Elon Musk is an American entrepreneur and engineer. He took part in the creation of the PayPal payment system, which was sold to EBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. He heads the board of directors of SolarCity and Tesla Motors. According to Forbes, Musk's net worth is $2.4 billion.

short biography

Musk was born in Pretoria in 1971. The place where Elon Musk was born is an administratively developed scientific city. His father, an engineer, and his mother, a former Canadian model who later worked as a nutritionist, lived there. The family had three children.

At the age of 10, Musk was given his first computer, and already at the age of 12 he sold his first game for $500. The teenager invests the money he receives in a pharmaceutical company that he followed in the newspapers. He later sold the shares for several thousand dollars. At the age of 17, Musk moved to Canada with this money, where he learned what poverty is. For example, he tried to live on $1 a day without getting an upset stomach.

In 1992, Musk moved to the United States and entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied physics and business. He is writing his doctorate at Stanford University, but does not attend lectures. Together with his student friends, the future entrepreneur founded the company Zip2. In 1999, it was bought by Compaq Computer for $307 million, of which Musk receives $20 million. He uses it to buy a McLaren F1 plane and move into a condominium.

Solar power plant for everyone

Elon Musk, whose biography is full of amazing events, founded X.com in 1999. In 2001, the company was renamed PayPal, which a year later was sold for $1.5 billion. The entrepreneur owned 11.7% of the shares.

In 2006, Musk opened SolarCity, a company of which he is still the owner and engineer. The company installs small power plants for personal use on the roofs of houses and companies. However, the main idea is not to create power plants yourself, but to lease them on a long-term basis. The client can calculate the benefits of using such a power plant and receives a personal solar power plant almost free of charge. Buyers, as a rule, are ordinary Americans.

Elon Musk, whose biography contains both ups and downs, hit the nail on the head with an innovative idea. Nowadays, the company is growing faster than its competitors. It has more than 30 operating centers in the United States, a new customer every five minutes and a huge queue of those who want to use solar energy. SolarCity has already installed such panels on several tens of thousands of buildings and is considered the largest company in this segment.

The path to colonization of Mars

Elon Musk, whose biography teaches not to give up, opens the rocket company SpaceX in 2002, the main goal of which is to reduce the cost of space flights and the Company has already developed several space rockets And spaceship Dragon.

In 2010, Dragon was the first spacecraft to be successfully launched, put into orbit and returned back. Later, in 2015, it became the first spacecraft to dock at the International Space Station.

In 2006, the company won a NASA competition to deliver cargo to space stations and received a prize fund of $278 million. To date, five successful flights have already been completed.

Other achievements and awards

In 2010, shares of Tesla Motors, which had never shown a profit since its founding, were placed for public sale. However, the offer turned out to be so successful that on the first day of trading the share price soared by 41%. Forbes named them the best-performing stocks of the year.

Many awards have been given for what Elon Musk invented. In 2008, Musk was included in Esquire magazine's list of the 75 most influential people of the year. In 2011 he received the Heinlein Prize for outstanding achievements in the commercialization of space. That same year, Forbes added him to its list of the 20 most influential young executives.

Elon Musk is the second businessman to create three companies worth more than $1 billion. Many have tried to repeat this success. It seems that an entrepreneur lives by different rules. However, the businessman does not hide the fact that there are several simple points that he follows.

Ask the right questions

As a teenager, Musk read a lot of philosophical and religious literature. However, his greatest influence was the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. According to the entrepreneur, he realized that he needed to ask the right questions. When Musk entered college, he thought about how exactly he wanted to influence the fate of humanity. There he decided that he would be engaged in the resettlement of people from Earth to other planets. The businessman decided that he would do everything possible to contribute to this industry. And he started looking for money.

Dissect reality

Elon Musk, whose biography teaches not to be like everyone else, believes that innovation is hampered by people's ability to think in analogies. Therefore, they do not create something new, but try to improve the existing one. An entrepreneur believes that it is necessary to dissect reality to its core and create something fundamentally different.

For example, space seems out of reach for business. To develop it you need a huge budget. However, Musk is confident that costs can be greatly reduced if new goal flights. So he founded SpaceX, whose goal is colonization. The businessman says that if you need to resettle the Earth's population to another planet, you need to do it economically.

I don't think he's lying, but I don't believe him

In 2012, Musk expressed confidence that within a few decades all cars would be electric. He began working in this direction and in 2008 released the first electric car that went into mass production. Analysts, however, are skeptical of Musk's statement, which does not bother the entrepreneur at all.

Musk is often compared to Steve Jobs. The latter used the term “reality distortion field,” convincing himself and others that the impossible was possible. Musk's colleagues claim that he selects facts so that they correspond to his reality. Many people say that the entrepreneur doesn’t seem to be lying, but it’s impossible to believe him.

His company, Tesla Motors, was often on the verge of bankruptcy, although Elon Musk achieved amazing business success. The biography of Tesla, the creator, shows that the entrepreneur tried by all means to keep the company afloat. Things got better over time. According to the businessman, the world is too dependent on oil. This is leading to climate change, and Musk believes that using electricity will correct the situation.

One of the company's achievements is Gemeral Motors' decision to create the Chevy Volt. This is a small car with electric charging capabilities. In electric mode, it can travel 65 km. During the release, 33 thousand people signed up to buy this car.

Elon Musk, whose photos are always cheerful, became successful by embodying ideas that seemed crazy at first glance. Not only did he become independent and provide for his family, but he also made history. The entrepreneur strives to change life for the better and works on projects that can save humanity in the future.

For now, however, he is pleased that he has helped bring about many changes in the energy, automobile and rocket industries.

Musk even acted in films. In 2008, the film “Iron Man” was released, the prototype of which was Elon Musk. Later, in 2013, he played a small role in Machete Kills, but his name is not in the credits. He also played himself in episode 9 of season 9 of The Big Bang Theory.

Some business leaders and billionaire Elon Musk, creator of PayPal, Tesla and Space X, are investing big money in ambitious, unprecedented projects based on modern technology and scientific achievements. Eagerly awaited products and services from Tesla, SpaceX, Hyperloop and even PayPal Galactic projects herald the beginning new era ecological and high-speed transport system, as well as inexpensive travel to space for leisure and business. We invite you to get acquainted with the most intriguing, delightful and even frightening projects initiated by Elon Musk.

