Elon Musk, the world's richest man, completed the $44 billion takeover of Twitter on Thursday and fired four of the social media behemoth's executives shortly after doing so.
The serial entrepreneur is believed to be worth around $221 billion, according to the Forbes Billionaire Rich List, having made his fortune by founding several businesses.
He was born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa, before spending time in Canada and the U.S.
Here is a list of the major moments in Musk's business career and how old he was at the time.
What Age Was Elon Musk When He Founded Zip2?
The first company Musk founded was Zip2, which provided maps and business directories to online newspapers. He founded the company in 1995 when he was 24 years old.
In 1999, Zip2 was bought by Compaq, a computer manufacturer, for $307 million.
How Old Was Elon Musk When He Started X.com?
Musk later started X.com, an online financial services company, in 1999, when he was around 28 years old.
What Age Was Elon Musk When He Started PayPal?
Online money transfer company X.com became PayPal in June 2001, close to when Musk would have been celebrating his 30th birthday.
In 2002, online auctioneer eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion.
How Old Was Elon Musk When He Started SpaceX?
The same year he sold PayPal, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). Musk was 30 years old on that day, March 14, 2002.
SpaceX has since flown several missions into space and to date is the only private company capable of returning a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit.
How Old Was Elon Musk When He Became Tesla CEO?
In 2004, Musk become one of the first investors in the electric car company. In October 2008, when Musk was 37, he became CEO and product architect.
What Age Was Elon Musk When He Founded Neuralink?
In July 2016, Musk founded Neuralink, a brain computer chip startup based in San Francisco. It intends to develop ultra-high bandwidth interfaces between brains and computers. Musk was 45 when he founded the company.
How Old Was Elon Musk When He Founded the Boring Company?
In December 2016, when Musk was 45, he founded The Boring Company (TBC), a tunnel construction company that is working on high-speed intra-city transit system. The TBC-developed Hyperloop aims to allow passengers to travel in autonomous electric pods at more than 600mph.
How Old Was Elon Musk When He Completed the Twitter Takeover?
Musk was 51 when he completed the acquisition of Twitter, a day before the deadline. The deal nearly collapsed in July, when Musk tried to withdraw his offer after he accused Twitter executives of refusing to provide details about the number of spam bots on the site.
Musk has pledged to make the platform more tolerant of free speech. In what would be a controversial move, Musk is expected to reverse lifetime bans on some users, including Donald Trump. The former U.S. president was permanently suspended from the platform after the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C, "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."
Newsweek has contacted Twitter for comment.
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Jack Dutton is a Newsweek Reporter based in Cape Town, South Africa. His focus is reporting on global politics and ... Read more
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