133-465: Elon Reeve Musk FRS ( / ˈ iː l ɒ n / ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman known for his key roles in the space company SpaceX and the automotive company Tesla, Inc. His other involvements include ownership of X Corp. , the company that operates the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) , and his role in the founding of the Boring Company , xAI , Neuralink , and OpenAI . Musk
266-472: A blackboard bold X, a character that has appeared in mathematical textbooks since the 1970s and that is included in Unicode as U+1D54F 𝕏 MATHEMATICAL DOUBLE-STRUCK CAPITAL X . A few days after the rebrand took effect, an AP Stylebook update recommended that journalists refer to the platform as "X, formerly known as Twitter". In September 2023, Ad Age , citing The Harris Poll , noted that
399-722: A Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother to avoid South Africa’s mandatory military service , which would have forced him to participate in the apartheid regime, and to ease his path to immigration to the United States. While waiting for his application to be processed, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months. Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989, connected with a second cousin in Saskatchewan, and worked odd jobs including at
532-735: A Chair (all of whom are Fellows of the Royal Society ). Members of the 10 Sectional Committees change every three years to mitigate in-group bias . Each Sectional Committee covers different specialist areas including: New Fellows are admitted to the Society at a formal admissions day ceremony held annually in July, when they sign the Charter Book and the Obligation which reads: "We who have hereunto subscribed, do hereby promise, that we will endeavour to promote
665-450: A Twitter poll posted by Musk found that a majority of users wanted him to do so. Five months later, Musk stepped down from CEO and placed former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino in the position and transitioned his role to executive chairman and chief technology officer. On November 20, 2023, in a U.S. District Court in Texas, X filed a lawsuit stating that Media Matters "manipulated"
798-487: A Woman? . On November 16, 2022, Musk stated that he planned to eventually appoint a new CEO to oversee Twitter, shortly thereafter beginning the process of searching for his successor. On December 18, amid growing public discontent surrounding the ElonJet and Mastodon controversies, Musk conducted an open-access Twitter poll asking whether he should resign from his position as Twitter CEO, claiming that he would "abide by
931-527: A business plan for an electronic book-scanning service similar to Google Books . In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley : one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which investigated electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage, and another at Palo Alto –based startup Rocket Science Games . In 1995, he was accepted to a graduate program in materials science at Stanford University , but did not enroll. Musk decided to join
1064-517: A chatbot, and the social audio feature Spaces. Founded in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey , Noah Glass , Biz Stone , and Evan Williams as Twitter, it underwent a rebranding in July 2023 after being acquired by Elon Musk in 2022. Now operating as X, the platform closely resembles its predecessor but includes additional features such as long-form texts, account monetization options, audio-video calls, integration with xAI 's Grok chatbot, job search, and
1197-469: A company, not only would reward them handsomely if things went according to plan" but "you can certainly say things have not gone according to plan". The Washington Post reported in September 2024 that the company had lost $ 24 billion in equity value, "a vaporization of wealth that has little parallel outside the realm of economic or industry-specific crashes, or devastating corporate scandals". Two years after
1330-429: A content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes. On October 28, 2022, Musk announced that a "content moderation council" with diversified viewpoints would be established to inform the platform's "content policy", and declared a moratorium in "major content decisions or account reinstatements" until then. The council
1463-570: A device akin to a sewing machine that could embed threads into a human brain. In an October 2019 paper that detailed some of Neuralink's research, Musk was listed as the sole author, which rankled Neuralink researchers. At a 2020 live demonstration, Musk described one of their early devices as "a Fitbit in your skull" that could soon cure paralysis, deafness, blindness, and other disabilities. Many neuroscientists and publications criticized these claims, with MIT Technology Review describing them as "highly speculative" and "neuroscience theater". During
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#17328593157341596-608: A farm and a lumber mill. In 1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario . Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania , where he studied until 1995. Although Musk has said that he earned his degrees in 1995, the University of Pennsylvania did not award them until 1997 – a Bachelor of Arts in physics and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the university's Wharton School . He reportedly hosted large, ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition, and wrote
1729-539: A federal probe was launched into possible animal welfare violations by Neuralink. In September 2023, the Food and Drug Administration approved Neuralink to initiate human trials, and it plans to conduct a six-year study. In 2017, Musk founded The Boring Company to construct tunnels, and revealed plans for specialized, underground, high-occupancy vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) and thus circumvent above-ground traffic in major cities. Early in 2017,
1862-477: A fellow pupil, Elon was thrown down concrete steps and beaten severely by the boy and his friends, leading to him being hospitalized for his injuries. Elon described his father berating him after he was discharged from the hospital, saying, "I had to stand for an hour as he yelled at me and called me an idiot and told me that I was just worthless." Errol denied berating Elon but claimed, "The boy had just lost his father to suicide and Elon had called him stupid. Elon had
1995-513: A more than 10% drop in Tesla's stock price; at the time, SolarCity was facing liquidity issues. Multiple shareholder groups filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla's directors, stating that the purchase of SolarCity was done solely to benefit Musk and came at the expense of Tesla and its shareholders. Tesla directors settled the lawsuit in January 2020, leaving Musk the sole remaining defendant. Two years later,
2128-559: A move that, despite Yaccarino's accession, was widely attributed to Musk, Twitter was rebranded to X on July 23, 2023, and its domain name changed from twitter.com to x.com on May 17, 2024. X is one of the top social media platforms and the fifth-most-visited website in the world as of June 2024. Users can share posts containing text messages, images, and videos and interact with other users' content through likes and reposts. X offers additional features such as direct messaging , video and audio calling, bookmarks, lists, communities,
2261-497: A paid subscription for businesses, non-profits, and governments called Verified Organization, which provides additional functionality beyond the Premium+ tier. This is the entry-level subscription tier for the social media platform X. Priced at $ 3 per month or $ 32 per year, it offers several enhancements over the free version, aimed at improving user experience. Basic tier allows users to edit posts within 30 minutes of posting and retract