Elon Musk is considered one of the richest people in the world, and he has often proven many researchers wrong about the reality of risky projects. Together with up-and-coming companies Boeing, Ford and Lockheed Martin, he has every chance of realizing his projects in the future.

If Elon Musk had succeeded, we would already be traveling in capsules for 30 people through special pipes at a speed of 1223 km/h. Travel in the Hyperloop transport system is carried out on the principle of air travel, but based on an air cushion and with a lesser degree of turbulence. The project will cost $60 billion, and Musk plans to finance it himself.

Modern airliners are responsible for enormous air pollution, large airports that require runways, and therefore environmental destruction. During one of the televised meetings with Elon Musk and entrepreneurs, it became known that the billionaire was interested in a way to create a new generation of jet aircraft. They will fly on electricity, take off vertically and reach supersonic speeds. In addition, airplanes will be less hazardous to the environment, and flight times will be reduced.

In collaboration with Google, Elon Musk decided to completely change the concept of driving a car. While Google is developing cars without steering wheels, Elon Musk is successfully introducing the idea of ​​​​using autopilots in cars. Unlike the laser sensors offered by Google, Musk believes that computer-controlled optical sensors will be more effective than a radar system.

To make Tesla's green car project a reality, Musk wants to install a series of fast-charging stations for electric cars that would allow seamless travel from Los Angeles to New York - coast to coast - without using gasoline. Each station, which can charge a car in just 30 minutes, will cost $300,000 to install. They will be installed in Colorado, Illinois, Texas, Oregon, and Vancouver, Canada. In total, they plan to install 100 stations, and project participants will be able to charge the batteries of their cars for free.

6. Robot gas station operators

In order for Tesla projects to become more advanced, not only in terms of new standards used to create Vehicle, but also in providing service, Musk decided to create robotic gas station operators. They will be responsible for charging lithium-ion batteries from Tesla. Customers will be able to purchase 450 kg battery charging services for the price of a regular gasoline refill. Each automatic station will cost $500,000, and the first ones have already been installed in California.

Elon Musk's Grasshopper project from SpaceX is dedicated to creating advanced rockets and jet aircraft. Typically, as rockets take off and land, they lose parts that fall into the ocean. The Grasshopper rocket is able to avoid losses and is always ready to take off again, which leads to cost savings. She is able to land safely in an upright position.

In order to implement all projects related to space travel, it is necessary to build not only the ship itself, but also a cosmodrome. This will allow many private companies to rent rockets and jets for business missions, transporting people and cargo. Musk and his team have already chosen a location - Brownsville, Texas. This spaceport will be an alternative to Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg.

One of the sources of Musk's fortune is the PayPal system, in collaboration with Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, solving the problem of creating an intergalactic currency. This system officially adapts monetary system Earth for use in space, allowing businesses and tourists to conduct trade transactions using their home accounts. Aliens will be able to use this system to purchase souvenirs and products.

The company PayPal Galactic plans to establish an Internet connection between the Earth and Mars or another planet that tourists like. About 700 small satellites have already been launched into orbit, which will provide the entire Earth with high-speed Internet, including the poorest and most remote corners of the planet.

Elon Musk wants to retire on Mars, so he is developing a project to colonize the planet. The Mars colony will be 80,000 strong, starting with just 10 volunteers setting up infrastructure for those who arrive later. And Musk is not the only one who is developing the possibility of traveling in space, there is also

• Zip2 and PayPal
• Tesla Motors
• SolarCity
• SpaceX
• Hyperloop

The computer industry has given a start in life to dozens of charismatic individuals who managed to create something revolutionary and earn an incredible amount of money from it. If there was a ranking of such people, the first number would belong to Bill Gates, the second to Steve Jobs. But third place, despite a large number of applicants, the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, little known in our latitudes, deserves the most. Why? Because he invested the money he earned from computer technology into projects that could change our world more than Microsoft and iPhones combined changed it.

Forbes estimates Musk's net worth at $2.4 billion. Musk is not only a businessman, but also an engineer: he is personally involved in the design of electric vehicles and spaceships. In his spare time, he drives expensive cars, marries sexy British actresses and becomes the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.'s character in " Iron Man" In all respects, Musk is more reminiscent of a comic book character than a real person.

However, behind the media image of a superhero lies one of the most successful serial businessmen in the world. Musk became the second entrepreneur in the history of Silicon Valley who managed to found three companies worth more than $1 billion - PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla (the first was Jim Clark). Moreover, in an era when “the best minds in humanity are figuring out how to get people to click on ads,” Musk has devoted himself to space and alternative energy. He plays by some different rules and does it extremely successfully. How does he do it?

Success Story, Biography of Elon Musk

Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in South Africa. His family was mixed. His father, South African, was an engineer. And my mother, Canadian, is a nutritionist. Musk spent his childhood in South Africa. At the age of 10 he got his first computer. Elon immediately showed interest in programming, which he taught himself. At the age of 12, he made $500 by selling a game he programmed himself called Blastar (a shooter in the vein of Space Invaders).

Biographies of prominent people usually contain episodes in which the hero says to himself: “Yes, I will do it,” which later leads him to stunning success. There were at least two such episodes in Elon Musk’s biography. Musk made his first decision at the age of 17. After finishing school in Pretoria, he decided to leave home and, without parental support, emigrate from South Africa to the United States. But Elon didn’t get to the USA right away.

In 1989, he moved to Canada to live with his mother's relatives. Having received citizenship, Elon Musk goes to Montreal, where at first he agrees to any job and teeters on the brink of poverty for almost a year. He soon enters Queen's University in Ontario, where he meets the future mother of his five sons (twins and triplets), Justine. He studied there for two years, after which his dream came true - in 1992, Musk went to the USA.

He moved to America after receiving a scholarship to study at the University of Pennsylvania. The following year, he received a bachelor's degree in business, but decided to stay at the university for another year to obtain a bachelor's degree in physics.

When Elon Musk began to experience teenage depression, he began to actively absorb philosophical and religious literature. But the most valuable lessons, he says, he ultimately learned from Douglas Adams' book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. “She taught me that the hardest thing is coming up with the right questions. Once you have succeeded, everything else is very simple." , Musk tells Businessweek magazine. He was prompted to these thoughts by an episode in which a giant supercomputer, after several million years of thinking, answers “the main question of Life, the Universe and Everything Else” with the meaningless number 42.

