50 Facts And Figures About Elon Musk On His 50th Birthday

One of the world’s most well-known CEOs, Elon Reeve Musk was born June 28, 1971, in South Africa and is celebrating his 50th birthday in 2021.

Known for his use of memes on social media including mentions of popular jokes involving 69 and 4/20, it might come as a surprise that with a birthday on June 28, Musk was born 69 days after 4/20.

Here is a look at 50 more facts and figures about Musk in honor of this milestone birthday.

Related Link: If You Invested $1,000 In Tesla Stock After Elon Musk Appeared On The Simpsons, Here's How Much You'd Have Now 

1. Daydreams: As a child, Musk often daydreamed about inventions that led to his parents and doctors testing his hearing.
2. Bullied: Musk was bullied in grade school likely as the result of being short and focused on his education. Musk learned karate and wrestling to defend himself.
3. Two Siblings: Musk has a brother Kimbal Musk, who is involved with Tesla, and a sister Tosca.
4. Children: Musk’s children include Xavier, Griffin, Damian, Saxon, Kai and X Æ A-Xii.
5. Relationships: Musk was married to author Justine Wilson for eight years. The couple share custody of their five children Xavier, Griffin, Damian, Saxon and Kai. Musk was also married to actress Talulah Riley. Musk has dated musician Claire Elise Boucher, professionally known as Grimes, since 2018 and they have one child together.
6. Programming: Musk taught himself how to program at the age of 12, which led to an early interest in computers and creating companies.
7. American Citizen: Musk became an American citizen in 2002 at the age of 31.
8. Moves: Musk moved from South Africa to Canada at the age of 17. Musk attended college in the U.S. and then moved to California.
9. Citizenship: Musk obtained Canadian citizenship in 1989 as a move to make future American citizenship easier. Musk has citizenship from three countries as a result.
10. College: Musk graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.
11. Stanford Dropout: After graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, Musk attended Stanford University as part of the graduate school in physics. Musk dropped out two days later.
12. Zip2: One of the first company’s Musk created came after dropping out of Stanford was Zip2, which provided maps and business directories for online newspapers. The business was sold for $307 million in 1999.
13. PayPal: Musk co-founded X.com, the online payment company that eventually became PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL. EBay acquired the company for $1.5 billion in stock, including $165 million given to Musk.
14. Tesla: Musk is the CEO of Tesla Inc TSLA, a market-leading electric vehicle company in the U.S.
15. SpaceX: Space company SpaceX was created by Musk and has revolutionized the space market with reusable rockets and a lower cost to launch into space.
16. Humans on Mars: Among the things Musk wants to see happen is the colonization of Mars.
17. Other Companies: Along with Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is also known for creating companies such as The Boring Company, OpenAI, Hyperloop and Neuralink.
18. SolarCity: Musk and Tesla Motors acquired SolarCity Corp in 2016 for $2.6 billion. The company was founded by cousins of Musk in 2006.
19. Tesla Salary: Musk takes a minimal salary from Tesla, getting paid the minimum allowed in the state of California.
20. Musk has an options package that was approved by the Board of Directors that pays him based on the share price, market cap, revenue and EBITDA of Tesla.
21. SEC Fine: A tweet from Musk announcing he would take Tesla private led to a $20 million fine for both Musk and Tesla. Musk also stepped down from being the chairman of Tesla for three years as part of the SEC settlement.
22. Musk Doesn’t Like Facebook: Musk has spoken out against Facebook Inc FB on several occasions. The billionaire took down the Facebook pages for Tesla and SpaceX.
23. Musk Likes Twitter: Musk is a frequent user of Twitter Inc TWTR. “Some people use their hair to express themselves, I use Twitter,” Musk said. A 12-month period in 2020 showed Musk was the most active CEO on Twitter tweeting 3,266 times.
24. Musk as Tony Stark: Musk was the inspiration for the Tony Stark portrayal by Robert Downey Jr. in the “Iron Man” movies from Walt Disney Co.’s DIS Marvel unit. He made a cameo appearance in “Iron Man 2.”
25. Musk Cameos: Musk has appeared in several movies and television shows. He appeared as himself on “The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon” and also voiced a similar version of himself on an episode of “Rick and Morty.”