2394-432: A polarizing figure. He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including COVID-19 misinformation , promoting right-wing conspiracy theories , and endorsing an antisemitic trope ; he has since apologized for the latter. His ownership of Twitter has been controversial because of the layoffs of large numbers of employees, an increase in hate speech , misinformation and disinformation posts on
2527-488: A post shortly after sending it, before it is widely seen. It enables users to write posts up to 25,000 characters, bypassing the 280-character limit, and to upload videos up to three hours long and 8 GB in size on the X website and iOS app. Users can also download videos posted on X, play videos in the background while using other features, and apply bold or italic formatting to text in posts. Additionally, Basic tier provides organizational tools such as bookmark folders, access to
2660-623: A post's standalone page too. Users can group posts together by topic or type by use of hashtags – words or phrases prefixed with a " # " sign. Similarly, the " @ " sign followed by a username is used for mentioning or replying to other users. Hashflags are special hashtags that automatically generate a custom emoji next to them for a certain period of time. Hashflags may be generated by X themselves or be purchased by corporations. Users can reply to other accounts' replies. Users can hide replies to their messages and select who can reply to each of their posts before sending them: anyone, accounts
2793-513: A rental lodge at the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve . Elon has a younger brother, Kimbal , and a younger sister, Tosca . Elon has four paternal half-siblings. The family was wealthy during Elon's youth. Despite both Elon and Errol previously stating that Errol was a part owner of a Zambian emerald mine, in 2023, Errol recounted that the deal he made was to receive "a portion of the emeralds produced at three small mines". Errol
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#17328593157342926-554: A rise in hate speech on the platform, including the Center for Countering Digital Hate , the Anti-Defamation League , and a research group at Tufts University . The Center for Countering Digital Hate report found that anti-Black slurs appeared on Twitter at nearly three times the rate they had prior to the acquisition and that homophobic and transphobic slurs had risen by 52% and 62% respectively. Academics and researchers studied
3059-436: A share of ad revenue based on the engagement their posts receive and set up creator subscriptions to receive monthly payments from top followers, sharing revenue generated by X. They also gain access to Media Studio for managing and measuring content performance, X Pro for managing multiple timelines and accounts from a single interface and Grok , an AI-powered chatbot for information and inquiries. Premium subscribers see half
3192-428: A solar energy company that was acquired by Tesla in 2016 and became Tesla Energy . In 2013, he proposed a hyperloop high-speed vactrain transportation system. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company. The following year Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company developing brain–computer interfaces , and The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company. In 2018
3325-484: A substantial portion of the company's workforce and Twitter temporarily closed its offices, with The New York Times estimating that roughly half of employees had been let go. The night before the layoffs, five Twitter employees based in San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts , filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that mass layoffs would violate federal and California WARN Acts . Musk explained that
3458-580: A tendency to call people stupid. How could I possibly blame that child?". After the incident, Elon was enrolled in private school. Elon was an enthusiastic reader of books, later attributing his success in part to having read The Lord of the Rings , the Foundation series , and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . At age ten, he developed an interest in computing and video games, teaching himself how to program from
3591-599: A terrorist organization, some of its propaganda videos have circulated on the platform. An analysis from NewsGuard found that Verified users , described as "superspreaders of misinformation", produced 74% of the most viral misinformation related to the Israel-Hamas war during the first week of the conflict. The study analyzed 250 of the most-engaged posts on Twitter, based on the most popular false or unsubstantiated claims, that had received over 100 million views and one million engagements from users. On December 18, 2023,
3724-484: A toddler. Elon has recounted trips to a wilderness school that he described as a "paramilitary Lord of the Flies " where "bullying was a virtue" and children were encouraged to fight over rations. After his parents divorced in 1980, Elon chose to live primarily with his father. Elon later regretted his decision and became estranged from his father. Elon attended Bryanston High School . In one incident, after an altercation with
3857-489: A tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2021. Local officials have approved further expansions of the tunnel system. I made an offer https://sec.gov/Archives/edgar... Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter as early as 2017, and had questioned the platform's commitment to freedom of speech . Additionally, his ex-wife Talulah Riley had urged him to buy Twitter to stop
3990-516: A tweet that Tesla would build half a million cars that year. The SEC reacted by asking a court to hold him in contempt for violating the terms of the 2018 settlement agreement. A joint agreement between Musk and the SEC eventually clarified the previous agreement details, including a list of topics about which Musk needed preclearance. In 2020, a judge blocked a lawsuit that claimed a tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price ("too high imo ") violated
4123-890: A verification process accessible to premium users. Several Twitter legacy features were removed from the site after Musk acquired Twitter, including Circles, NFT profile pictures, and pronouns in profiles. Musk aims to transform X into an "everything app", akin to WeChat . X has faced significant controversy post-rebranding. Issues such as the release of the Twitter Files , suspension of journalists' accounts , and temporary measures like labeling media outlets as "state-affiliated" and restricting their visibility have sparked criticism. Despite Musk stepping down as CEO , X continues to struggle with challenges such as viral misinformation , hate speech , and antisemitism controversies. In response to allegations, X Corp. has pursued legal action against nonprofit organizations Media Matters and
Elon Musk - Misplaced Pages Continue
4256-571: A week, and a total of $ 16.4 billion by year end, reaching the 10% target. In February 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that both Musk and his brother Kimbal were under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for possible insider trading related to the sale. In 2022, Musk unveiled Optimus , a robot being developed by Tesla. In June 2023, Musk met with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in New York City , stating he
4389-1321: Is a significant honour. It has been awarded to many eminent scientists throughout history, including Isaac Newton (1672), Benjamin Franklin (1756), Charles Babbage (1816), Michael Faraday (1824), Charles Darwin (1839), Ernest Rutherford (1903), Srinivasa Ramanujan (1918), Jagadish Chandra Bose (1920), Albert Einstein (1921), Paul Dirac (1930), Winston Churchill (1941), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1944), Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1945), Dorothy Hodgkin (1947), Alan Turing (1951), Lise Meitner (1955), Satyendra Nath Bose (1958), and Francis Crick (1959). More recently, fellowship has been awarded to Stephen Hawking (1974), David Attenborough (1983), Tim Hunt (1991), Elizabeth Blackburn (1992), Raghunath Mashelkar (1998), Tim Berners-Lee (2001), Venki Ramakrishnan (2003), Atta-ur-Rahman (2006), Andre Geim (2007), Bai Chunli (2014), James Dyson (2015), Ajay Kumar Sood (2015), Subhash Khot (2017), Elon Musk (2018), Elaine Fuchs (2019) and around 8,000 others in total, including over 280 Nobel Laureates since 1900. As of October 2018 , there are approximately 1,689 living Fellows, Foreign and Honorary Members, of whom 85 are Nobel Laureates. Fellowship of