"I have come to the conclusion that we must strive to push the limits human consciousness to learn to ask the right questions" , says Musk. He came up with his question a long time ago: “When I was in college, I kept thinking about what would have the biggest impact on the destiny of humanity in the future?” Musk decided that it would be the Internet, the transition to renewable energy sources and the relocation of people to other planets. He decided to try to contribute to each of these areas. But first he needed money.

Zip2 and PayPal

Elon Musk made the second, most important and fateful decision in his life in the summer of 1995. He had just completed his studies at the University of Pennsylvania and was entering graduate school at Stanford University to continue his studies in applied physics and materials science. However, just two days later he gave up science and, instead of developing capacitors, together with his brother Kimbal, while in the capital of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, he created his first computer company, Zip2.

“I worked from morning to night. He lived in the same warehouse where he rented an office, and went to the locker rooms of the local stadium to shower. But I saved on renting an apartment, and in the first two most difficult years I kept the company afloat.”

At that time, the Internet was experiencing a period of rapid development, but no one had yet managed to earn serious money here. Musk’s company was one of the first to do this: it created a platform through which newspapers (including such reputable ones as the New York Times) could offer their clients additional commercial services.

Four years later, in 1999, AltaVista, the largest search engine in those years, bought Zip2 for $307 million in cash and $34 million in securities. This transaction set a record for a company being sold for cash. Musk immediately spent part of the proceeds ($20 million) on luxury purchases - a McLaren F1 sports car and a private jet.

Musk begins to master the increasingly popular electronic payments, and the startup X.com becomes his new business at the turn of the century. In March 2000, X.com merged on an equal basis with competitor Confinity of Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, whose office is located on the same street in Palo Alto. This is how one of the leading payment systems of our time - PayPal - was born. It's there now huge selection for payment on the Internet, and then it was an alternative to paying with a bank card.

At first, disagreements arise between the teams of the two startups regarding strategy and management, but this does not affect the dynamics of the company’s development in any way. Musk participates in the development of a new business model, conducts a successful viral marketing campaign, the audience of the service is growing rapidly, and in 2002 everything ends with the logical purchase of the system by the online auction eBay for $1.5 billion. This is how Elon Musk acquired enough funds (founder X. com received $180 million for his share) for his other hobbies - astronautics and alternative energy sources. We can say that with this he said goodbye to the Internet!

“I don’t want to be a grandfather who doesn’t know how to check his email. But I’m unlikely to start a new online business in the future. I feel like I should focus my efforts on creating things that can have a positive impact on the future of humanity."

Tesla Motors

Tesla Motors was invented in 2003 by entrepreneurial engineers Martin Eberhard and Mark Tappening. From the very beginning, the company positioned itself as the first serial manufacturer of electric vehicles; its founders dreamed of freeing consumers from being tied to the raw materials market - a mission quite in the spirit of Musk.

The businessman, who became rich from the sale of PayPal, appeared in the project in February 2004, leading a round of investment in the startup with a personal contribution of $70 million. He became chairman of the board of directors and at first did not take on the operational management of the company. Musk participated in the design of the debut model of the Roadster sports car, created on the basis of the British Lotus: he lobbied for the use of composite materials in the body structure, developed the battery module and even design details such as headlights. By 2006, the project received good press, Musk became a laureate of the prestigious Global Green environmental award (the award was presented to him personally by Mikhail Gorbachev), and the pool of Tesla investors included “Google fathers” Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The total amount of funds raised in the project exceeded $100 million.

However, in 2007, when the launch of the Roadster assembly line production was planned, a dark streak began in Musk’s life. Management miscalculations led to the fact that the selling price of the electric car turned out to be almost twice as high as what was originally included in the project - $92,000. In addition, the company's CEO Martin Eberhard made a strategic miscalculation: his transmission concept for the Tesla Roadster turned out to be ineffective, and the car's release had to be postponed for more than a year.

In a crisis situation, Elon Musk showed the necessary managerial qualities at that time: the ability to mercilessly throw overboard everyone who, for some reason, interferes with the project. Musk fired Eberhard and several other “founding fathers” without the slightest sentiment, and some time after this purge he himself became the helm of the company. Eberhard sued him, but the case was settled out of court, so effectively that almost no details of the conflict were leaked to the public.

On the threshold of the crisis, Elon Musk continued to vigorously cut the bones: lay off employees, demand lower prices from suppliers, close offices, etc. As a result, the Roadster was released in 2008 with a slight - less than $20,000 - increase in the price on the receipt.

At the very difficult moment(at the same time, the businessman began a high-profile divorce proceeding with his wife Justine, who did not skimp on criticism of the father of her five sons in interviews with the media and personal blog - for lack of attention and domestic tyranny) Musk invested his last savings of $20 million in Tesla (he received the funds during the $120 million takeover by Dell of software developer Everdream, of which Musk was a shareholder), sold his beloved McLaren F1 to save the project and still saved the automaker from bankruptcy. He even gave customers personal guarantees of a refund if the initiative failed.

Soon things started to improve, which was especially impressive against the backdrop of the stagnating traditional automobile industry. The German concern Daimler invested $50 million in Tesla; the US Department of Energy authorized the inclusion of the project in the pool of innovative transport companies - recipients of a preferential interest loan. Tesla received almost half a billion dollars from the state. Subsequently, skeptics criticized the authorities for their decision to support Musk’s company, whose products are still aimed exclusively at wealthy buyers.

The word “electric car” often evokes something slow and clumsy, but in the case of Tesla Motors this is not the case. Its cars are fast and look like luxury sports cars. However, there are also plans to create simpler models. Tesla Motors specialists cooperate with Daimler and Toyota. The so-called “hybrids,” vehicles from these companies equipped with both an electric motor and an internal combustion engine, use technology from Elon Musk’s company. In 2007, General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz cited Tesla as the main reason for the auto giant's decision to begin developing the Chevy Volt electric car: “If some startup from Silicon Valley could solve this equation, then no one else dares to tell me that it is unsolvable.”.

“Tesla Motors is named after Nikola Tesla because we use some of his inventions. This guy definitely deserves more recognition from society. However, to be honest, I always liked Thomas Edison better because, unlike Tesla, he was able to bring his inventions to the mass market and make them accessible to all humanity. Tesla failed at this."

In 2010, Tesla held its first U.S. automobile IPO since Ford went public in 1956. The company, despite a decade of unprofitable operations, is listed on NASDAQ at the top of the range at $17 per share and raises more than $225 million. Indeed, there could not have been a better time for an IPO. The oil slick, which, due to the fault of BP, covers an impressive part of the Gulf of Mexico, continues to grow, and at this time raising the issue of switching to new types of fuel seems more than logical. Today, Tesla's stock alone costs $147, and the automaker's capitalization is approaching $18 billion.

