ELON MUSK is an entrepreneur and business magnate who builds and operates companies to solve environmental, social, and economic challenges.
In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, of which he is CEO and CTO. In 2004, he joined electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (now Tesla, Inc.) as chairman and product architect, becoming its CEO in 2008. In 2006, he helped create SolarCity, a solar energy services company that was later acquired by Tesla and became Tesla Energy. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit research company that promotes friendly artificial intelligence. In 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company focused on developing brain–computer interfaces, and founded The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company. Musk has proposed the Hyperloop, a high-speed vactrain transportation system.
Musk’s achievements in business and technology have been widely recognized. TIME included him on its list of 100 people who most affected the world (2010). Esquire named him one its 75 most influential people of the 21st century, and Forbes named him one of America’s 20 most powerful CEOs 40 and Under. Based on his work at SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and SolarCity, Research and Development Magazine named Musk its innovator of the year, and Inc. named him its entrepreneur of the year.
Musk is a trustee of the X Prize Foundation, which promotes renewable energy technologies, and sits on the boards of The Space Foundation, The National Academies Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, and The Planetary Society. He is also a member of the Stanford University Engineering Advisory Council.
He holds a physics degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a business degree from Wharton.