4522-605: Is available for Premium and Premium+ subscribers. Grok is also used to power the Stories feature, which summarizes posts on X associated with each trending story. Stories are visible under the For You tab of the Explore section. X offers three tiers of paid subscription for individual users, namely Premium, which provides additional functionality compared to the free tier. The three tiers are Basic, Premium, and Premium+. Additionally, X offers
4655-725: Is confirmed by the Council in April, and a secret ballot of Fellows is held at a meeting in May. A candidate is elected if they secure two-thirds of votes of those Fellows voting. An indicative allocation of 18 Fellowships can be allocated to candidates from Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences; and up to 10 from Applied Sciences, Human Sciences and Joint Physical and Biological Sciences. A further maximum of six can be 'Honorary', 'General' or 'Royal' Fellows. Nominations for Fellowship are peer reviewed by Sectional Committees, each with at least 12 members and
4788-515: Is known as "following" and subscribers are known as "followers". Individual posts can be forwarded by other users to their own feed, a process known as a "repost". Users can also "quote", a feature that allows users to add a comment to their post, imbedding one post in the other. Users can also " like " individual posts. The counters for "likes", "reposts", and replies appear next to the respective buttons in timelines such as on profile pages and search results. Counters for likes and reposts exist on
4921-421: Is nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society (a proposer and a seconder), who sign a certificate of proposal. Previously, nominations required at least five fellows to support each nomination by the proposer, which was criticised for supposedly establishing an old boy network and elitist gentlemen's club . The certificate of election (see for example ) includes a statement of the principal grounds on which
5054-501: Is not the sole owner of X Corp. X Corp. is wholly owned by X Holdings Corp. (XHC), and based on a court filing by X Corp. and XHC, investors in XHC include entities linked to Bill Ackman , Larry Ellison , Marc Andreessen , and Sean Combs . The court filing also reflects that over 20 Fidelity -associated funds, trusts and pools are investors in XHC. On July 23, 2023, Musk announced X's launch, which would replace Twitter, which started when
5187-528: Is the wealthiest individual in the world ; as of November 2024, Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$ 323 billion. A member of the wealthy South African Musk family , Musk was born in Pretoria and briefly attended the University of Pretoria before immigrating to Canada at the age of 18, acquiring citizenship through his Canadian-born mother. Two years later, he matriculated at Queen's University at Kingston in Canada. Musk later transferred to
5320-519: The Chicago Tribune . The brothers persuaded the board of directors to abandon a merger with CitySearch ; however, Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted. Compaq acquired Zip2 for $ 307 million in cash in February 1999, and Musk received $ 22 million for his 7-percent share. In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com , an online financial services and e-mail payment company with $ 12 million of
5453-556: The 2024 United Kingdom riots . Musk criticised UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer amid the riots, saying "Shouldn't you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?". Responding to a tweet with footage of the disorder that said the riots were due to the "effects of mass migration and open borders", Musk tweeted, "Civil war is inevitable". His comments were condemned by Starmer's official spokesman. Musk had previously restored Tommy Robinson 's account (after Robinson had been banned under Twitter's previous owners) and interacted with him on
Elon Musk - Misplaced Pages Continue
5586-545: The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) reported that posts associating LGBT people with "grooming" increased by 119 percent since October 2022, with advertising also appearing alongside what many deemed anti-LGBT rhetoric . The study featured five high-profile accounts including Libs of TikTok , Christopher Rufo , Tim Pool , and James Lindsay . Media monitoring group GLAAD described Twitter as "the most dangerous platform for LGBTQ people " with X ranking lowest on its Social Media Safety Index. In November 2023,
5719-549: The Center for Countering Digital Hate . I made an offer https://sec.gov/Archives/edgar... Elon Musk initiated the acquisition of Twitter, Inc. on April 14, 2022, and completed it on October 28, 2022. His goal was to transform Twitter into X, an all-encompassing app inspired by WeChat. By April, Musk had become Twitter's largest shareholder with a 9.2 percent stake and made an unsolicited $ 44 billion offer on April 14, which Twitter's board initially resisted before accepting on April 25. In July, Musk attempted to terminate
5852-615: The European Union announced it would be taking action against Twitter over the spread of disinformation. In August 2024, several Labour MPs reduced their use of Twitter or left the platform due to concerns about misinformation and hate speech under Musk's ownership. Some explored alternatives like Threads and Bluesky , while the UK government continued using X, focusing on implementing stronger online safety regulations. Following Musk's acquisition of Twitter, multiple organizations reported
5985-551: The International Astronomical Union , have alleged that Starlink blocks the view of the sky and poses a collision threat to spacecraft. During the March 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , Musk sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine to provide Internet access and communication. In October 2022, Musk stated that about 20,000 satellite terminals had been donated to Ukraine, together with free data transfer subscriptions, which cost SpaceX $ 80 million. After asking
6118-500: The Internet boom , applying for a job at Netscape , to which he reportedly never received a response. The Washington Post reported that Musk lacked legal authorization to remain and work in the United States after failing to enroll at Stanford. In response, Musk claimed he was allowed to work at that time and that his student visa transitioned to an H1-B . According to numerous former business associates and shareholders, Musk claimed he
6251-466: The Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $ 6.35 million, became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations. Following a series of escalating conflicts in 2007, and the financial crisis of 2007–2008 , Eberhard
6384-529: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Musk, alleging that he had falsely announced that he had secured funding for a private takeover of Tesla. To settle the case Musk stepped down as the chairman of Tesla and paid a $ 20 million fine. In 2022, he acquired Twitter for $ 44 billion, merged the company into the newly-created X Corp. and rebranded the service as X the following year. In March 2023, Musk founded xAI, an artificial-intelligence company. Musk's actions and expressed views have made him