The main driver of Tesla's financial success was the luxury sedan Model S with a battery charge of 426 km, a bright design and unique speed characteristics (acceleration to 96 km/h in 3.9 seconds). The model went into mass production last summer with a price starting at $69,900 and received a score of 99 out of 100 points in the Consumer Reports rating.

At the presentation of the Model S, Musk categorically stated that in twenty years more than half of the cars produced will be fully electric: “I'm sure it will happen. I'm ready to bet money on it." . There are enough people willing to make such a bet. Even according to the most optimistic estimates of analysts, Musk’s forecast cannot come true. But this hardly bothers the founder and CEO of Tesla: by embellishing reality, he changes it.

The fact is that, according to Musk, the world has become too dependent on oil. This dependence has led to climate change and permanent geopolitical tensions. Abandoning internal combustion engines in favor of electricity could change the situation. Therefore, for him, Tesla Motors is not just a business.

Musk continued to stir up interest in the project by staging a media battle with The New York Times columnist John Brodeur over a critical test drive of the Model S. It must be said that all these publicity stunts bore fruit. Thus, in the first half of 2013, the electric car sold 10,500 units, and supply still does not keep up with demand.

The release of the Model X crossover and the rapid development of a network of Supercharger charging stations are approaching. Tesla plans to cover high-traffic transport arteries with “sockets” throughout the United States, and begin overseas expansion in 2014.

SolarCity

Technology provider SolarCity, by formal criteria, is not exactly Musk’s project. In 2003, he invested $10 million in this startup, proceeds from the sale of PayPal. The founders of the project are businessman cousins ​​Lyndon and Peter Raiva.

SolarCity installs modular private solar power plants with a capacity of several kilowatts - an ideal solution for households and small organizations. At the same time, the company does not sell the product, but gives it to customers on long-term lease with a horizon of 20 years. The buyer does not pay for the station itself, but exclusively for the energy it produces. The deals are financed by third-party lenders (for example, Google), who receive tax breaks for supporting the green economy.

In May-June 2008, photovoltaic installations were created to provide electricity to the servers and office of eBay, as well as for British Motors. Also in 2008, the company began producing software that promotes more rational use of electricity in residential buildings, thanks to which end consumers began to pay less for electricity and loads on networks decreased.

The SolarCity concept is economical, environmentally friendly and absolutely coincides with Musk's principles. The company, in particular, builds batteries for charging stations for Tesla electric cars. The project already consists of several dozen service centers in the USA and is in great demand among energy consumers: people sign up for home solar stations several months in advance.

However, leadership in the industry does not save SolarCity from criticism: solar power will never turn into an effective business model, and there is too much competition in the segment to maintain an acceptable price ceiling, skeptics argue. However, since its IPO in December 2012, SolarCity's share price has jumped from $8 to $38, peaking at $52 in May.

Musk remains the main shareholder of the company, whose capitalization is approaching $3 billion. It is his confidence in the prospects of the project that analysts call the main factor in the phenomenal market success of the company, which is still operating at a loss ($23.9 million in the second quarter of 2013). If the founder of SpaceX and Tesla bets on a technology, then it has a really good chance of taking off - this phenomenon on Wall Street has already been dubbed the “Musk effect.”

SpaceX

Elon Musk started thinking about creating a rocket company at the turn of the century. He was obsessed with the ambitious idea of ​​creating a platform for multiple human journeys to other planets. The closest point should be Mars, the inventor decided.

“I was fascinated by the prospect of colonizing Mars and became the founder of the Mars Oasis project. The goal is to create automated greenhouses on this planet, which in the future could become an incubator for a self-sustaining ecosystem. And everything was fine, if not for the huge cost of delivering greenhouses to Mars. I even tried to buy missiles in Russia and negotiated with Russian officials, but my friends explained: this deal smacks of such a crime that in the eyes of the intelligence services I risk turning into a second bin Laden. And I thought: wait, why don’t I create my own rocket?”

As soon as circumstances allowed (eBay bought PayPal), the businessman founded the Space Exploration Technologies Company, or simply SpaceX, in 2002. He invested more than $100 million in the project. The cost of proposals on the market - from $15 million for a rocket in Russia to $65 million in the USA - was considered by the entrepreneur to be many times too high.

According to his calculations, it turned out that in total all the parts necessary for the construction of a space carrier cost only 2% of the launch price in the States. This angered Musk. He saw the root of the problem in the bureaucratization of the space industry, the low competitiveness of large corporations and their lobbying efforts to prevent new players from entering the market.

Musk was confident that the costs of creating and launching rockets could be reduced tenfold. But first he needed to reformulate the purpose of space flight. The main mission of SpaceX, Musk assures, is not the delivery of astronauts and cargo into orbit, but the colonization of other planets. If you want to move some of humanity from Earth to some moon of Jupiter, you damn well have to figure out a way to do it economically.

SpaceX begins designing the Falcon 1 rocket. Development takes four years and hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment (Musk's former business partner Peter Thiel was one of the first to support Musk's project, and Musk retained two-thirds of SpaceX's shares). As a result, the rocket and three types of liquid engines - Merlin, Kestrel and Draco - were created from scratch without any government intervention. In 2006, NASA drew attention to SpaceX. The agency initially awarded the company several contracts for Falcon 1 test launches.

“My goal is to create not just a rocket, but a reliable rocket at an affordable price. I was warned many times: if you reduce costs, you also reduce reliability. In my opinion, this is fundamentally wrong. A sports Ferrari is a very expensive car, but most likely the Ferrari will break down on the first dirt road. On the contrary, the cheapest Honda can work reliably for several years, and you can be sure that its wheel will not fall off in the first ditch. The same with rockets. The main thing is not to rush.”

The first three launches in 2006-2008 turned out to be failures (the third ended in an incident - the ashes of James Dewan, who played Scotty in the cult sci-fi series Star Trek, were “buried” in the ocean depths instead of outer space). On the fourth attempt, the rocket launches successfully - this costs $7 million. On the fifth, it sends a Malaysian satellite into orbit. Impressed, NASA signs a contract with SpaceX for 12 missions to send cargo to the ISS for $1.6 billion.

