling homemade chocolate Easter eggs with his brother before going on to develop his first computer game at the age of 12.
Elon's early life wasn't all flowers and roses. His parents went through a divorce and Elon was bullied at school, facing difficulties due to his Asperger's Syndrome.
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He moved to Canada and then the US and later received a Bachelor's Degree in Economics and Physics from the University of Pennsylvania.
How did Elon become a billionaire?
In 1995, Elon moved to California to attend Stanford University but instead dropped out and co-founded a web software company with his brother Kimbal. The company was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999.
That same year, Elon co-founded online bank X.com, which merged with Confinity in 2000 to form Paypal. Two years later, he sold the company to eBay for $1.5 billion.
In 2002, Elon founded SpaceX and two years later joined Tesla as chairman and product architect before becoming its CEO in 2008.
How much is Elon Musk worth?
Elon Musk is now the world's richest person, according to Forbes and Bloomberg, with an astonishing net worth of about about $250 billion. His wealth is largely based on his shares in Tesla of which he owns about 17%.
In 2020, he had passed Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg to become the third richest person in the world, and a week later had passed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the second-richest.
It was in November last year, Elon became the first person with a net worth over $300 billion. However, Musk has repeatedly described himself as "cash poor", and has "professed to have little interest in the material trappings of wealth".
"Some people think I have a lot of cash, I actually don't," Mr Musk told investor Cathie Wood on a podcast in 2020. By continually investing and saving their money, high earners often don't actually have that much cash on call.
While seeming cash poor might surprise some, the majority of top earners do it on purpose - and Elon admitted he would even forgo his own pay check.
What are Elon Musk's political views?
Money and net worth aside, Elon has had his fair share of controversy. Elon is has been criticised over his views and doesn't shield away from political debates.
He became a US citizen in 2002 but doesn't side with any political party fully, calling himself "politically moderate", "half Democrat half Republican" and "independent".
He was one of the first business executives to part ways with former President Donald Trump, criticising the former US president for his stance on climate change. But he also made it clear he's not on President Joe Biden's side, who he sees as snubbing Tesla while promoting electric vehicles.
Elon was criticised for his public comments related to Covid-19 and spread 'misinformation' about pandemic. Despite the negativity, Elon has been dubbed both a genius and Twitter's biggest troll, taking to the social media platform to air his views on political and cultural issues.
Who is Elon Musk dating?
Elon first met his wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson while attending Queen's University. The pair married in 2000.
Two years later they welcomed their first child, Nevada Alexander Musk, who died of sudden infant death syndrome aged 10 weeks. The couple then decided to use IVF to continue their family.
In 2004, they welcome twins Xavier and Griffin, followed by triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian in 2006. The couple divorced and share custody of their five sons.
In a 2010 essay for Marie Claire, Justine Musk, wrote that Musk was "not a man who takes no for an answer".
"The will to compete and dominate that made him so successful in business did not magically shut off when he came home."
While they were dancing at their wedding, she recalled Musk saying: "I am the alpha in this relationship."
Elon then began dating English actress Talulah Riley and they both married but later divorced. They remarried and filed for divorce once again.
Elon dated Amber Heard for several months, and was later accused by Johnny Depp of having an affair while she was married to the actor. Both Elon and Amber denied the affair.
Elon Musk began dating Canadian musician Grimes in 2018, and two years later welcomed their son "X Æ A-12.". The child's name was eventually changed to "X AE A-XII" Musk, with "X" as a first name, "AE A-XII" as a middle name, and "Musk" as surname.
In 2021, Elon Musk said he was 'single' in an interview with Time. Referring to her relationship with Musk, Grimes said in March 2022: ""I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid."
The couple welcomed their first daughter Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, nicknamed Y, was born in December 2021 via surrogate.