6517-479: The United States Department of Defense to pay for further units and future subscriptions on behalf of Ukraine, Musk publicly stated that SpaceX would continue to provide Starlink to Ukraine for free, at a yearly cost to itself of $ 400 million. At the same time, Musk refused to block Russian state media on Starlink, declaring himself "a free speech absolutist". In September 2023, Ukraine asked for
6650-584: The University of Pennsylvania and received bachelor's degrees in economics and physics. He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University but never enrolled in classes, and with his brother Kimbal co-founded the online city guide software company Zip2 . The startup was acquired by Compaq for $ 307 million in 1999. That same year, Musk co-founded X.com , a direct bank . X.com merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal . In 2002, Musk acquired US citizenship , and that October eBay acquired PayPal for $ 1.5 billion. Using $ 100 million of
6783-515: The VIC-20 user manual. At age twelve, Elon sold his BASIC -based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $ 500. Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School , Bryanston High School , and then Pretoria Boys High School , where he graduated. Musk was a good but not exceptional student, earning a 61 in Afrikaans and a B on his senior math certification. Musk applied for
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#17328593157346916-449: The X.com domain (formerly associated with PayPal) began redirecting to Twitter; the logo was changed from the bird to the X the next day, and the platform's official main and associated accounts also began using the letter X within their handles. The @x handle was originally owned by photographer Gene X Hwang, who registered it in 2007. Hwang had expressed willingness to sell the handle, but received an email on July 25, 2023, stating that
7049-464: The first stage of a Falcon 9 on a land platform. Later landings were achieved on autonomous spaceport drone ships , an ocean-based recovery platform. In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy ; the inaugural mission carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload . Since 2019, SpaceX has been developing Starship , a fully-reusable , super-heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to replace
7182-426: The post-nominal letters FRS . Every year, fellows elect up to ten new foreign members. Like fellows, foreign members are elected for life through peer review on the basis of excellence in science. As of 2016 , there are around 165 foreign members, who are entitled to use the post-nominal ForMemRS . Honorary Fellowship is an honorary academic title awarded to candidates who have given distinguished service to
7315-428: The " woke-ism ". In January 2022, Musk started purchasing Twitter shares, reaching a 9.2% stake by April, making him the largest shareholder. When this was publicly disclosed, Twitter shares experienced the largest intraday price surge since the company's 2013 initial public offering . On April 4, Musk agreed to a deal that would appoint him to Twitter's board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of
7448-555: The April 2023 controversy, NPR confirmed that a press inquiry it sent to Twitter was responded to by Twitter with an emoji of feces . The auto-reply was later changed to "Busy now, please check back later". In April 2023, Musk told the BBC that he had reduced staff from around 8,000 to under 1,500. In June 2023, trust and safety chief Ella Irwin resigned, hours after Musk undid a company moderation decision by unrestricting and reposting The Daily Wire 's anti-trans documentary What Is
7581-455: The Basic plan features plus increased reach, affiliations, and a limited-time advertising credit of $ 12,000 per year or $ 1,000 per month. Regarding Twitter's reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $ 4M/day. Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required. On November 4, 2022, Musk and Twitter began laying off
7714-634: The CCDH released a new report claiming 98% of misinformation, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other hate speech, in relation to the Israel-Hamas war, remained on X after 7 days of reporting, generating over 24 million views. X responded by detailing the removal of 3,000 accounts and taking action against 325,000 pieces of content, such as restricting the reach of a post. On November 24, the European Union halted advertisements on X referring to an "alarming increase" in hate speech and misinformation. A spokesperson for
7847-833: The European Commission confirmed that X is affected by the EU rules, and has advised European institutions to abstain from advertising on the platform. Following the Dublin riots in Ireland on November 23, X faced criticism for allowing "vile messages" on the platform, described as hate speech, while other social media platforms, TikTok , Instagram , and Facebook , complied with Garda requests for taking down content. After Prime Minister Leo Varadkar called for incitement to hatred legislation to be updated, Musk responded by claiming "the Irish PM hates
7980-743: The Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008. Later that year, SpaceX received a $ 1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract from NASA for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement . In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS , a first for a commercial spacecraft. Working towards its goal of reusable rockets , in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed
8113-608: The Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy. In 2020, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight, the Demo-2 , becoming the first private company to place astronauts into orbit and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS. In 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX an $ 843 million contract to deorbit the ISS at the end of its lifespan. In 2015, SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide satellite Internet access , with
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#17328593157348246-477: The Model 3 "production hell" in 2018. In 2022, Musk revealed plans to fire 10 percent of Tesla's workforce, due to his concerns about the economy. That same month, he suspended remote work at SpaceX and Tesla and threatened to fire employees who do not work 40 hours per week in the office. He laid off more than 10 percent of the Tesla workforce in early 2024. Musk's leadership has been praised by some, who credit it with
8379-559: The Roadster, an electric sports car, in 2008. With sales of about 2,500 vehicles, it was the first serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan in 2012. A crossover , the Model X was launched in 2015. A mass-market sedan, the Model 3 , was released in 2017. In 2020, the Model 3 became the all-time bestselling plug-in electric car worldwide, and in June 2021 it became
8512-591: The Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society ( FRS , ForMemRS and HonFRS ) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge , including mathematics , engineering science , and medical science ". Fellowship of the Society, the oldest known scientific academy in continuous existence,
8645-439: The Royal Society has been described by The Guardian as "the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar " with several institutions celebrating their announcement each year. Up to 60 new Fellows (FRS), honorary (HonFRS) and foreign members (ForMemRS) are elected annually in late April or early May, from a pool of around 700 proposed candidates each year. New Fellows can only be nominated by existing Fellows for one of
8778-618: The Russian invasion of Ukraine , and led to significant gains in followers for media outlets affiliated with Russia, China and Iran. Twitter, like Meta, Twitch, and Alphabet, laid off a significant portion of its content moderators in 2023. As of September 2023, Twitter relied exclusively on its Community Notes program to combat misinformation, leading to failures in labeling misinformation. The program has become responsible for spreading misinformation as well as delays in fact-checking. A European Commission study found that disinformation
