87-566: Viva Technology , or VivaTech , is an annual technology conference, dedicated to innovation and startups, held in Paris, France. VivaTech was founded in 2016 by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos . The first two days of VivaTech are for startups, investors, executives, students and academics, and it is open to the general public on the third day. The first year of VivaTech was held from 30 June to 2 July 2016 in Paris, and gathered 45,000 visitors including 5,000 startup companies. In 2017, VivaTech
174-457: 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 the platform after his takeover. In December 2022, Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in
261-1074: 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
348-708: 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 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
435-579: 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 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
522-627: 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
609-663: A competition for startups where the winners attended the Startup Battlefield finals in San Francisco in September 2018. In 2019, the fourth edition of the event was marked by a trend towards positive innovation ("tech for good") as well as the presence of 124,000 visitors at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles , on 16 and 17 May for professionals, and on 18 May for the general public. Nearly 13,000 startups were present, as well as 450 prominent figures from all over
696-432: A deal that would appoint him to Twitter's board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of 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
783-577: 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
870-547: 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,
957-479: 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
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#17327721437991044-538: 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" the X platform, in that it used accounts that followed major brands, and "resorted to endlessly scrolling and refreshing"
1131-485: 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 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
1218-527: 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,
1305-432: 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
1392-486: 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
1479-586: A rough ride while traveling at suboptimal speeds. Two tunnel projects announced in 2018, in Chicago and West Los Angeles, have been canceled. However, 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
1566-590: A second cousin in Saskatchewan, and worked odd jobs including at 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
1653-469: A small rented office in Palo Alto , with Musk coding the website every night. Musk and his brother's immigration statuses during this period 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
1740-428: 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
1827-501: A technological platform supported by Microsoft , Google , Yahoo! and AOL Platform A technologies that offer advertisers the possibility to target specifically defined audiences in a single campaign across multiple networks. Qorvis , a U.S. subsidiary of Publicis, has represented the country of Saudi Arabia since the September 11 attacks and has been accused of helping to whitewash its record on human rights . More recently,
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#17327721437991914-599: 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
2001-511: A tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price ("too high imo ") violated 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
2088-401: 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
2175-588: 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
2262-479: Is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside WPP , Interpublic and Omnicom . Publicis Groupe S.A. is headed by Arthur Sadoun , and its agencies provide digital and traditional advertising, media services and marketing services (SAMS) to national and multinational clients. The company was founded by 20 year old Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet in 1926. In 2011, Publicis was named the third-largest marketing group worldwide by revenue, surpassing Interpublic. By
2349-398: Is part of Publicis Groupe. Elon Musk 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
2436-543: 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 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
2523-620: 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
2610-473: 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
2697-529: 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
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2784-495: 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
2871-584: 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
2958-529: 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
3045-475: 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
3132-659: The Boring Company , xAI , Neuralink , and OpenAI . Musk 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
3219-775: 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
3306-627: 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
3393-532: The French Republic Emmanuel Macron is going there again. Bernard Arnault , president of LVMH , as well as Dan Schulman , president of PayPal , and Christel Heydemann , general manager of Orange , are among the speakers. The edition reached a record by attracting more than 150,000 visitors over the entire duration of the event, almost 60,000 more than during the previous edition. The number of visitors to Viva Tech thus exceeds for
3480-484: 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
3567-572: 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
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3654-430: 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
3741-928: The acquisition of Corra, an ecommerce leader recognized by Adobe as one of the top commerce firms in North America. The company owns several full-service advertising groups that undertake a range of media activities: mobile and interactive online communication, television, magazines & newspapers , cinema and radio, and outdoor . The company's SAMS services include direct marketing / customer relationship management services, sales promotion , healthcare communications, multicultural and ethnic communications, corporate and financial communications, human resource infrastructure, public relations, design services, interactive communications, events marketing and management, sports marketing, and production and pre-press services. Its media services include media planning, media buying, and media sales. Publicis Groupe's Vivaki developed
3828-485: 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
3915-462: The advances made by his companies in the field of Artificial Intelligence, which have been the subject of much debate. Japan was honored at the country of the year at this 8th edition of the Vivatech summit. Publicis Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. One of the oldest and largest (by revenue) marketing and communications companies in
4002-399: 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
4089-413: 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 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
4176-568: 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 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
4263-475: 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
4350-618: 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
4437-596: The deal had fallen through and the Publicis-Omnicom merger would not happen. In February 2015, Publicis acquired Sapient Corporation to form Publicis.Sapient as the world's largest digital network, which at the time included SapientNitro, Sapient Consulting, the community, DigitasLBI and RazorfishGlobal. In September 2015 The Publicis Groupe acquired the South African marketing, promotions and activations agency The Creative Counsel . The acquisition