“We use technologies that are simply impossible to imagine in the arsenal of government institutions. For example, our company needed a theodolite, which is used to level a rocket, and instead of buying a new one, I suggested looking on eBay. That’s what we found – a wonderful working theodolite, saving about 25 thousand dollars.”

The company is updating its flagship product, and the upgraded Falcon 9 first simply launches a SpaceX-developed Dragon truck into orbit, and on May 22, 2012, it is the first in the history of private space to send a ship to the ISS. In October, Dragon successfully delivered half a ton of payload to the station, and in the future should accommodate crews of seven astronauts. The total package of orders from government and commercial structures for 50 SpaceX rocket launches today is about $4 billion; according to a conservative estimate, the company's value is about $2.5 billion.

But Musk is in no hurry to launch an IPO. For him, all the achievements of SpaceX are just preparation for the realization of his main dream - an expedition to Mars. Until the end of his life, the billionaire wants to become a pioneer colonizer of the Red Planet. To this end, SpaceX is developing the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCP) project. Musk’s engineers are working on innovative rocket engines and spacecraft to deliver people from Earth to Mars (a Falcon-based Grasshoper rocket can be created that can land vertically, and the second generation Dragon is technically already capable of getting to Mars, Musk assures).

According to the 42-year-old businessman, in 10-20 years the fantasy may become reality. “I would like to die on Mars. Just without crashing on the surface of the planet." , jokes the billionaire.

Using the example of Elon Musk, we can trace the path of a man who made childhood dreams come true, because many people in childhood wanted to fly into space, and soon this will be possible, because business has come to astronautics, and many will benefit from this, because space tourism will soon time will become a reality, thanks in part to Elon Musk.

“SpaceX wants to be a company that can help move people to other planets, because I think that's the biggest goal that life can have. And although we should never forget about more mundane things, it is very useful to have such a kind of Holy Grail, the search for which becomes a long-term goal and a main source of inspiration.”

Musk is a demanding perfectionist and pedant in the technical field. His background in physics helps him see objective truths and separate them from emotional assessments and speculative predictions. He just thinks big. For example, he is thinking about a means of public transport called a hyperloop. This electric supersonic vehicle should take people from Los Angeles to San Francisco (350 miles) in 30 minutes.

Hyperloop

Musk first shared his plans for creating the Loop with reporters in September 2012. Then he did not provide the technical specifications of the project, limiting himself to the vague term “fifth mode of transport” (after railway, aviation, road transport and shipping). “It will be something that will never crash, will be at least twice as fast as an airplane, will be powered by solar energy and will take off not on a schedule, but exactly at the moment when you need it.” , the businessman said in an interview with Bloomberg.

With his developments, Musk intended to reach California Governor Jerry Brown and US President Barack Obama directly. Hyperloop, in his opinion, should become an alternative to the authorities’ plans to build a high-speed railway between San Francisco and Los Angeles at a cost of about $70 billion (and taking into account costs, the amount could rise to $100 billion, the businessman is sure). “They offer California the slowest express train with the highest construction cost per mile of track. These are wrong records." , - the entrepreneur was indignant.

On August 12, 2013, Loop received a 57-page concept presentation. We are talking, as it turned out, about a closed overhead highway in the form of a steel pipe (more precisely, two parallel pipes connected at the end points of the route), inside which at almost the speed of sound in conditions low blood pressure(to reduce air resistance) a sealed aluminum capsule moves on an aerodynamic cushion. An electromagnetic pulse “accelerates” the structure. The capsule itself draws air through a cavity in the nose and out through "nozzles" on the bottom panel's gutters, forming an air gap - similar technology to magnetic levitation trains.

The “big pipe” will consist of 100-meter sections, which will be raised on pylons to a height of 20 meters (supports must be built at a distance of 45-90 meters from each other). The project's electricity needs will be 100% met by solar panels located along the entire route. The synergy with Musk’s other projects could not have come at a better time: the engines and electronic “filling” of the capsule can be inherited from Tesla Motors, SolarCity engineers understand solar energy best of all, and SpaceX will share with Loop alloys for the production of transport, tested in space.

Inside the transport shuttle, up to 28 people can be accommodated (if the project budget is increased from $6 billion to $10 billion, the Hyperloop design will allow three cars to be transported in one capsule). The Loop will cover the 600 km distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 35 minutes in comfortable conditions for humans (as Musk puts it, “it will be super comfortable and quiet, no turbulence”). The starting push of the capsule for passengers will be comparable to the acceleration of an airplane along the runway. About 70 shuttles on the line will be able to operate with a minimum interval of 30 seconds (the safe distance between capsules is approximately 8 km). Investments should pay off in 20 years, provided that a ticket for innovative transport costs $20 and transports 7.4 million passengers in each direction during this period.

The first Loop will roughly follow the route of California's Interstate 5.

Musk promises passengers an unprecedented level of safety. "Hyperloop will not fall out of the sky and will not go off the rails" , - assured the inventor. Engineers from the project team took into account the possibility of emergency braking in case of depressurization of the capsule and even proposed bridge-building anti-seismic solutions in the design of pylons to level the risk of destruction by an earthquake.

The “Loop” will be a rational solution for large cities located at a distance of no more than 1,500 km from each other. Aviation is more suitable for long distances, the inventor believes.

Musk warned that he himself is not yet ready to devote a sufficient amount of time to Loop (it’s already “damn hard” for him to manage SpaceX, Tesla and SpaceX at the same time), although in any case he remains an investor and agrees to finance the creation of the prototype. The entrepreneur allowed all the engineering research of his team to be completed on an open source basis by any enthusiasts, guaranteeing all possible support. If brave investors are not found in the near future, Tesla will return to the project in a few years. “I’m not afraid of losing something financially on Hyperloop, it would just be cool to do the new kind transport" “, the billionaire concluded.

Technologically, there are no breakthrough solutions in the “Loop”: all components of the invention are already being used in other projects, and this seriously increases the chances of Hyperloop to “materialize”: Musk’s brainchild compares favorably with numerous analogues like the “vacuum” train of the RAND Corporation, which has been running for several decades in concepts.

“The first thing I always think about is whether what we know about something is true. Maybe there is some other explanation? I did this from the first grades of school. I always challenged everything. This drove parents crazy. I never believed them and always demanded to answer the question “why?” Then I tried to figure out if their answer made sense."