8911-425: The SEC's allegations. As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $ 20 million each, and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman but was able to remain as CEO. Shareholders filed a lawsuit over the tweet, and in February 2023, a jury found Musk and Tesla not liable. Musk has stated in interviews that he does not regret posting the tweet that triggered the SEC investigation. In 2019, Musk stated in
9044-655: The Society, we shall be free from this Obligation for the future". Since 2014, portraits of Fellows at the admissions ceremony have been published without copyright restrictions in Wikimedia Commons under a more permissive Creative Commons license which allows wider re-use. In addition to the main fellowships of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS & HonFRS), other fellowships are available which are applied for by individuals, rather than through election. These fellowships are research grant awards and holders are known as Royal Society Research Fellows . In addition to
9177-529: The United States. In 2014, Musk promoted the idea of SolarCity building an advanced production facility in Buffalo , New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017. It operated as a joint venture with Panasonic until early 2020. Tesla acquired SolarCity for $ 2 billion in 2016 and merged it with its battery unit to create Tesla Energy . The deal's announcement resulted in
9310-533: The X platform, in that it used accounts that followed major brands, and "resorted to endlessly scrolling and refreshing" the feed until it found ads next to extremist posts. The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2024 that the $ 13 billion Musk borrowed to buy Twitter "is now considered the worst deal in merger finance that banks have participated in since the 2008 to '09 financial crisis ", adding that "the allure of banking Elon Musk, providing capital for him to buy
9443-1261: The acquisition, Fidelity Investments estimated the value of its stake in X that implied the company had lost 79% of its value. Musk is often described as a micromanager and has called himself a "nano-manager". The New York Times has characterized his approach as absolutist . Musk does not make formal business plans . He has forced employees to adopt the company's own jargon and launched ambitious, risky, and costly projects against his advisors' recommendations, such as removing front-facing radar from Tesla Autopilot . His insistence on vertical integration causes his companies to move most production in-house. While this resulted in saved costs for SpaceX's rocket, vertical integration (as of 2018) has caused many usability problems for Tesla's internal corporate software. Musk's handling of employees—whom he communicates with directly through mass emails—has been characterized as " carrot and stick ", rewarding those "who offer constructive criticism" while also being known to impulsively threaten, swear at, and fire his employees. Musk said he expects his employees to work for long hours, sometimes 80 hours per week. He has his new employees sign strict non-disclosure agreements and often fires in sprees, such as during
9576-480: The acquisition, he sent notification of his termination of the deal in July; Twitter's board of directors responded that they were committed to holding him to the transaction. On July 12, 2022, Twitter formally sued Musk in the Chancery Court of Delaware for breaching a legally binding agreement to purchase Twitter. In October 2022, Musk reversed again, offering to purchase Twitter at $ 54.20 per share. The acquisition
9709-476: The activation of Starlink satellites over Crimea to attack Russian naval vessels located at the port Sevastopol ; Musk denied the request, citing concerns that Russia would respond with a nuclear attack. Tesla, Inc. , originally Tesla Motors, was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning . Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement. Musk led
9842-447: The ads compared to Basic subscribers and non-subscribers and receive a verification checkmark next to their name, with the option to hide it. Replies from Premium subscribers are prioritized higher than those from Basic subscribers. This is the top-tier subscription, priced at $ 16 per month or $ 168 per year. It includes all features from Basic and Premium tiers, along with exclusive benefits. Premium+ subscribers have no advertisements on
9975-444: The agreement. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-released records showed that the SEC concluded Musk had subsequently violated the agreement twice by tweeting regarding " Tesla's solar roof production volumes and its stock price". Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity , which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in
10108-495: The approach to content moderation as " freedom of speech , not freedom of reach", previously describing the platform as having liberal bias . In September 2023, X subsequently scrapped the feature for users to report misleading posts, instead relying exclusively on Community Notes to combat misinformation on the platform. In November 2022, X announced it would no longer enforce its policy prohibiting COVID-19 misinformation . Algorithm changes promoted viral disinformation about
10241-540: The award of Fellowship (FRS, HonFRS & ForMemRS) and the Research Fellowships described above, several other awards, lectures and medals of the Royal Society are also given. Twitter under Elon Musk#Handling of misinformation and disinformation Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter in October 2022; Musk acted as CEO of Twitter until June 2023 when he was succeeded by Linda Yaccarino . In
10374-597: The cause of science, but do not have the kind of scientific achievements required of Fellows or Foreign Members. Honorary Fellows include the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (2022), Bill Bryson (2013), Melvyn Bragg (2010), Robin Saxby (2015), David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville (2008), Onora O'Neill (2007), John Maddox (2000), Patrick Moore (2001) and Lisa Jardine (2015). Honorary Fellows are entitled to use
10507-602: The company began discussions with regulatory bodies and initiated construction of a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 50-foot (15 m) long, and 15-foot (4.6 m) deep "test trench" on the premises of SpaceX's offices, as that required no permits. The Los Angeles tunnel , less than two miles (3.2 km) in length, debuted to journalists in 2018. It used Tesla Model Xs and was reported to be a rough ride while traveling at suboptimal speeds. Two tunnel projects announced in 2018, in Chicago and West Los Angeles, have been canceled. However,
10640-454: The company had estimated its own valuation at about $ 19 billion, down about 55% from Musk's purchase price. A lower estimate was reported in October 2023 from Fidelity at about the same time, estimating the company to be down 65% from its purchase price. Fidelity estimated in October 2024 that the company's value was down 79% from Musk's original purchase price, 24% lower than what Fidelity had estimated two months earlier. In August 2023, X
10773-521: The company was taking it. He was offered some X merchandise and a meeting with the company's leaders, but no financial benefits. The Android app's name and icon were changed to X on Google Play by July 27; the same change went live on the App Store on July 31 after Apple granted an exception to its minimum character length of 2. Around that time, some more elements of the Twitter branding were removed from
10906-465: The company's CEO and chief engineer. SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006. Although the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit , it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA , now led by Michael D. Griffin as Administrator. After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk and his companies to go bankrupt, SpaceX succeeded in launching
