Yahoo – AFP,
Glenn Chapman, March 5, 2017
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| Entrepreneur Elon Musk has an estimated current net worth of $13.4 billion from interests in transport, payments and space technology (AFP Photo/Karim SAHIB) |
San
Francisco (AFP) - Sending tourists for a trip around the moon is the latest big
idea launched by Elon Musk, a Silicon Valley star known for turning his
passions into visionary enterprises.
Musk has
become one of the United States' best-known innovators. He was a founder of
payments company PayPal, electric carmaker Tesla Motors and SpaceX, maker and
launcher of rockets and spacecraft.
SpaceX
recently announced that two private citizens have paid money to be sent around
the Moon in what would mark the farthest humans have ever traveled to deep
space since the 1970s.
In a sector
where entrepreneurs often speak of "moonshots," Musk is one of the
biggest dreamers.
The
45-year-old South Africa-born entrepreneur has channeled a dot-com fortune into
a series of ambitious ventures.
Besides
being the head of SpaceX and Tesla, Musk is the chairman of SolarCity, a solar
panel installer recently bought by Tesla.
He also
operates his own foundation focusing on education, clean energy and child
health.
And he
drafted a paper detailing the feasibility of an ultra-fast
"Hyperloop" rail transport system that would transport people at near
supersonic speeds, then made it freely available to enterprises willing to
pursue the project.
 |
The SpaceX
plan to fly tourists around the Moon in 2018 (AFP Photo/AFP)
|
'Doesn't
sit around'
"He is
a visionary who has some key passions which he pursues with vigor,"
Jackdaw Research chief analyst Jan Dawson said of Musk.
"He
doesn't sit around and wait for people to do something about them; he goes out
and does it himself."
Musk's
penchant for rocketing after his passions may appear to spread him thin, but he
has built a record of success.
Musk
appears strong on painting big ideas in broad strokes and then enlisting people
skilled at tending to the nuts-and-bolts work needed to follow through, say
observers.
"He
doesn't seem to be able to focus," analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group
said.
"He
just likes coming up with the ideas and is good at picking other people who can
deal with the plumbing -- that is why he is able to do a lot of stuff."
And while
some may wonder whether hubris or realism reigns in Musk's moves, his
businesses have gained value, with the jury still out on the wisdom of the
Tesla acquisition of SolarCity.
"He
can certainly sell his ideas," Enderle said.
"The
fact his businesses have held together so long indicates he is not a con
man."
 |
| Visionary or mad scientist? Elon Musk's Tesla aims to conquer the car market in the oil-rich Middle East with electric vehicles (AFP Photo/Karim SAHIB) |
Fighting
against evil
Musk more
than a year ago took part in creating a nonprofit research company devoted to
developing artificial intelligence that will help people and not hurt them.
Musk found
himself in the middle of a technology world controversy by holding firm that AI
could turn on humanity and be its ruin instead of a salvation.
Technology
giants including Google, Apple and Microsoft have been investing in making
machines smarter, contending the goal is to improve lives.
"If we
create some digital super-intelligence that exceeds us in every way by a lot,
it is very important that it be benign," Musk said at a conference in
California.
He reasoned
that even a benign situation with ultra-intelligent AI would put people so far
beneath the machine they would be "like a house cat."
"I
don't love the idea of being a house cat," Musk said, envisioning the
creation of neural lacing that magnifies people's brain power by linking them
directly to computing capabilities.
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| Elon Musk's SpaceX venture carries cargo to the International Space Station and has plans to send two private passengers on a trip around the Moon (AFP Photo/ BRUCE WEAVER) |
Living in
a game
Some of his
ideas have prompted questions about whether Musk is a visionary or mad
scientist. He has raised eyebrows with a theory that the world as it is known
may be a computer simulation.
"I've
had so many simulation discussions it's crazy," Musk said while fielding a
question on the topic at the conference.
He
maintained that "the odds that we are in base reality is one in billions."
Musk lives
in Los Angeles and holds US, Canadian and South African citizenship.
He moved to
Canada in his late teens and then to the United States, earning bachelor's
degrees in physics and business from the University of Pennsylvania.
After
graduating, Musk abandoned plans to pursue further studies at Stanford
University and started Zip2, a company that made online publishing software for
the media industry.
He banked
his first millions before the age of 30 when he sold Zip2 to US computer maker
Compaq for more than $300 million in 1999.
Musk's next
company, X.com, eventually merged with PayPal, the online payments firm bought
by Internet auction giant eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.
Forbes
estimates Musk's current net worth at $13.4 billion.
Elon Musk has become one of America's best-known innovators - turning his passions into visionary enterprises https://t.co/4gVkOp0sTp pic.twitter.com/WLx2kuE2U0— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 5, 2017
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