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Mint
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Mint
The Elon Musk you did not know: From Tony Stark connection to launching a perfume
The world's richest man, Elon Musk, is well known as the owner of Tesla, the electric car maker, and SpaceX, his private space company. He also took over the social media platform Twitter, renaming it X. Until recently, Musk worked within the US government as head of the Department of Government Efficiency - known as DOGE - which was part of Donald Trump's dispensation. After nearly 130 days in the role, Musk announced his departure from the department. His time there and his close ties with Trump kept him in the headlines more than ever. But there are many lesser-known facts about the billionaire entrepreneur, according to a report by Sky news. At just 12 years old in the early 1980s, Musk created a video game called Blastar. Using coding skills he had learned from the age of nine, Musk designed a game where players used their keyboard to shoot alien spaceships. By 1984, the game was sold to PC and Office Technology magazine for $500 (£371) and appeared in their December issue. Read | Elon Musk 'willingly accepted outrageous abuse because…': Donald Trump bids DOGE head farewell | Top 10 points Musk's talent for business showed early. In 1995, at 24, he and his brother Kimbal started their first company, Zip2, which developed online city guides for newspapers. The business began with just $28,000 (£20,000) but was sold for nearly $300 million (£222 million) in 1999. Before the sale, Musk and his brother were almost broke and slept on their office floor—something Musk later repeated in Tesla's early days. He earned $22 million from the sale and bought a McLaren F1 sports car. He told CNN, 'Just three years ago I was sleeping on the office floor, and now I've got a million-dollar car.' Not all Musk's ventures have been long-lasting. In 2022, he launched a perfume called Burnt Hair, described on The Boring Company's website as 'the essence of repugnant desire.' The scent was priced at $100 (£74) a bottle and sold 10,000 bottles within hours, earning Musk a million dollars. He joked, 'With a name like mine, getting into the fragrance business was inevitable - why did I even fight it for so long!?' The perfume is no longer available on the company's website. Besides perfume, Tesla released tequila in 2020 and Musk even sold limited edition Tesla short shorts as a playful challenge to investors betting against the company. Read | Black spot near Elon Musk's eye raises speculations amid reports of drug use Before Twitter became X, Musk founded an online banking and financial service company. The platform merged in 2000 with Confinity, which was co-founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, and was later renamed PayPal. Musk served as PayPal's CEO but was ousted after disputes over the company's direction. eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion (£1.4 billion). In 2017, eBay sold the domain back to Musk. Read | 'Did Elon Musk get punched?' His bruised eye at Oval Office baffles netizens Musk's life inspired Hollywood. The screenwriter of Iron Man, Mark Fergus, said the character Tony Stark was partly based on Musk, alongside Donald Trump and Apple's Steve Jobs. 'Musk took the brilliance of Jobs with the showmanship of Trump. He was the only one who had the fun factor and the celebrity vibe and actual business substance,' Fergus told New York Magazine. Musk even made a cameo appearance in Iron Man 2 in 2010. Despite popular belief, Musk did not start Tesla. The company was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk was an early investor and became Tesla's fourth CEO in 2008, shortly after the first Tesla Roadster was launched. He is credited with taking Tesla onto the global stage. After buying Twitter for $44 billion in 2022 and renaming it X, Musk has been working to create an 'everything app.' He wants X to be like WeChat in China, offering messaging, payments, social media, business services and more. X's chief executive Linda Yaccarino said 2025 would be the year X 'connect [s] you in ways never thought possible,' with features like X TV, X Money, and Grok. In January, Musk announced a partnership with Visa to allow users to move money between traditional banks and an X digital wallet, making payments to friends easier.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Did Elon Musk Make His Money?