11039-472: The company, while Twitter offices were once again closed until November 21. Despite the closures, Musk summoned all Twitter software engineers to Twitter's headquarters on November 18, seeking greater insight into the platform's solution stack . Additional layoffs occurred later that month, and the company resumed hiring. Musk continued laying off employees in February 2023, promising substantial "performance-based stock awards" to employees who remained at
11172-515: The company. press@twitter.com now auto responds with 💩 In November 2022, Axios reported that Twitter had fired almost all of its communications team, leaving only one member. From November 2022 to March 2023, Twitter's communications team was "effectively silent" and not responding to press inquiries, reported NPR . In March 2023, Musk personally announced a new Twitter policy, which brought Twitter in-line with Musk's other businesses which do not have press or communications departments. During
11305-470: The company. On November 16, Musk delivered an ultimatum to employees via email: commit to "extremely hardcore" work in order to realize Musk's vision of "Twitter 2.0", or leave. In response, hundreds of Twitter employees resigned the next day, hours before the deadline to respond to Musk's email. Business Insider reported that fewer than 2,000 employees remained at the company. Musk and his advisers met with several employees to dissuade them from leaving
11438-641: The company. However, on April 13, Musk made a $ 43 billion offer to buy Twitter, launching a takeover bid to buy 100% of Twitter's stock at $ 54.20 per share. In response, Twitter's board adopted a "poison pill" shareholder rights plan to make it more expensive for any single investor to own more than 15% of the company without board approval. Nevertheless, by the end of the month Musk had successfully concluded his bid for approximately $ 44 billion. This included about $ 12.5 billion in loans against his Tesla stock and $ 21 billion in equity financing . Tesla's stock market value sank by over $ 100 billion
11571-608: The court ruled in Musk's favor. In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink , a neurotechnology startup company, with an investment of $ 100 million. Neuralink aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI) by creating devices that are embedded in the brain. Such technology could enhance memory or allow the devices to communicate with software. The company also hopes to develop devices with which to treat neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease , dementia , and spinal cord injuries . In 2019, Musk announced work on
11704-523: The deal, citing Twitter's failure to address spam bot accounts. Twitter sued him, with a trial set for mid-October. Musk then reversed his decision and completed the acquisition on October 28. He became the new owner and CEO, took Twitter private, merged it into X Corp., and fired several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal. Following Twitter's change in ownership, Musk renamed several features to remove references to bird-oriented terminology, including renaming "Birdwatch" to "Community Notes". Musk
11837-401: The demonstration, Musk revealed a pig with a Neuralink implant that tracked neural activity related to smell. In 2022, Neuralink announced that clinical trials would begin by the end of the year. Neuralink has conducted further animal testing on macaque monkeys at the University of California, Davis ' Primate Research Center . In 2021, the company released a video in which a Macaque played
11970-675: The documents showed the FBI had engaged in government censorship by ordering Twitter to suppress a New York Post story about the laptop. Upon review of the documents, Taibbi said he had found no evidence to support the allegation, and Twitter attorneys denied the allegation in a subsequent court filing. The United States House Committee on the Judiciary held hearings on the Twitter Files on March 9, 2023, at which Taibbi and Shellenberger gave testimony. In late 2022, Musk promised to step down as CEO after
12103-515: The fellowships described below: Every year, up to 52 new fellows are elected from the United Kingdom, the rest of the Commonwealth of Nations , and Ireland, which make up around 90% of the society. Each candidate is considered on their merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Fellows are elected for life on the basis of excellence in science and are entitled to use
12236-664: The first electric car to sell 1 million units globally. A fifth vehicle, the Model Y crossover, was launched in 2020, and in December 2023, became the best-selling vehicle of any type, as well as the all-time best-selling electric car. The Cybertruck , an all-electric pickup truck, was unveiled in 2019, and delivered in November 2023. Under Musk, Tesla has also constructed multiple lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle factories, named Gigafactories . Since its initial public offering in 2010, Tesla stock has risen significantly; it became
12369-405: The first two prototype satellites launched in February 2018. A second set of test satellites, and the first large deployment of a piece of the constellation, occurred in May 2019, when the first 60 operational satellites were launched. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in 2020 to be $ 10 billion. Some critics, including
12502-530: The good of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, and to pursue the ends for which the same was founded; that we will carry out, as far as we are able, those actions requested of us in the name of the Council; and that we will observe the Statutes and Standing Orders of the said Society. Provided that, whensoever any of us shall signify to the President under our hands, that we desire to withdraw from
12635-518: The handle @America and gave it to America PAC . Posts are publicly visible by default, but senders can restrict message delivery to only their followers. Users can mute users they do not wish to interact with, block accounts from viewing their posts, and remove accounts from their followers list. Users can post via the X website, compatible external applications (such as for smartphones ), or by Short Message Service (SMS) available in certain countries. Users may subscribe to other users' posts—this
12768-757: The layoffs were a cost-cutting measure and stated that the company had been losing over $ 4 million a day, criticizing activist groups who had called on advertisers to cease doing business with the company. The Times described the layoffs as "haphazard", with employees learning of their firing through a variety of means. Workers in Tokyo received emails regarding the layoffs, while those in Ireland and Britain remained in their offices at night to await official word on their employment status. Others learned that they had been laid off when they found themselves locked out of their work applications. Twitter's internal directory, Birdhouse,
12901-401: The merged company. His preference for Microsoft - over Unix -based software caused a rift among the company's employees, and eventually led Confinity co-founder Peter Thiel to resign. With the company suffering from compounding technological issues and the lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000. Under Thiel, the company focused on
13034-511: The money he made from the Compaq acquisition. X.com was one of the first online banks that was federally insured , and over 200,000 customers joined in its initial months of operation. Musk's friends expressed skepticism about the naming of the online bank, fearing it might have been mistaken for a pornographic site. Musk brushed off their concerns, emphasizing that the name was meant to be straightforward, memorable, and easy to type. Additionally, he