The main obstacle to true innovation, according to Musk, is people's habit of thinking in analogies. As a result, in most cases they simply try to do something better instead of creating something new. Musk thinks fundamentally differently: “In physics there is the concept of fundamental principles. You dissect reality down to its fundamental foundations. And you start building your argument from there. It requires a lot of mental effort.".

“Think about company in your dreams and in reality – seven days a week and without breaks. Always remain extremely focused on creating amazing products for the future. This is exactly what you need to do at the start.”

“You need to be prepared for the fact that the company could collapse at any minute. Founding a startup is like eating glass and staring into the abyss, because the feeling of failure will never leave you.”

Musk is only forty-two years old, and he has no plans to retire. And there are enough tasks in the world that would be worth taking on by a person with a billion dollars in his pocket, who knows how to turn the most fantastic ideas into reality.

2018 has already become the worst year in history. The electric car manufacturer still cannot reach its stated production capacity, quarterly losses are growing at a record pace, its reputation is coming apart at the seams, investors are indignant, and Musk’s eccentric behavior is only adding fuel to the fire. Now shareholders and a British diver are trying to sue him, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is sniffing around for financial manipulation. The main innovator of our time seriously risks falling under civil and even criminal prosecution. How Elon Musk is dragging his own company to the bottom - in the material.

The tweets are spinning - the laveha is muddled

In early August, the news instantly spread across the Internet that Musk was going to take all Tesla shares and turn it into a private company. The entrepreneur easily and naturally announced this on his Twitter, adding that “financing has been secured.” According to Musk, he was willing to pay $420 for each Tesla share, which exceeded the current market supply at that time by about 15 percent. The statement by the head of the company instantly provoked a stir in the securities market, as those who wanted to make extra money on the price difference rushed to buy Tesla shares, as a result of which the quotes increased by seven percent.

A little later that day, the head of Tesla heated up the situation by saying that he would not sell his stake and, to be sure, he repeated his offer once again. As a result, NASDAQ was even forced to suspend trading in Tesla shares for some time, and at the time of their closure, the company’s stock quotes added a total of 11 percent. It is estimated that Musk earned $1.4 billion from a couple of Twitter posts. True, after a few days those who, on the contrary, lost money, showed up.

“Short traders,” or Tesla shareholders who are short-sellers, lost more than a billion dollars on Musk’s scandalous tweet. Some of them united to go to court. The plaintiffs claim that the Tesla CEO violated securities laws and that his claim that he had secured financing for the company's delisting was false. In other words, dissatisfied shareholders are confident that Musk had one single goal: to push the stock up. However, the actions of the head of the company were not liked not only by investors who “short” Tesla shares - but also by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Deftly jumped off

Musk explained his initiative by saying that turning into a private company would help the successful development of Tesla. He noted that being a public company is likely to be detrimental to its promotion, particularly due to the need to release quarterly financial reports and stock price fluctuations. However, as always, the entrepreneur’s loud statements resulted in almost a week of silence. On August 13, Musk released an update, saying that the company was ready to be bought by the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund (PIF), which already has a five percent stake. Thus, he confirmed the information of sources who had previously reported about Riyadh’s interest in Tesla.

True, already on August 17, in an interview, Musk said that he was wishful thinking. According to sources, negotiations with representatives of the fund gave the businessman confidence in supporting the initiative, but the Saudis ultimately did not confirm their interest in privatizing Tesla. At the same time, there are rumors in the media that PIF is negotiating with a competitor of the American company - the Chinese startup Lucid Motors, and the buyout of Tesla could be financed by Space X. However, where Musk’s other company got $66 billion - the amount needed for the buyout without taking into account the package of the company’s CEO - was not specified .

A few days later, Musk announced that everything would remain as it is - Tesla would not be private. “Based on the feedback I have received, it is clear that the majority of current Tesla shareholders believe that we are better off remaining a public company,” the electric vehicle maker said in a statement posted on its official blog. Musk said he knew the process of becoming a fully private company would be difficult, but after consulting, he realized it would be “even more time-consuming and confusing.”

And nothing has changed

In addition to new proceedings, the company's old problems are also making themselves known - namely, its unprofitability and difficulties in production. Having abandoned the idea of ​​taking Tesla private, Musk acknowledged that going public would prevent increased production of the Model 3 electric vehicle, which remains a priority today. Tesla has crept up to the Model 3 production volume of five thousand cars per week six months later than the promised deadline - as of August 31, 4,588 electric vehicles roll off the assembly line every week. Musk promised to achieve this level of production at the end of 2017. Moreover, based on the results of the second quarter of 2018, he announced plans to reach the production level of six thousand Model 3s per week by the end of August - and again words to the wind.

At the beginning of August, the company reported financial results for April-June 2018. And although Tesla's total revenue rose to four billion dollars from 2.79 billion a year earlier and outpaced analysts' expectations of 3.29 billion, the company's losses also increased. Net loss for the second quarter was $717.5 million, down from $336.4 million in the same period in 2017. But Elon Musk still assured investors that by the end of 2018 the company would achieve sustainable profits and begin to repay debts. He also apologized to analysts for their previous conversation: then Musk answered “stupid” questions and said that he was bored. And Bloomberg praised the businessman, writing that he behaves like a “real CEO,” but Musk’s promises are hard to believe.

Dude, you are very strange

Financial and production problems are compounded by the extravagant behavior of the head of the company. Lately, Musk has been plagued by scandals and has already gained fame as an odious figure. Now he is being sued not only by Tesla shareholders, but also by a British diver who rescued Thai children from a flooded cave, whom the billionaire is unprovenly a “pedophile.” This reaction from the entrepreneur was caused by the fact that diver Vern Unsworth criticized a mini-submarine that Space X engineers assembled specifically for the rescue operation. According to Unsworth, the submarine, which was nothing more than a PR stunt, had no chance of reaching the children trapped in the cave. As a result, he concluded that Musk could shove this submarine far away. The businessman himself, as the main shareholder, lost almost $300 million after a showdown on Twitter. He also got into a verbal altercation with a couple of other followers. One of them said that Musk is siphoning money from all over the world for the sake of his projects. To this, the engineer replied that, unlike the author of the question, he had created jobs for 300 thousand people, and was curious about what the subscriber could boast of.

