Elon Musk has been one of the most influential entrepreneurs of the 21st century. He captured the world's attention for his bold pursuit of revolutionary innovations. But his meteoric rise to becoming one of the richest people on Earth was matched by an equally stunning series of controversies, missteps, and failures that led to his downfall. This is the story of the remarkable rise and fall of Elon Musk.
After making his first millions in the 1990s dot-com boom, Musk co-founded the online financial services and e-mail payment company X.com in 1999. It merged with Confinity in 2000 and was renamed PayPal. Musk was ousted as CEO but remained the majority shareholder. When eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002, Musk earned $165 million from the sale, providing him with his first major fortune.
Flush with cash from the PayPal sale, Musk turned his sights to space exploration by founding Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in 2002. SpaceX pioneered reusable orbital rockets and inexpensive spaceflight to revolutionize and privatize the space industry. Musk's big vision was to make humans a multiplanetary species by establishing a colony on Mars. SpaceX has led pioneering achievements like the first private liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit and the first private company to launch and return a spacecraft from orbit.
Musk joined Tesla Motors as CEO and product architect in 2008 after initially acting as an early investor. He played a key role in designing the all-electric Tesla Roadster sports car, the first serial production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells. Released in 2008, the Roadster helped prove the potential for electric vehicles to compete in performance and range.
SpaceX made history in 2010 by becoming the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from orbit as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Development program to develop commercial spaceflight to low Earth orbit. This was a major step in the emergence of private spaceflight.
Musk garnered significant press attention in 2013 by proposing the Hyperloop, a conceptual high-speed transportation system involving pressurized passenger pods traveling at airliner speeds through a reduced-pressure tube. While the Hyperloop was not actually constructed, this demonstrated Musk's penchant for envisioning extremely advanced futuristic innovations.
A major milestone in rocketry was achieved in 2015 when SpaceX successfully vertically landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 orbital rocket back on Earth post-launch. Reusable rockets drastically reduce spaceflight costs. SpaceX went on to pioneer reusability for orbital class rockets.
In Musk's drive to promote sustainable energy, Tesla acquired solar panel developer SolarCity in 2016 for $2.6 billion. This significantly expanded Tesla's clean energy business to include solar as well as electric vehicles and battery storage. Musk was also the chairman and largest shareholder of SolarCity.
SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018, the world's most powerful operational rocket and the first super heavy-lift launch vehicle entirely funded privately as opposed to by a government. The successful launch signaled SpaceX cementing its status as the global leader in commercial spaceflight.
Musk found himself embroiled in controversy in 2018 when he called a British cave diver involved in the Tham Luang cave rescue a "pedo guy" on Twitter without substantiation, precipitating a defamation lawsuit. Though Musk was found not liable, this marked the beginning of increasing public skepticism regarding his judgment.
Musk's reputation substantially deteriorated in 2022 amid his chaotic acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion and the mass layoffs and disorganization within Twitter that followed. Combined with the crash in Tesla stock value, Musk went from being the world's richest person to losing much of his prestige and public faith as his empire showed signs of crumbling.
The dramatic rise and downfall of Elon Musk has been an economic and cultural phenomenon. His vision and brilliance built revolutionary companies like SpaceX and Tesla that changed their industries. But Musk also became known for controversy, questionable judgment and an unpredictable personality. His decline in reputation signals the pitfalls of power and ego that Musk ultimately fell victim to after reaching extraordinary heights of success. His story is one of soaring ambition and tragic human flaws.