Elon Musk is currently the richest person in the world. Even outside of innovative purchases such as Tesla and SpaceX, Musk now has his hands in the pockets of the United States government's spending habits thanks to spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President Donald Trump and his White House administration. Try This: Learn More: Musk grew up in a middle to upper-class family. Though they were quite comfortable financially, they had nowhere near the net worth Musk currently has accumulated. However, before he was the world's richest person putting his financial weight behind presidential elections, Elon Musk started making his money by starting the company Zip2. The company was acquired by Compaq in 1999 for $307 million, of which a 27-year-old Musk pocketed $22 million. Here are a few key takeaways from Elon Musk's net worth: Current estimated net worth: $372.7 billion Net worth rankings: Musk is currently ranked as the richest person in the world, putting him in front of second place Jeff Bezos who has an estimated net worth of $201.2 billion, and Mark Zuckerberg in third place with an estimated net worth of $189.1 billion Tesla stock: Musk's biggest pay package is from Tesla as it is current price is about $258 of which Musk owns approximately 410.8 million shares, representing roughly 12.8% of the company's outstanding shares. This stake is currently valued at around $92.6 billion. With so many financial successes under his belt, it's not hard to see why Musk is lauded for his business acumen. Here's a closer look at the timeline in which Elon Musk built his substantial fortune. How did Elon Musk start building his fortune? Like many 12-year-olds, Musk had a passion for video games as a child. However, unlike most kids, he already had a strong entrepreneurial passion. As a pre-teen, Musk created and sold his first video game. Named Blastar, he earned $500 when the source code was published in a magazine, according to the blog, Wait But Why. At age 17, he left his native South Africa for Canada. He later entered the U.S. as a college student by transferring to the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation, he briefly enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Stanford, but quickly left to get in on the boom of the mid-90s. Read Next: Early on in his career, Musk joined forces with his brother Kimbal to start the company Zip2 — best described as an early version of Yelp and Google Maps. Here are some steps Elon Musk took along the way of his financial journey: Zip2 was acquired by Compaq in 1999 for $307 million, of which a 27-year-old Musk pocketed $22 million. Musk went on to invest three-quarters of his net worth into the company now known as PayPal, which he co-founded. He briefly served as CEO but was replaced by Peter Thiel in 2000. Instead of walking out, he opted to stay on with the company in a senior role, until selling PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. As the largest PayPal shareholder, Musk walked away with $180 million. Many people would have simply taken this larger-than-life fortune and retired, but not Musk. Instead, he invested $100 million to start SpaceX, $70 million to found Tesla and $10 million in SolarCity. Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 and serves as CEO of the company. He founded Tesla in 2003 and is also the CEO of the electric automaker. Tesla has a market cap of $846.47 billion, as of July 21. SpaceX is not publicly traded but is valued at $127 billion, as of July 21, according to Forbes. Musk's cousins Peter and Lyndon Rive founded SolarCity in 2006. Tesla purchased the company for approximately $2.6 billion in 2016. He also co-founded Neuralink and The Boring Company and serves as CEO of both. It is also estimated that thanks to Tesla's electric vehicles and SpaceX, Musk showed a crazy gain of $293.7 billion during the first year of the pandemic. In 2024, the Federal Election Commission reported that Musk put about $11.2 million into his main super PAC, America PAC, which brought his total political giving for the cycle to more than $290 million for the Trump campaign, making him a mega donor. Musk's net worth has climbed by more than $200 billion in 2024, a massive increase in the same year he spent a massive amount backing Trump and other Republican candidates. It's estimated he's made more than $170 billion since Election Day. Whether you're currently overspending or simply putting your money in the wrong investments, Musk's money moves are certainly something to think about. While he does make some stereotypical billionaire purchases, many aspects of his spending are remarkedly normal. Applying at least some of these tips to your lifestyle probably won't turn you into the richest person in the world, but it can help you get a better hold on your finances. Musk has a habit of making money and re-investing it in his next business venture. He could've spent his first fortune on lavish homes, cars and vacations, but he didn't. For example, he continued this trend when he scored his payout from the sale of PayPal to eBay in 2022, by investing a chunk in SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity. These smart money moves have allowed him to become one of the richest people in the world. Scoring massive paydays on the sale of not just one, but two companies is a huge accomplishment. However, Musk did take a gamble by re-investing all or most of his money to launch new companies. Many other people would've played it safe by finding safer investments for their funds, but Musk has taken many risks — and they tend to quite literally pay off. Given the size of his bank account, Musk could afford any number of expensive hobbies. However, he still seems to somewhat live beneath his means as the activities he enjoys in his leisure time seem notably normal. Musk has said he enjoys listening to music in the car, playing video games, spending time with his kids, hanging out with friends and watching movies. Jennifer Taylor contributed to the reporting for this article. More From GOBankingRates Mark Cuban: Trump's Tariffs Will Affect This Class of People the Most4 Affordable Car Brands You Won't Regret Buying in 2025How To Get the Most Value From Your Costco Membership in 20255 Types of Vehicles Retirees Should Stay Away From Buying This article originally appeared on How Did Elon Musk Make His Money?
