ELON MUSK

1971–

Technology pioneer, engineer, and philanthropist Elon Musk is best known for heading the electric car manufacturer Tesla. His diverse entrepreneurial successes also include cofounding web maps company Zip2, the internet payment system PayPal, and aerospace company SpaceX, which launched a landmark commercial spacecraft in 2012.

Born in South Africa in 1971, Elon Reeve Musk showed a keen interest in computers from childhood. He lived with his father from the age of nine, and had developed and sold his first video game by age 12. In 1989, Musk left Pretoria to attend college in Canada. He went on to study at Stanford University but left when he spotted a great opportunity to set up in business.

It was 1995 and California was abuzz with news about the burgeoning internet. With his brother, Kimbal, Musk started Zip2, one of the first internet map and web direction services, which helped print media such as The New York Times get online. Four years later, the brothers sold Zip2 to Compaq, making them multimillionaires.

Investing in ideas

Musk’s next business venture with his brother was in online financial services. Using the money made from Zip2, they set up internet payment company X.com. This went on to become PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002. Musk, who had owned 11 percent of the company, was now a billionaire.

Space discovery was Musk’s next idea. In 2002, he cofounded aerospace company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), which attracted world attention because of its significant breakthroughs. These included developing innovative rocket engines and, in 2012, operating the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station. Interested in the prospect of creating a self-sustaining community on Mars, and the launch of space tourism, Musk has continued to oversee the development of new spacecraft in his roles as lead designer and CEO.

Initially as an offshoot of SpaceX, Musk founded The Boring Company in 2016. Combining fast, affordable tunneling technology with an all-electric public transportation system, Musk aims to improve travel between and within cities.

Musk has overseen the development of all products at Tesla, including a network of fast-charging stations introduced from 2012.

Commercial spacecraft are seen orbiting Earth in these 3-D illustrations. Musk is pioneering the development of fully and rapidly reusable rockets and spacecraft to reduce the cost of space travel.

MARC BENIOFF

American technology pioneer and leading philanthropist Marc Benioff changed the way we access and use software when he founded Salesforce, his cloud computing company.

Benioff (1964–) wrote and sold his first software application at the age of 14. He went on to study business administration and then spent 13 years at Oracle, becoming their youngest vice president. In 1999, he founded Salesforce, pioneering cloud computing and software as a service. He has received numerous innovation awards and become a leader in corporate philanthropy, creating the 1-1-1 model—where companies commit 1 percent of product, time, and resources to help communities.

Taking over Tesla

A true polymath, Musk has also become involved in companies associated with sustainable energy. Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning with the aim of building and commercializing an all-electric car. In 2004, Musk joined as chairman and major investor. The first Tesla product, the Roadster sports car, was released in 2008. Following collaborations with major car manufacturers, including Daimler and Toyota, Tesla went public in 2010, raising $226 million for the company. In 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity, the leading provider of solar power systems in the US. This reflected Musk’s vision of giving people the means of producing, storing, and using their own energy.

Musk is the CEO and public face of Tesla, overseeing product design and the engineering and manufacture of electric vehicles, battery products, and solar roofs. However, he was forced to step down as chairman for three years in 2018 and pay a $20 million fine, after sending misleading tweets about Tesla funding.

Neural technology

In 2015, Musk established the artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI to promote positive developments in the field. His interest in the relationship between the human brain and technology has also been reflected in his involvement with Neuralink; he cofounded the company in 2017 to develop ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces that can be implanted in the brain and linked to a computer.

Musk’s pioneering work in multiple fields has won him many awards and accolades. In 2019, he was ranked co-first with Jeff Bezos in Forbes’s list of the world’s most innovative leaders. His diverse interests have also been echoed in his charitable giving, which includes funding research into renewable energy, AI, space exploration, and education through the Musk Foundation.