Elon Musk: 5 Fun Facts You Need to Know
Elon Musk… you can love him. You can hate him.
But you can’t ignore Tesla’s (TSLA) polarizing CEO.
Because most executives can’t move markets with a single Tweet.
But you might be surprised to learn the self-proclaimed “Dogefather” hasn’t always liked crypto and is a citizen of 3 countries.
So let's learn a little more about the man..
Musk Was the First Person in History Worth $300 billion
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the richest person in the world and his climb to the top has been historic.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows Musk had a net worth of $27.6 billion at the end of 2019.
By the end of 2020, that number ballooned to $161 billion.
That’s the biggest one-year increase for any person in history.
In 2021, he became the first person ever to be worth more than $300 billion.
Musk crossed that milestone on October 28, 2021 as Tesla shares jumped to $1,114.
Musk’s worth has fluctuated along with Tesla’s share price, but he still remains on top of the billionaire’s list.
Tesla is the Only Stock Musk Owns
During a 2018 interview at South by Southwest, Musk said, “I actually don’t invest in anything. In fact, the only public security that I own of any kind is Tesla.”
As of February 2022, Musk holds an estimated 177 million Tesla shares, after selling a bunch of the stock in the second half of 2021.
Those share sales were part of a 10B5-1 trading plan filed by Tesla with the SEC in September 2021.
But Musk had a little fun before executing the sales, sending out a Twitter poll in November asking if he should sell 10% of his stake.
Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.
Do you support this?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021
That poll prompted a short-lived selloff in the stock, and Musk proceeded to sell more than $16 billion worth of shares by December 28.
But he also exercised options to purchase more shares at the same time, increasing his total stake by the end of the year.
Although he doesn’t own any other stocks, Musk has become a big fan of cryptocurrencies.
Speaking of which…
The Dogefather Has Not Always Liked Crypto
It’s safe to say Musk’s feelings about crypto have changed over the years.
In a February 2018 tweet, the Tesla CEO said he literally owned zero cryptocurrency.
Not sure. I let @jack know, but it’s still going. I literally own zero cryptocurrency, apart from .25 BTC that a friend sent me many years ago.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2018
We don’t know exactly when his attitude about crypto changed, but Musk was all-in by 2021.
He boosted the value of Dogecoin by tweeting about it, and even proclaimed himself the Dogefather before hosting SNL in April 2021.
The Dogefather
SNL May 8— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2021
But he’s also worked to enact change in the crypto space.
Musk changed his mind on Tesla accepting Bitcoin as payment in May 2021, raising concerns about the environmental impact of mining.
Speaking at the virtual B Word Conference in July 2021, he said the automaker would probably accept Bitcoin again in the future.
“I wanted a little bit more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50%, and that there is a trend towards increasing that number, and if so Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin,” Musk said.
Tesla’s 2022 annual report with the SEC showed the automaker still holds about $2 billion worth of Bitcoin.
PayPal Helped Musk Start Tesla
In March 1999, Musk cofounded the online banking site called X.com.
A year later, X.com merged with Max Levchin and Peter Thiel’s PayPal.
When PayPal was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, Musk received a $180 million payout
$70 million of that money went into Tesla.
Musk is from South Africa
Hearing Elon Musk speak, you might wonder where he’s from.
He was born in Pretoria, South Africa on June 28, 1971.
The billionaire was raised in that town by his South African father and Canadian mother.
He moved to Canada at 17-years-old to avoid being forced to enlist in the South African military.
Musk then came to the U.S. two years later when he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania.
He holds triple citizenship in South Africa, the U.S., and Canada.
So an immigrant from South Africa started the most valuable car company ever and cemented himself as the richest person in history.
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