As expected for weeks, Elon Musk, unconditional support of the Republican candidate during the presidential campaign against Kamala Harris, will join the Trump administration. The newly elected American president, officially inaugurated on January 20, has appointed the multi-billionaire to head a ministry of “governmental efficiency”. The wealthy entrepreneur will work hand in hand with Vivek Ramaswamy, unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination.
Their mission? “Dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excessive regulations, cut unnecessary spending and restructure federal agencies,” Donald Trump said in a statement. A hell of a project for the richest man in the world whose fortune this Wednesday, November 13, 2024 amounts to $308 billion according to Forbes estimates. Where does the fortune of the first man to hold more than $300 billion come from?
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Born into a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa, Elon Musk grew up with his nose in Books. “I was raised by books. Books, then my parents,” the millionaire confided years later. Passionate about computers and video games from an early age, the introverted and solitary teenager created his first video game at the age of 12, which he sold for $500. Five years later, he moved to Canada “with $2,000, a backpack and a suitcase full of books” from where he hoped to enter the United States, a country that fascinated him. In 1992, he began studying at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and graduated with a degree in economics and physics.
1995, the year everything changed
For Elon Musk, the road to fortune began in 1995 when he founded Zip2 with his brother, an online directory listing restaurants, boutiques, hairdressers and other local businesses. This start-up also had the mission of helping media publish content online, which no one was doing at the time. Four years after its launch, the young company was bought for $307 million by Compaq. Elon Musk pockets $22 million in the operation.
After selling Zip2 in 1999, the introverted ex-geek wants to contribute to the growth of online payment around the world. The entrepreneur who has just founded his online bank X.com hears about Confinity. The two young companies joined forces and this merger transformed into PayPal. A name that does not really please Elon Musk, who is determined to keep the name X.com (he will take his revenge with the purchase of Twitter which he will rename X in 2022). PayPal quickly exceeds one million customers and marks the launch of the online payment revolution at the start of the 21st century.
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In 2002, eBay put $1.5 billion on the table to buy the young company. Elon Musk and his other cronies from the “PayPal mafia” all become multimillionaires. The one who has South African, Canadian and American nationality used the money to invest in Tesla and found SpaceX. If the beginnings of the company which aims to revolutionize space technology are chaotic, the company, launched in 2002, twenty years later became the benchmark in space transport to the point of becoming the first company to send humans into space. space. The boss of SpaceX wants to go further and wants to launch the first unmanned flights on Mars within two years. The value of SpaceX, created in 2002, is estimated to be around $200 billion today.
The acquisition of Twitter to promote its ideas
Building on the success of SpaceX but also Tesla and Starlink, the jack-of-all-trades billionaire bought Twitter, which he renamed X, in October 2022 for $44 billion. In two years, he transformed the social network into an instrument of power in the service of his ideas, which lean very right. Hold on, Elon Musk, followed by 204 million people on X, posted more than 3,000 tweets during the month preceding Donald Trump's victory, often to denigrate the Democratic camp. If we say that money does not buy happiness, it can in any case lead to the corridors of the White House.
