Eight things you need to know about billionaire Elon Musk
THE maverick billionaire’s claim he can fix South Australia’s energy woes in 100 days is getting some attention. Here’s what you need to know.
MAKING a bet that he can fix South Australia’s energy crisis in 100 days really isn’t out of character for billionaire Elon Musk.
Wild claims and even wilder ventures are bread and butter for this maverick entrepreneur, whose boast over Twitter that he could build a storage system for the state in 100 days or would provide it free has now escalated to talks with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Australian billionaire Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes challenged Musk to put his money where his mouth was over Twitter last week after the head of Tesla’s battery division Lyndon Rive told ABC the company could provide 100-300 megawatt hours of batteries to South Australia within 100 days.
Musk responded: “Telsa will get the system installed and working 100 days from contract signature or it is free. That serious enough for you?”
While political support for the plan grows, here’s seven things you should know about the Tesla boss.
1) Wild relationships
Elon Musk is believed to be dating Johnny Depp’s ex-wife Amber Heard.
Musk and Heard, who made international headlines after smuggling her dogs Pistol and Boo into Australia, were seen attending a screening of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth Sequel: Truth to Power earlier this month. Veteran political journalist Michelle Grattan has suggest someone break the news of their relationship to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce gently.
Musk was also married to actor Talulah Riley — twice. The couple first married in 2010, split in 2012, remarried in 2013 then divorced last year. They made headlines by strapping themselves to biplanes in 2015 and “wing walking”.
2) Rich list
Musk is the 94th wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated worth of $13.7 billion.
He started with just $28,000 borrowed from his father to launch software company Zip 2 in 1994, then sold the company five years later for $22 million. Early indications of his drive to succeed include running a speak-easy from his dorm room in college, cold calling top banking executives and sleeping out of his Zip 2 office for three months when it started.
3) Superhero inspo
Marvel’s “genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist” Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, was partly modelled on Elon Musk. Director Jon Favreau said in 2010: “When I was trying to bring the character of genius billionaire Tony Stark to the big screen in Iron Man, I had no idea how to make him seem real.”
“Robert Downey Jr. said, ‘We need to sit down with Elon Musk.’ He was right.”
4) Life on Mars
Musk has promised to send humans to Mars by 2031. There are already tickets available for $500,000 a pop. His company SpaceX will send two tourists on a week-long trip around the moon next year.
“The first journey to Mars is going to be really very dangerous,” Musk told a SpaceX forum last year.
“The risk of fatality will be high, there’s just no way around it.
“I would not suggest having any children — it would be ‘Are you prepared to die?’ If that’s okay, then you would be a candidate for going.”
Musk believes the survival of the human race will be more likely if we’re a multi-planetary species.
5) AI
Another of Musk’s key goals is creating safe artificial intelligence, even though he believes it to be “the most serious threat to the survival of the human race”. He launched OpenAI, a not-for-profit research company, in 2015 to develop safe, widely-available artificial intelligence to stop corporate giants or governments from using AI to gain profits or oppress the public.
6) Trump connections
US President Donald Trump called on Musk to be part of his team of advisers during his transition period as President-elect. Musk was critical of Trump during the election campaign but defended joining the advisory team by saying: “The more voices of reason that the President hears, the better.”
7) Green tech king
Green technology has been a long-time passion and business strategy. Musk invested in Tesla in 2004 to make electric cars. He claims to have come up with the idea for SolarCity at the Burning Man festival the same year. It’s now the second largest provider of solar power systems in the US. He also has plans to build a high-speed transport system where capsules travel on air compression, called the HyperLoop. He announced plans over Twitter to build a tunnel under Los Angeles.
8) Growing up
Musk was viciously bullied as a kid growing up in South Africa and was once pushed down a flight of stairs.
Originally published as Eight things you need to know about billionaire Elon Musk