On his Twitter, the entrepreneur talks about Tesla's bankruptcy due to the sale easter eggs, then because of a stolen drawing of a unicorn. In terms of the degree of eccentric behavior on social networks, the head of Tesla can easily compete with the President of the United States. They are especially related to their quarrelsome relationship with funds. mass media. For example, in July, Musk launched a campaign against Business Insider journalist Lynette Lopez, according to whom Tesla writes off about 40 percent of its raw materials as scrap metal, and the Model 3 has defective batteries. Previously an engineer

Elon Musk is an upstart. Elon Musk is a genius. Elon Musk is simply a talented manager. Some people envy him, others want to be like him. Everything is as usual when it comes to the famous and successful person. Few people remember where the origins are, what is the truth and what is the lie: the existing information that concerns the late 1990s - early 2000s is shrouded in some strange fog. It was then, as is commonly believed, that “it all began.”

Those familiar with Musk’s biography know that he was born in 1971 in South Africa, however home country left when he was young. His mother, from Canada, was at that time a model and professional nutritionist, his father was an electronics engineer. Maybe it was he who influenced his son’s future, since after his parents’ divorce in 1979, Elon and his younger brother Kimbal decided to stay with dad.

In 2015, Errol Musk, Elon's father, gave an interview to Fortune magazine. In it, Musk Sr. assured that his son was primarily interested in books, and not in abstract conversations about sports or similar topics. "He was an introverted thinker"- said Errol. Parents often idealize their children, especially when they have really been able to achieve a lot.

Outcast

According to the head of the school where Elon studied, the future billionaire was a member of the computer club of the educational institution. Probably. It turned out that in his youth Musk was very inconspicuous, did not show much activity in general events, and he had few friends among other schoolchildren, to put it mildly - once the boy even ended up in the hospital with a broken nose after he was beaten by local hooligans - ringleaders. When you read about Elon’s childhood, you may get the image of a nerd that no one notices, and if he does, he tries to slap him on the head. No one will admit what it really was like.

At the age of approximately 9-10 years, Musk received at his disposal the Commodore VIC-20 computer that had just entered the market with a training course designed for six months. An inquisitive mind helped me understand the basics of programming in three days. At the age of 12, Elon wrote a game, which he managed to sell to a computer magazine for $500 (today that’s just over $1.2 thousand, taking into account inflation). Blastar is rather terrible, however, a mention of it appeared on the pages of the PC and Office Technology publication. "Corny, but still better than Flappy Bird"- said Musk, having already become a billionaire.

The path to Silicon Valley

When Elon turned 17, he immigrated to Canada - after all, South Africa is not a country where you can get a good start in a technology career. “Silicon Valley was like the Promised Land for Musk,”- writes one of the biographers. And another source gives a completely banal reason - neither Elon nor his younger brother Kimbal wanted to serve compulsory military service in the country where they were born. Moreover, apartheid reigned there. According to another version, young Musk went to Canada with the money he actually earned and without the consent of his parents, but also because of his reluctance to serve. Finally, the most romantic option - Elon went to conquer the world.

Elon Musk while studying in Canada

Here the future businessman did not stay long and after a couple of years he transferred from a Canadian university to the University of Pennsylvania in the USA. Then an attempt was made to enter Stanford. She was unsuccessful because she really wanted to work.

While still a student, Musk thought about who and what he wanted to become. His starting point was the question: “What will have the greatest impact on the future of humanity?” The answer consisted of a list that listed: the Internet; sustainable energy; space exploration and, in particular, the possibility of creating permanent colonies outside the Earth; artificial intelligence; DNA reprogramming. Elon spoke about this in one of his radio interviews with StarTalk several years ago. The words, however, are taken with a grain of salt - one can hardly imagine how Musk compiled such an advanced list one and a half to two decades ago. However, not everyone is limited by needs like “a new car, a house and a lot of money”...

Elon decided to start with energy, which led young man to Stanford, where he tried to study supercapacitors. At the same time, Musk was writing Internet-oriented software and drawing up business plans. In 1995, Netscape was on top, Amazon had recently launched, and Elon's friend Adeo Ressi launched the city website Total New York in 1994 and could not get enough of his brainchild (which was later sold to AOL). New companies and enterprises appeared around like mushrooms, which today are called nothing more than startups. Bill Gates spoke on TV on David Letterman's show about the future of the Internet. Musk himself, “being on trend,” used a telephone directory purchased on a CD to create a website directory of businesses and organizations, but he was missing something.

The ambitious South African became emotionally ill - the “lost profit syndrome” began to fall on him. But Google hasn’t started working yet. In addition, Elon allegedly incurred serious student loan debt. Something had to be done!

PayPal

However, the closer to general recognition, the more contradictions appear in Musk’s biography. But then the “star boy” was born - simultaneously with the Zip2 company, a primitive “city guide” on the Internet by today’s standards, a modern replacement for those same “Yellow Pages”. The idea was not new and was probably borrowed from Adeo Ressi with his already existing project.

After two days at Stanford, Elon leaves the university and devotes all his energy to Zip2, which he founded together with his brother. They say Musk lived right in the office, not missing a minute of working time. The project developed successfully until Compaq bought it in 1999 for $307 million, which brought 27-year-old Elon $22 million.

Here everything turned out to be not too smooth. The fact is that in 1998, Zip2 intended to merge with a competitor in the person of CitySearch and the transaction amount was estimated at the same $300 million. Musk’s platform was supposed to dissolve into a new enterprise, which, apparently, did not suit the IT businessman. According to unofficial data, it was the future founder of SpaceX who unilaterally broke the agreement at the last moment.

In any case, as soon as Elon got rid of Zip2, he became involved in a new startup - X.com, which later became part of one of the largest electronic payment systems. The project was planned as a financial platform, something like an advanced online bank. What about an unusual name? It sounds nice and doesn’t commit you to anything in particular. Although for some, the letter “X” brought to mind the porn industry.

The startup was launched with money raised from the sale of Zip2, as well as third-party investments. In the same building where the office of the new company was located, another company with a similar type of activity was located - Confinity. And if at first they got along peacefully, then later it became obvious that they were direct competitors. The market was huge, and today the projects would probably be able to divide their spheres of influence. However, X.com and Confinity decided to merge. The first had more employees, a larger client base, and high growth rates. For the founders of Confinity, which was ahead of Musk's company only in terms of the number of eBay users, this became a decisive factor.

In March 2000, X.com acquired Confinity. The deal occurred after Elon’s conflict with the then president of the company he founded, Bill Harris, who did not share Musk’s optimism regarding the merger. It is worth noting that Harris already had a very long experience in the IT field and had supported Elon since the days of Zip2. At the same time, one of the former employees of X.com and PayPal once wrote that Harris was a good financier (he helped attract $100 million in investments), but not a very outstanding CEO. As a result, he left the newly formed company.

