Elon Musk's biography reads like fiction. He's a self-made billionaire who claims his goal is to save the world. To this end, he's founded companies developing revolutionary technologies that could solve the carbon crisis, aid the colonization of other worlds, and ensure the survival of humanity.
To get where he is today, he had to overcome many obstacles. But ultimately, he accomplished truly remarkable feats. His life story demonstrates what people are capable of.
While you've likely heard a lot about him over the past few years, there are some surprising and little-known facts about Elon Musk that you might not know. So, here's a list of 10 facts that give some insight into what drives Elon Musk.
1. When Elon Musk was attending high school in Cape Town in the 1980s, he was severely bullied. In one incident, he was hospitalized after bullies threw him down a flight of stairs and then beat him unconscious.
Musk's father said Elon was so seriously injured that he didn't even recognize his son when he saw him. Musk spent two weeks in the hospital recovering. His parents tried to have the attackers charged with assault, but police dismissed it as "boyish pranks.".
Musk's father said one of the reasons Elon became a target for bullies was the attitude toward intellectuals in South Africa. "South Africa is perceived as a country with a sports culture. It may produce intellectuals, but it's not an intellectual culture.".
Musk said that schools in South Africa are very cruel and described it as: «It was like «Lord of the Flies »"There were some gangs that were pretty vicious, and they would pick their victims, and I was one of them." He also said he became a target after trying to protect another boy who was being bullied.
The current principal of the high school says much has changed since Musk attended there. "Bullying was considered a part of growing up, and now we know the impact it has. In the 1990s, people began to understand that bullying is a very destructive force." The school now has a disciplinary process for dealing with bullying cases and a full-time psychologist who specializes in bullying issues. (1,2)
2. Elon Musk taught himself to program at the age of 12. He then created a game called Blastar and sold it to a magazine for $500 PC and Office Technology .
The game is very simple and is a basic version Space Invaders . The game's source code was later published in Elon Musk's biography, and a software engineer used it to create a browser version, which you can play here.
Although the game itself is very simple, it's impressive that it was created by a 12-year-old self-taught computer programmer in 1984. When Musk decided to learn programming, he completed a six-month course in just three days. This foreshadowed Musk's continued self-study throughout his life. For example, he later taught himself rocket science by reading textbooks. (1,2,3)
3. While studying at the University of Pennsylvania, Musk and his roommate rented a 10-bedroom house and turned it into an unofficial nightclub.
Musk's roommate at the University of Pennsylvania was Adeo Rossi. Like Musk, Rossi later became a highly successful entrepreneur. They wanted to escape their cramped student dorms, so they came up with the idea of renting a huge house and paying rent by turning it into a nightclub. Their parties often attracted hundreds of people, sometimes up to 1,000 in a single night.
Rossi said Musk never showed much interest in parties and merely saw them as a way to pay rent. Rossi said, "There were nights when I'd ask, 'Where's Elon?' and I'd go up to his room, knock on the door, and he'd be sitting there alone playing video games.". (1,2)
4. In 2000, Musk crashed his million-dollar supercar, a McLaren F1, and the car was not insured at the time.
In 1999, at the age of 28, Musk bought a McLaren F1 after making his first fortune by selling PayPal. The car cost $800,000 and has since risen in value. Only 64 were produced, and in 2015, one sold for $13.75 million.
The McLaren F1 is capable of a top speed of over 240 mph. It is powered by a 627-horsepower V-12 engine, and the engine bay is trimmed in 24-karat gold. Musk used the car as his daily driver until one day when he was driving through California with Peter Thiel, one of the co-founders of PayPal.
During the ride, Thiel asked him, "So, what can this thing do?" Musk replied, "Look.".
Then, while changing lanes, he slammed on the gas pedal, causing the car to spin. It crashed into an embankment and became airborne. According to witnesses, it bounced about a meter off the ground and performed a 360-degree spin before landing.
The crash damaged the suspension, shattered all the windows, and caused significant damage to the body. However, Musk said the car wasn't a total loss, as the engine and chassis remained intact. Both Musk and Thiel were uninjured and eventually hitchhiked to their meeting.
He later repaired the car and sold it. Musk later admitted that he actually doesn't know how to drive a car with the power of a McLaren F1. (1,2,3)
5. Before founding SpaceX, Musk joined a group called the Mars Society and planned to send mice to Mars.
«The Mars Society was a group of space enthusiasts dedicated to exploring Mars. At the time, the group was planning an experiment that would involve launching a capsule containing mice into orbit around Earth. The capsule would rotate, simulating Martian gravity, and the mice would live and reproduce on Mars.
Musk then joined the group as a board member. Instead, Musk wanted to send the mice to Mars, where they would breed and then be transported back to Earth.
They later abandoned the Martian mouse plan in favor of a project called "Mars Oasis." This plan involved sending a robotic greenhouse to Mars. The greenhouse would land on Mars, collect some of the Martian soil, and use it to grow plants. These plants would then produce the first oxygen on Mars.
The plan's main goal was to attract attention and get people thinking about space exploration. As part of the "Mars Oasis" plan, the Mars Society wanted the greenhouse to transmit a video feed to Earth so people could watch the plant's growth.
However, this plan had its drawbacks, as the soil on Mars is toxic. The group feared failure, as this would mean they would end up with only very expensive dead plants on Mars.
Ultimately, Musk decided to focus on his own plans. So, in 2002, he founded Space Exploration Technologies, also known as "SpaceX." Musk stated that his goal was to colonize another planet to protect humanity.