26. Appearance on Simpsons: Musk played himself in episode 564 of “The Simpsons.” The episode called “The Musk Who Fell To Earth” aired on Fox Corp FOX on Jan. 25, 2015, and featured Mr. Burns trying to assassinate Musk.
27. Hosting SNL: On May 8, 2021, Musk hosted “Saturday Night Live” on NBC, a unit of Comcast Corporation CMCSA. The episode featured mentions of electric vehicles, space and Dogecoin.
28. Has Asperger’s: On the SNL episode, Musk revealed he has Asperger’s Syndrome, a condition where people have difficulties with social interaction and nonverbal communication.
29. Musk Sold Video Game Company: At the age of 12, Musk sold a video game company he created called Blastar for $500.
30. Favorite Video Games: Musk said in an interview that his favorite games are “Deus Ex,” “Fallout” and “Bioshock.”
31. Tesla Close to Bankruptcy: From mid-2017 to mid-2019, Tesla was going through logistics and production hell that led to the company nearly declaring bankruptcy ahead of the Tesla Model 3 launch.
32. Musk Went All In: With Tesla a month away from bankruptcy, Musk put in the last of his own money despite the thought that the company would fail. “It was either that or certain death for Tesla,” Musk said.
33. Dogefather: Along with being the CEO of several companies, Musk is well-known as the figurehead of Dogecoin, a meme-based cryptocurrency. A Twitter poll in 2019 appointed Musk as the Dogefather and CEO of Dogecoin.
34. Giving Pledge: Musk is one of several billionaires that have signed the Giving Pledge, which promises to donate the majority of wealth to philanthropic efforts.
35. James Bond Car: The submarine car Wet Nellie featured in the James Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me” is owned by Musk.
36. Throwing Parties: Musk has thrown some lavish parties in his lifetime which include renting a castle in England and having guests play hide and seek.
37. Favorite TV Shows: Musk has been asked about which shows he finds time to watch in his busy schedule. Among those mentioned were “Silicon Valley” and “Black Mirror.”
38. Favorite Movies: Musk has talked often of being a fan of anime and the movie “Your Name.” Other favorites include “Spirited Away” and “Princess Mononoke.”
39. Genghis Khan: A fan of documentaries, Musk said in an interview that he had watched a documentary on Khan three times. “You seem to be obsessed with that,” his girlfriend Grimes said of Khan and the Mongols.
40. Joe Rogan Podcast: An appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2018 lasted over two hours and Musk smoke marijuana.
41. Musician: Musk has released rap tracks and EDM tracks that contain lyrics he wrote and feature some of his own vocals.
42. Richest Person: In early 2021, Musk passed Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN founder Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest person. Musk has ranked in the top three throughout 2021.
43. Against Short Selling: Musk has been an opponent of the practice of shorting stocks with Tesla a frequent target by short-sellers.
44. Bitcoin and Dogecoin: Musk’s tweets about Bitcoin and Dogecoin that include posts and memes often result in heavy moves in the popular cryptocurrencies.
45. Royal Society: In 2018, Musk was elected to the Royal Society, the oldest national scientific institution in the world.
46. Influential Man: Time Magazine has featured Musk as a member of its annual Most Influential People list on several occasions including 2010, 2013 and 2018.
47. Living in $50,000 House: Musk is in the process of selling $130 million in real estate assets and now lives in a $50,000 house in Starbase, Texas near the SpaceX headquarters.
48. New Biography Could Be Coming: Several biographies have been written about Musk and another could be coming with Walter Isaacson rumored to be working on a biography of Musk. Isaacson wrote a biography of Apple Inc AAPL CEO Steve Jobs that sold over 3 million copies and was turned into a movie.
49. SpaceX Series: HBO is working on a six-episode miniseries about the early days of SpaceX. The show will be one of the first times Musk is portrayed in a biographical feature.
50. Caffeine Addiction: In the early days of launching his companies, Musk consumed eight cans of Diet Coke and multiple cups of coffee each day to stay awake during his busy schedule.

Related Link: If You Invested $100 When Elon Musk First Tweeted About Dogecoin, Here's How Much You'd Have Now