A holy place is never empty, and in the second quarter of 2000, Musk took Harris’ place. However, he remained in the post of top manager only until the fall of that year. Due to disagreements with board members, Elon lost the title of CEO. One of the reasons for leaving was allegedly a conflict over the choice of server platform - Musk was against free Unix and demanded to switch to a solution from Microsoft.

By the way, Elon is in some ways similar to Steve Jobs, who was fired from Apple at one time - Musk experienced similar things at both Zip2 and PayPal. He was fired from the latter when the businessman was flying to a vacation spot: according to him, this was supposed to be his first vacation in many years.

In 2001, the combined enterprise was named PayPal, after one of Confinity's products. Now Peter Thiel, the co-founder of the latter, was in charge.

Well, at the time PayPal was acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion, Elon had an 11 percent stake in the financial platform. Profit!

The dream of space ceases to be a dream. The Birth of SpaceX and Tesla

There is money, ideas too. Moreover, the ideas are old, and not invented on the fly. Musk’s first “long-term” project was not Tesla, as many might assume, but SpaceX. Elon dreamed of Mars and space for a long time (it was no coincidence that SpaceX ships were named Falcon - in honor of the “Millennium Falcon” from “ Star Wars"), so he began to realize his dream by founding Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. For what? To build your own spaceship for a flight to the Red Planet, send a “greenhouse” there and create a “Martian oasis.”

Musk was not stopped by the words of friends and colleagues who dissuaded him from the business he had started. Success, which even now looks somewhat shaky from a financial point of view, will take a long time. After all, they started talking about SpaceX seriously only in 2008: then Falcon 1 became the first private liquid-fuel rocket to reach Earth’s orbit and deliver a payload there. Until that moment, Elon’s project was treated with distrust. But between 2002 and 2008, a hole appeared in the company’s history. In 2003, for example, The Los Angeles Times wrote about the young businessman cautiously and with a bit of irony. The author of the material could not decide: whether Musk is a technological genius or another Don Quixote.

Elon wasn’t the only one looking at the stars back then. In 2004, Virgin Galactic and some other companies saw the future of space tourism very optimistically, intending in 3-4 years to establish regular commercial launches of “mere mortals” to places where airplanes do not fly. As you know, reality has made serious adjustments.

SpaceX, founded by Musk, has been actively developing the technology, reporting both achievements and failures. Did the launch vehicle components fall apart during testing due to miscalculations? The news appears on the project website: “The fuel tank was deformed due to a valve malfunction.” Second problem in a row? Fail again? Fifth postponement? Elon signs his name to reports of failures. Has there been a “white streak”? Everyone will learn about this at the same moment first-hand.

There is a feeling that everything was invented and implemented by one single person - Musk himself. Obviously this is not the case. A simple example: the development of Merlin series engines was carried out by Tom Muller, whose employer until a certain point was TRW. Here the chief engineer was part of the team that created the powerful TR-106. However, not everyone was happy with Müller, who believed that he was not appreciated and his ideas were not used. The result is the development of the world's largest liquid fuel rocket engine in a private garage. Garage, Karl! What did Elon do? Called Muller to work in 2002. The engineer currently holds the post of technical director at SpaceX. Musk chose an interesting approach to searching for top leaders, so the people in the company were not random and interesting in their own way. Passionate specialists who are allowed to realize themselves are looking for others like them, and together they make sure that their brainchild - the company and its projects - develops.

When very little time had passed since the founding of SpaceX, Elon began to implement his next fix idea. Or maybe I just got excited about something new. In 2004, already on the board of directors of Tesla, he became an investor in this startup by Martin Eberhard and Mark Tarpenning, founded a year earlier. The businessman saw the potential of the project and invested money in it. Despite the fact that the main goal of the founders of Tesla was not to create a completely electric vehicle, but only to search for effective technologies that would reduce oil consumption. To put it simply, make a “green” car.

History is linear once it has become fact, and until then, things can go in any direction. This relates to the question of whether Tesla would continue to exist without Musk’s money or not. Maybe by 2017 everyone would have forgotten about her? Or, on the contrary, would the company take over the automotive market, like Apple or Samsung did in the mobile market? Today at Tesla Motors, Elon is officially considered a co-founder - apparently, there are reasons for this, and it’s unlikely that anyone cares about outside opinions. As a result, Tesla followed in the footsteps of Chrysler, which in 1925 became “the last successful auto startup in the United States,” and those who entered the market with electric cars did not achieve serious success at all.

The AC Propulsion tzero played a role in the creation of the Roadster, Tesla's commercial first-born. Allegedly, it was its power unit that was used in the prototype of Musk’s car. Appearance“gifted” Lotus because Elon was obsessed with British sports cars. Already in 2006, the Tesla Roadster was introduced, but the production of the mass version lasted from 2008 to 2012. It was Musk who became the person who was able to attract all the investments necessary for the implementation of the project. This happened in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009 - tens of millions of dollars appeared thanks to Elon. In 2007, one of its founders, Martin Eberhard, left the company. The company was briefly headed by an Israeli businessman, who reduced the staff by 10% and made Tesla profitable. In 2008, he was replaced by Musk.

Somewhere during this period, Tesla and SpaceX already give the impression of becoming stronger companies - they have commercial products and evidence that their time was well spent. The financial crisis made its own adjustments, although it did not affect the lemurs of Madagascar. Elon, who compared what was happening with the period Great Depression, fired another quarter of the company's employees, and also announced the postponement of the release of the first Model S. "There are also positive point: We now have time to make it even better,”- said the businessman.

Almost collapse and billion-dollar contracts

In 2008, the company was threatened with bankruptcy, but Musk was able to avoid this, and a couple of months later, in the spring of 2009, a prototype Model S was exhibited at the SpaceX headquarters. Elon described the past year as the worst of his life: Tesla was losing money, and SpaceX couldn't launch Falcon 1...

This period was crucial moment V modern history SpaceX and Tesla: despite all the criticism and obstacles, including financial ones, the projects survived. And then a contract with NASA for $1.6 billion arrived. In addition, people were actively placing pre-orders for Model S, Daimler AG believed in the project, buying 10% of Tesla for the now ridiculous $50 million (today the share is estimated at billions of dollars). Profitability, by the way, at least for Tesla, still remains a big question - but this does not stop Musk.