13167-461: The money he made from the sale of PayPal, Musk founded SpaceX, a spaceflight services company, in 2002. In 2004, Musk was an early investor in electric-vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (later Tesla, Inc.), providing most of the initial financing and assuming the position of the company's chairman. He later became the product architect and, in 2008, the CEO. In 2006, Musk helped create SolarCity ,
13300-442: The money-transfer service and was renamed PayPal in 2001. In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $ 1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk—PayPal's largest shareholder with 11.7% of shares—received $ 176 million. In 2017, more than 15 years later, Musk purchased the X.com domain from PayPal for its "sentimental value". In 2022, Musk discussed a goal of creating "X, the everything app". In early 2001, Musk became involved with
13433-507: The most shared articles from followed accounts, and a reader mode for simplified reading of long conversation threads. Subscribers can also customize the X app icon on their mobile devices, create communities based on shared interests, and enjoy prioritized replies over non-subscribers. This is the mid-tier subscription, costing $ 8 per month or $ 84 per year. It includes all Basic tier features plus additional benefits aimed at enhanced user engagement and monetization. Premium subscribers can earn
13566-495: The most valuable carmaker in summer 2020, and it entered the S&;P 500 later that year. In October 2021, it reached a market capitalization of $ 1 trillion, the sixth company in US history to do so. In November 2021, Musk proposed on Twitter to sell some of his Tesla stock. After more than 3.5 million Twitter accounts supported the sale, Musk sold $ 6.9 billion of Tesla stock within
13699-442: The next day in reaction to the deal. He subsequently tweeted to his 86 million followers criticism of Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde 's policies, which led to some of them engaging in sexist and racist harassment against her. Exactly a month after announcing the takeover, Musk stated that the deal was "on hold" following a report that 5% of Twitter's daily active users were spam accounts. Although he initially affirmed his commitment to
13832-443: The nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars . In October of the same year, he traveled to Moscow, Russia with Jim Cantrell , Adeo Ressi , and future NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin to buy refurbished intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the greenhouse payloads into space. He met with the companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras ; however, Musk
13965-470: The number of Islamic State accounts had also increased by 70%. In March, a study from the BBC found a third of the 1,100 reinstated accounts appeared to have violated Twitter guidelines. Twitter insiders told BBC Panorama they were struggling to protect users from trolling and harassment, including misogynistic online hate, and the targeting of rape survivors. From a study of over 1 million tweets since 2022,
14098-407: The platform after his takeover. In December 2022, Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in the leadup to the 2020 presidential election . Comments on these internal documents by journalists Matt Taibbi , Bari Weiss , Michael Shellenberger and others were posted on Twitter as the Twitter Files . Musk and many Republicans alleged
14231-643: The platform. Musk went on to refer to Starmer as "two-tier Keir" and ask, "Why aren't all communities protected in Britain?" Musk promoted a conspiracy theory that the UK government was planning to build detainments camps in the Falkland Islands to hold rioters. The UK's Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle said that in practice dealing with large tech companies and their leaders can be more like negotiating with foreign states than normal businesses. In October 2024, Musk seized
14364-509: The post nominal letters HonFRS . Statute 12 is a legacy mechanism for electing members before official honorary membership existed in 1997. Fellows elected under statute 12 include David Attenborough (1983) and John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne (1991). The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the British royal family for election as Royal Fellow of the Royal Society . As of 2023 there are four royal fellows: Elizabeth II
14497-467: The poster followed, verified accounts, or specific accounts. X offers a job search feature named X Hiring, where users can search jobs by keyword or location, and they may filter the results by location type, seniority, employment type and company. Users can also get personalized job recommendations on their timeline. Grok is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI , and integrated inside X. It has direct access to X data, and
14630-546: The proposal is being made. There is no limit on the number of nominations made each year. In 2015, there were 654 candidates for election as Fellows and 106 candidates for Foreign Membership. The Council of the Royal Society oversees the selection process and appoints 10 subject area committees, known as Sectional Committees, to recommend the strongest candidates for election to the Fellowship. The final list of up to 52 Fellowship candidates and up to 10 Foreign Membership candidates
14763-580: The rebranding had not publicly caught on, with the majority of users as well as notable brands still referring to X as "Twitter". On May 17, 2024, Musk announced that the URL was officially changed from twitter.com to x.com. The domain transition was one of the more awkward aspects of Musk's rebranding the company. Musk diverted a large number of Nvidia chips which had been ordered by Tesla to Twitter and xAI. Social media sites including Twitter came under questioning for their handing of disinformation related to
14896-469: The results". The poll resolved to "yes" after 57.5 percent of 17.5 million users voted in favor of him stepping down. After this result, Musk responded "interesting" to unfounded theories that the result of the resignation poll had been influenced by bots, agreeing with a user's suggestion to restrict future polls on policy changes to paid Twitter Blue subscribers. On December 20, he announced he would step down as CEO as soon as his replacement
15029-547: The site. They can directly post articles with formatting, and their replies receive the highest prioritization over other tiers. It offers a premium subscription service for businesses, non-profits and governments with two plans: Basic and Full Access. The Basic plan, available for $ 200 per month or $ 2,000 per year, includes a gold checkmark, priority support, X Premium+ features, and a limited-time advertising credit of $ 2,500 per year or $ 200 per month. The Full Access plan, priced at $ 1,000 per month or $ 10,000 per year, includes all
15162-543: The spread of hate speech on Twitter primarily by accessing the Twitter API , which was shut down in February 2023. According to a Reuters survey, this removal led to the modification or cancellation of more than 100 ongoing studies. According to the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD), from June 2022 to February 2023, the number of anti-semitic tweets doubled on the platform, with removal of such content also increasing, while
15295-500: The success of Tesla and his other endeavors, and criticized by others, who see him as callous and his managerial decisions as "show[ing] a lack of human understanding". The 2021 book Power Play contains anecdotes of Musk berating employees. The Wall Street Journal reported that, after Musk insisted on branding his vehicles as "self-driving", he faced criticism from his engineers for putting customer "lives at risk", with some employees resigning in 2017 in consequence. Fellow of
15428-501: The video game Pong via a Neuralink implant. The company's animal trials—which have caused the deaths of some monkeys—have led to claims of animal cruelty . The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has alleged that Neuralink's animal trials have violated the Animal Welfare Act . Employees have complained that pressure from Musk to accelerate development has led to botched experiments and unnecessary animal deaths. In 2022,
