CAPE TOWN - South African born billionaire, Elon Musk has world-changing plans and business ventures such as taking over outer space, connecting the world to high-speed internet, reinventing cars and changing the transportation industry.
Renecently, Musk said that Mars spaceships will be ready for short trips by the first half of 2019.
Speaking at a surprise Q&A session at the South by Southwest (SXSW) technology and culture festival in Austin, Texas, the Tesla and SpaceX founder said “We are building the first Mars, or interplanetary ship, and I think well be able to do short trips and flights by first half of next year.”
It has always been a dream of his and he has said in the past that he wants to put humans on Mars by 2024.
He revealed in 2017 that he was building the new rocket ship with the code name “BFR” that would be capable of traveling anywhere on Earth in under an hour. The spacecraft would ultimately manage missions to the Moon or Mars, Musk said.
Musk has shown that he has great influence in the world when In December 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People.
Musk also made headlines when his Falcon Rocket in partnership with German new-space firm PTScientists, Vodafone, Nokia and Audi to create a Moon-based communications network using 4G LTE to bring high-def video of the moon to Earth.
Fans of the entrepreneur were also targeted in a crypto-currency scam. Scammers posed as celebrities on Twitter and claimed to be giving away crypto-cash such as Bitcoin or Ether to their fans.
An account posing as Elon Musk using the username @elonmuskik tweeted that the entrepreneur was going to "give away" 3,000 Ether, worth about £1.7m.
(Image: Above the image shows the fake profile scamming people for Bitcoin)
Musk was set to win an award from Tesla worth $ 2.6 billion which would give him 12% of additional shares in the company. However, proxy advisor Glass Lewis & Co. said that the award should not be given as it is too costly and would dilute other investors of Tesla.
Take a look at how Musk became one of the most powerful businesses men around.
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FACTSHEET:
1. Elon Reeve Musk is a South African-born Canadian American business magnate, investor, and engineer.
2. Musk was born in Born in Pretoria, on June 28, 1971.
3. His parents are SA engineer Errol Musk and mother, Maye Musk, who is a Canadian-South African model and dietitian.
4. He attended Bryanston High School in Sandton, Johannesburg.
5. At the age of 12, Musk taught himself computer programming.
6. In 1989, At age 17, He moved to Canada to attend Queen’s University and to avoid mandatory service in the South African military.
7. He left in 1992 to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania.
8. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed for a second bachelor’s degree in physics.
9. Musk founded his first company Zip2 in 1995, a software company for online newspapers, together with his brother Kimbal.
10. In 1999, He sold Zip2 to US computer maker Compaq for more than $300m (R3, 571, 605,000)
11. Musk went on to co-found the company that ultimately became Paypal, which was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion (R17, 855, 325, 000) in 2002.
12. In 2002, Musk started the ambitious space exploration company SpaceX.
13. He is not only the founder but also the CEO and lead designer of SpaceX;
14. In 2003, Musk became the chairperson of electric car maker Tesla.
15. According to Forbes Musk is worth 20,8 billion USD (R247,593, 840,000) and is the 53rd richest person in the world.