{"id":15918,"date":"2022-05-01T16:59:29","date_gmt":"2022-05-01T16:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk"},"modified":"2022-05-01T17:37:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T17:37:00","slug":"who-is-elon-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk","title":{"rendered":"Who is Elon Musk?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Sudan. <\/strong><\/span>Elon Musk is set to take over Twitter, the small but mighty social media platform used by politicians, journalists and neighbourhood trolls alike to spread news, hot takes, and sometimes misinformation.<\/p>\n

As he prepares to put his stamp on the company, let\u2019s review what we know about the billionaire. Since bursting on the Silicon Valley scene more than two decades ago, the 50-year-old serial entrepreneur has kept the public captivated with his business antics.<\/p>\n

Born in South Africa, Mr Musk showed his talents for entrepreneurship early, going door to door with his brother selling homemade chocolate Easter eggs and developing his first computer game at the age of 12.<\/p>\n

He has described his childhood as difficult, coloured by his parents\u2019 divorce, bullying at school and his own difficulty reading social cues due to Asperger\u2019s Syndrome.<\/p>\n

He soon fled home for college, moving to Canada and then the US, where he studied economics and physics at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League college.<\/p>\n

In a 2010 essay for Marie Claire, his first wife Justine Musk, a writer who met Mr Musk in college and married him in 2000, wrote that even before his millions, Mr Musk was \u201cnot a man who takes no for an answer\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe will to compete and dominate that made him so successful in business did not magically shut off when he came home,\u201d she recalled, adding that he told her while dancing at their wedding, \u201cI am the alpha in this relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being accepted to a physics graduate degree programme at Stanford University, Mr Musk quickly dropped out and founded two technology start-up companies during the \u201cdot com boom\u201d of the 1990s. These included a web software firm and an online banking company that eventually became PayPal, which sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5bn.<\/p>\n

He ploughed his fortune into a new rocket company, SpaceX, which he aimed to make a cost-effective alternative to Nasa, and a new electric car company, Tesla, where he chaired the board until becoming chief executive in 2008.<\/p>\n

The two firms are credited with upending their industries, even as they sometimes veered close to collapse. \u201cI\u2019m never hugely convinced that he knows what he wants to do tomorrow,\u201d says journalist Chris Stokel-Walker. \u201cHe very much leads by instinct.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a 2015 biography, author Ashlee Vance described Mr Musk as \u201ca confrontational know-it-all\u201d with an \u201cabundant ego\u201d. But he also called him an awkward dancer and diffident public speaker. Divorced three times \u2013 twice to the same woman \u2013 Mr Musk is frank about his vices, regularly discussing his fondness for marijuana.<\/p>\n

In the press, he\u2019s been dubbed both a mad genius and Twitter\u2019s biggest troll, known as much for his lofty ambitions as his petty fights \u2013 not to mention the more serious lawsuits he and his companies have faced from regulators, investors and others over issues like racial discrimination and the trustworthiness of his claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you list my sins, I sound like the worst person on Earth,\u201d Mr Musk said in a recent TED interview. \u201cBut if you put those against the things I\u2019ve done right, it makes much more sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the messiness appears to be part of his appeal \u2013 and it certainly hasn\u2019t stopped him from amassing a fortune. Forbes and Bloomberg now rank him as the world\u2019s richest person, with a net worth of about $250bn \u2013 tens of millions more than his nearest rival, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s based largely on the value of his shares in Tesla, of which he owns about 17%. The company\u2019s stock has exploded in value \u2013 some say unreasonably \u2013 since the start of 2020, rising by a factor of 10 as the firm\u2019s output increased and it started to deliver regular profits.<\/p>\n

Mr Musk also champions digital currencies and has a hand in several other smaller companies, including tunnel-maker the Boring Company and experimental brain-computer start-up Neuralink.<\/p>\n

Mr Musk, who wears the mantle of workaholic proudly, has often said he\u2019s not in business simply to make money \u2013 claims he repeated recently about Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cElon only gets involved with things if he feels that they\u2019re critically important for some reason\u2026 for the sake of society or humanity,\u201d says friend and Tesla investor Ross Gerber.<\/p>\n

Mr Musk, who became a US citizen in 2002, has resisted efforts to label his politics \u2013 calling himself \u201chalf Democrat half Republican\u201d, \u201cpolitically moderate\u201d and \u201cindependent\u201d. That doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s shied away from political fights.<\/p>\n

He moved to Texas, complaining of California\u2019s regulations and high taxes; has clashed with union organisers; and in the spring of 2020 decried coronavirus lockdowns as \u201cfascist\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was one of the first business executives to part ways with former President Donald Trump, quitting a White House business council after Mr Trump withdrew the US from a global climate agreement. But he\u2019s also made it clear he\u2019s not a fan of President Joe Biden, who he sees as snubbing Tesla while promoting electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

His direct political donations are relatively small for a man of his wealth \u2013 just $100,000 since 2004, according to Politico, fairly evenly split between the parties, at least in the early years. He gave to former President Barack Obama in 2011 and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2015, though more recently has focused on Republicans.<\/p>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union, a US non-profit organisation known for its championship of values such as free speech, has recognised him as a top supporter. However, reports suggest most of Mr Musk\u2019s donations have gone to charitable foundations he has set up himself that are charged with, eventually, disbursing the funds.<\/p>\n

He said recently that he sees his businesses as a form of philanthropy, because they are focused on solving major human issues like climate change, in the case of Tesla.<\/p>\n

Last fall, when the head of the United Nations World Food Programme called on billionaires to make one-time donations to solve the world\u2019s food crisis, Mr Musk responded with scepticism to the challenge.<\/p>\n

What that will all mean for Twitter \u2013 a platform already facing criticism from the left and right over its content moderation policies \u2013 is anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easiest part for Musk was buying Twitter,\u201d says Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. \u201cThe hard part is going to be fixing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Sudan<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Sudan. Elon Musk is set to take over Twitter, the small but mighty social media platform used by politicians, journalists and neighbourhood trolls alike to spread news, hot takes, and sometimes misinformation. As he prepares to put his stamp on the company, let\u2019s review what we know about the billionaire. Since bursting on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[234,695,265,694,233],"class_list":["post-15918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-africa-press-south-sudan","tag-mozambique","tag-south-sudan"],"yoast_head":"\nWho is Elon Musk? - South Sudan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Elon Musk is set to take over Twitter, the small but mighty social media platform used by politicians, journalists and n ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who is Elon Musk?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elon Musk is set to take over Twitter, the small but mighty social media platform used by politicians, journalists and n ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Sudan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-01T16:59:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-01T17:37:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/sites\/32\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_9-626ec4efa81b4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"976\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"549\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Who is Elon Musk?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-01T16:59:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-01T17:37:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk\"},\"wordCount\":1061,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/sites\/32\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_9-626ec4efa81b4.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mozambique\",\"Africa Press-South-Sudan\",\"Mozambique\",\"South-Sudan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/who-is-elon-musk\",\"name\":\"Who is Elon Musk? 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