15561-489: The web version, including tweets being renamed to "posts". The rebrand was described as unusual, given that Twitter's brand was already strong internationally, with words like "tweet" having entered common language. The rebranding has been criticized on the basis that the trademarkability of the name and logo is weak: there are almost 900 companies in the U.S. that own an X trademark, including an existing social media-related logo owned by Meta Platforms . The X logo uses
15694-649: The website, and changes to website features, including verification . In early 2024, Musk became active in American politics as a vocal and financial supporter of Donald Trump, becoming Trump's second-largest individual donor in October 2024. In November 2024, Trump announced that he had chosen Musk along with Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead Trump's planned Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory board which will make recommendations on improving government efficiency through measures such as slashing "excess regulations" and cutting "wasteful expenditures". Elon Reeve Musk
15827-529: Was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria , South Africa's administrative capital. He is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His mother, Maye ( née Haldeman ), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan , Canada, and raised in South Africa. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer , pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and property developer, who partly owned
15960-435: Was described by Musk as a "gray area", although Kimbal maintained they were working as illegal immigrants. A Washington Post exposé from October 2024 reported Musk worked illegally while building the company, citing an email from Musk submitted as evidence during a 2005 defamation trial and the funding agreement from venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures. Eventually, Zip2 obtained contracts with The New York Times and
16093-472: Was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party and has said that his children shared their father's dislike of apartheid . Elon's maternal grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman , was an American-born Canadian who took his family on record-breaking journeys to Africa and Australia in a single-engine Bellanca airplane; Haldeman died when Elon was still
16226-531: Was fined US$ 350,000 for failing to meet two deadlines to comply with a U.S. Department of Justice search warrant for the account of former president Donald Trump . In October 2024, the Supreme Court declined to hear X's appeal. In October 2023, X was fined AU$ 610,500 by Australia's e-Safety Commission for failing to properly disclose information about how it polices child abuse content. As of 2023 other fines were being considered. Twitter will be forming
16359-408: Was fond of the email addresses derived from it, such as "e@x.com". Although Musk founded the company, investors regarded him as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year. In 2000, X.com merged with the online bank Confinity to avoid competition, as the latter's money-transfer service PayPal was more popular than X.com's service. Musk then returned as CEO of
16492-475: Was interested in investing in India "as soon as humanly possible". In 2018, Musk was sued by the SEC for a tweet stating that funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private. The lawsuit characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies . Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying
16625-669: Was most prevalent and received the highest relative engagement on Twitter, compared to other major social networks, leading to warnings of a potential ban or fines by the EU for non-compliance with the Digital Services Act . In October 2023, media outlets and experts observed significant disinformation related to the 2023 Israel–Hamas war . A BBC journalist described a "deluge" of false information, including by "blue tick" accounts, and CNBC found that while some videos were flagged as "misleading or false", identical re-posts remained unflagged. Despite Hamas being banned on Twitter as
16758-416: Was never formed; Musk claimed that it had been part of a deal made with activists who had failed to honor it. He also signaled an intention to do away with lifetime account suspensions and unban those suspended for "minor [or] dubious reasons". Musk later stated that he would not alter Twitter's content policies or restore banned accounts until after the midterm elections . In June 2023, Musk defended
16891-421: Was not a Royal Fellow, but provided her patronage to the society, as all reigning British monarchs have done since Charles II of England . Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1951) was elected under statute 12, not as a Royal Fellow. The election of new fellows is announced annually in May, after their nomination and a period of peer-reviewed selection. Each candidate for Fellowship or Foreign Membership
17024-510: Was officially completed on October 27. Immediately after the acquisition, Musk fired several top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal ; Musk became the CEO instead. He instituted a $ 7.99 monthly subscription for a " blue check ", and laid off a significant portion of the company's staff. Musk lessened content moderation, including reinstating accounts like The Babylon Bee . The Southern Poverty Law Center noted that Twitter has verified numerous extremists; hate speech also increased on
17157-479: Was on a student visa at the time. In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Global Link Information Network, later renamed Zip2 . The company developed an Internet city guide with maps, directions, and yellow pages , and marketed it to newspapers. They worked at a small rented office in Palo Alto , with Musk coding the website every night. Musk and his brother's immigration statuses during this period
17290-426: Was ousted from the firm. Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008. A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others. As of 2019, Musk was the longest-tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally. In 2021, Musk nominally changed his title to "Technoking" while retaining his position as CEO. Tesla began delivery of
17423-463: Was seen as a novice and the group returned to the United States without an agreement to purchase Russian launch services. In February 2002, the group returned to Russia to look for three ICBMs. They had another meeting with Kosmotras and were offered one rocket for $ 8 million, which Musk rejected. He instead decided to start a company that could build affordable rockets. With $ 100 million of his own money, Musk founded SpaceX in May 2002 and became
17556-487: Was selected, but would continue to lead Twitter's software and server teams. On April 11, 2023, he told the BBC that he had stepped down and appointed his dog as CEO. On May 11, 2023, Musk announced he had found a person to succeed him in the CEO position; the following day, he named Linda Yaccarino , former head of ad sales for NBCUniversal , to succeed him as CEO. One year after the Musk acquisition, company documents related to employee restricted stock grants showed
17689-454: Was taken offline and Twitter offices worldwide were closed for the weekend. On November 6, Twitter asked some employees who had been laid off to return to the company, either because they had been fired by mistake or because they were belatedly deemed important to the health of the business. Days after the layoffs, Twitter terminated a large number of its contractors, and Musk fired a series of employees who criticized him publicly or within
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