«"An asteroid or supervolcano could destroy us, and we face dangers the dinosaurs never saw: a man-made virus, the unintentional creation of a microscopic black hole, catastrophic global warming, or some as-yet-unknown technology could end our lives. Humanity has evolved over millions of years, but over the past sixty years, nuclear weapons have created the potential for our destruction. Sooner or later, we must spread life beyond this blue-green sphere—or die out.".
Musk said he believes it is possible to establish a colony on Mars with a population of 80,000 by 2040. He also said he wants to die on Mars, but "not on impact.". (1,2,3)
6. In 2001, Musk visited Russia to try to acquire upgraded intercontinental ballistic missiles for use in SpaceX projects, but the Russians considered him a newcomer and showed him no respect. One of Russia's top designers even spat at him.
The following year, Musk returned to Russia, bringing a former NASA employee with him. This time, the Russians offered to sell them one rocket for $8 million. Musk considered this too high. He offered to buy two rockets for that price. The Russians refused.
Musk ultimately left the meeting in anger. He later said he realized he could build his own rockets much more cheaply.
Having studied textbooks such as «Rocket Engine Components» , «"Fundamentals of Astrodynamics »" And «Aerothermodynamics of Gas Turbines and Rocket Engines» , Musk gained insight into rocket science. He calculated that he could build modest-sized rockets for launching satellites and research payloads into space much more cheaply than existing launch companies. Thus, in 2002, his company, SpaceX, was born.
SpaceX was able to reduce production costs in several ways. They manufactured as many components in-house as possible, rather than outsourcing them, and sometimes adapted existing components to their needs. For example, they realized that by replacing the seals on valves designed for car washes, these valves could be used to pump rocket fuel.
To attract young and ambitious professionals to SpaceX, Musk personally called top students from various aerospace programs and recruited them. One Stanford student, Michael Colonno, said he thought it was a prank when Musk contacted him.
He said, "I didn't believe for a minute he had a rocket company." But as Musk's ambitious plans attracted attention, top engineers from companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin flocked to him. By 2003, SpaceX was already testing its own rocket engines. (1,2)
7. In 2012, Musk publicly announced his desire to build an electric jet aircraft capable of supersonic speeds and vertical landings and takeoffs.
Musk stated that this is currently just a concept, as currently available batteries are too heavy and insufficiently powerful. However, experts who have studied the concept say it will likely become feasible in the near future. This is because the energy density of lithium-ion batteries nearly tripled between 1994 and 2014. Experts believe it's reasonable to assume this trend will continue, meaning the possibility of an electric passenger aircraft is just around the corner.
Interestingly, even before Musk spoke publicly about this concept, he mentioned it during his cameo appearance in the film. «Iron Man 2» 2010. In this scene, he tells Tony Stark, "I have an idea for an electric jet," to which Stark replies, "Got it? Then we'll make it happen.".
Musk and Robert Downey Jr. met in 2007 when Downey was filming the movie «Iron Man» . Filming location «Iron Man» The studio was located just 10 miles from SpaceX's California headquarters, and Downey decided to visit. Musk ended up giving him a personal tour of the facility. Back on set, Downey told the director that Tony Stark should have a Tesla Roadster in his workshop. The director complied. (1,2,3,4)
8. In 2014, Musk announced that Tesla would not sue anyone for patent infringement. This means their electric vehicle technology is free to be used by other automakers.
Musk stated that he was making Tesla's technology publicly available to accelerate the development of electric vehicles. When the company was just starting out, Tesla patented the technology it developed, fearing that larger companies would outcompete Tesla with their vast manufacturing and marketing resources. However, according to Musk, this later turned out not to be a problem.
«"Unfortunately, the reality is quite the opposite: electric vehicle (or any other non-carbon vehicle) programs at major manufacturers are small or non-existent, averaging less than 1% of total vehicle sales.".
Musk claimed he founded Tesla to solve the carbon crisis. But he later realized that Tesla alone couldn't capture a significant share of the global market, as it produces approximately 100 million new cars annually. (source)
9. Musk has stated that artificial intelligence poses "the most serious threat to the survival of humanity." Therefore, in 2015, he founded the nonprofit research company OpenAI, whose goal is to develop AI in a safe way.
Musk's description of AI as a threat to humanity evokes a future where computers take over the world. Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI, said this may be a problem in the distant future, but not now. Instead, the main concern today is how AI could give large corporations and governments too much power. For example, governments could use AI to collect and control information and suppress their citizens.
To combat this, OpenAI will work to advance artificial intelligence while keeping its technologies open source, making them accessible to everyone. Altman said, "The best way to advance AI is by empowering individuals and improving human capabilities, and making it freely available to everyone, not by creating a single entity that is a million times more powerful than any human.". (1,2,3)
10. In 2008, SpaceX and Tesla were on the brink of bankruptcy. Both companies were struggling to make ends meet, trying to pay their employees. Musk had to rely on investors to keep the companies afloat.
Even after the first successful launch of the Falcon 1 rocket, SpaceX was experiencing serious financial difficulties. And, according to Musk, Tesla was doing no better.
«"I had a choice: either SpaceX or Tesla, or split the remaining money between them," Musk said. "It was a difficult decision. If I split the money, it's possible both companies would go bankrupt. If I gave the money to just one company, its chances of survival would be higher, but then it would mean certain death for the other company. I thought about this for a long time.".
To save the company, he initially asked several of his wealthy friends to invest. Later, Tesla began using the money received from customers as down payments for the yet-to-be-released Tesla Roadster. But later that year, SpaceX won a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to carry out 12 resupply flights to the International Space Station. This contract, awarded at the very last minute, ultimately saved Musk's companies. (source)