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#17327721437994524-403: 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
4611-528: 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 a Twitter poll posted by Musk found that
4698-525: The emeralds produced at three small mines". Errol 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
4785-412: The end of 2010, the twin sectors of digital activities and high-growth emerging countries represented one-half of Publicis Groupe's total revenue. The group had operations in over 202 cities in 105 countries, including a strategic alliance with Dentsu . In July 2012 it was announced that Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group would merge to form Publicis Omnicom Group, but by May 2014 it was announced that
4872-622: 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 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
4959-682: 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
5046-457: 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
5133-513: 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 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
5220-404: 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
5307-584: The merging of existing agencies – Arc Worldwide, Solutions and Ecosys OOH, to create 'Publicis In-Motion'. In January 2014, Publicis acquired Law & Kenneth, an Indian advertising and digital agency. On 3 May 2022 French advertising holding company Publicis Groupe acquired Profitero, an e-commerce software company that provides analytics for brands, as marketer clients are increasingly seeking services in commerce. In September 2022 Publicis Groupe brings home Vietnam's only Effie Award in 2022 with ‘Keep Stories Alive’. On 5 June 2023, Publicis Groupe announced
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#17327721437995394-517: 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
5481-415: 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 ,
5568-449: 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
5655-508: 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
5742-445: 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
5829-451: The platform's commitment to freedom of speech . Additionally, his ex-wife Talulah Riley had urged him to buy Twitter to stop 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
5916-423: The supervisory board and was succeeded as CEO by Arthur Sadoun . On 21 January 2019, Publicis announced the deal to sell two of their Latinamerican agencies, NovaDigitas and Pixeldigital to BancroftX to form a new marketing firm under the group umbrella BancroftX. On 14 April 2019, Publicis announced a $ 4.4 billion deal to acquire data marketing firm Epsilon. On 4 February 2020, Publicis Groupe India announced
6003-526: The third edition of the event including Mark Zuckerberg , Satya Nadella , Dara Khosrowshahi , Ginni Rometty , Chuck Robbins and Bill McDermott . French President Emmanuel Macron returned to VivaTech in 2018 and announced that the French government will launch a R900 million-programme aimed at investing in African startups. A partnership was established with TechCrunch and the Startup Battlefield,
6090-510: 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,
6177-709: 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
6264-590: The world were present, such as Tim Cook of Apple , Peggy Johnson of Magic Leap , Eric Yuan of Zoom , Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook , Melissa Bell of CNN , Emmanuel Macron and Fionn Ferreira In June 2022, for the sixth edition of VivaTech, 91,000 visitors were recorded, an attendance which remains lower than the figures before Covid . In June 2023, for the seventh edition of VivaTech, big names in global tech are expected such as Elon Musk , head of Tesla , SpaceX and Twitter , and Yann LeCun , chief scientist of Meta's AI department. The President of
6351-602: The world, it is headquartered in Paris . After 1945, the little-known Paris-based advertising agency grew rapidly, becoming the world's fourth-largest agency. It was a leader in promoting France's post- war economic boom, especially the expansion of the advertising industry; it was successful because of its close ties with top officials of the French government , its clever use of symbols to promote itself, and its ability to attract clients from widely diverse growing industries. It
6438-588: The world, such as Jack Ma of Alibaba Group , Justin Trudeau , Olympic medallist Usain Bolt , Holly Ridings of NASA , Ken Hu of Huawei , Young Sohn of Samsung , John Kerry and Margrethe Vestager . In 2021, the fifth edition of the event was marked by a trend towards Positive change through technology at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles and online, on 16, 17 and 18 June. Prominent figures from all over
6525-631: The writer Ken Klippenstein obtained leaked documents from Qorvis, which show the PR company pitched a private company on a four to five minute propaganda video, which hoped to improve the reputation of its Homestead, Florida shelter for "unaccompanied alien children". As of October 2015, the main subsidiary companies of this group are: PublicisLive is a global event management and strategic communication firm founded in 1995 and has offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Geneva, Istanbul, Kigali and Paris. PublicisLive
6612-484: The year 2023 that of CES , a benchmark show in the field of new technologies, organized each year in Las Vegas . The eight edition of VivaTech was held from 22 to 25 May at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles , and attracted more than 165,000 visitors, from 160+ nationalities, over the four days of the event, setting another attendance record. Elon Musk virtually attended vivatech and shared his personal vision as well as
6699-466: Was accepted to a graduate program in materials science at Stanford University , but did not enroll. Musk decided to join 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
6786-459: 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 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
6873-548: 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
6960-414: 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
7047-889: Was held at Paris expo Porte de Versailles from 14 to 16 June in Paris. In attendance were 6,000 startup firms, 1,400 investors, and 1,500 journalists. French President Emmanuel Macron delivered the keynote address and announced the creation of a 10-billion Euro fund for innovation and the launch of a French technology visa for international entrepreneurs. One thousand startups were exhibited in 20 open innovation "labs" sponsored by corporate groups ( AccorHotels , Air France , KLM , Airbus , BNPP , La Poste , Cisco , Engie , Carrefour , LVMH , RATP Group , SNCF , Sodexo , Sanofi , Orange , TF1 , Talan, Pari mutuel urbain, Vinci Energies , Valeo ). Speakers including Eric Schmidt , Daniel Zhang and John Collison were also in attendance. In 2018, VivaTech took place from 24 to 26 May in Paris. Over 100,000 visitors and over 300 speakers attended
7134-485: 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
7221-434: 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
7308-524: Was reported as the largest agency buyout ever to happen in South Africa, with an unconfirmed valuation of between R1bn and R1.5bn. In December 2015, Publicis announced a new organisation with four main divisions: In addition, in January 2016, Laura Desmond became Chief Revenue Officer. Since 2016, Publicis has co-organised, with Groupe Les Echos , the annual technology conference, Viva Technology . In 2017, CEO Maurice Lévy replaced Elisabeth Badinter (Bleustein-Blanchet's daughter) as chairman of
7395-466: 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
7482-507: Was still 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
7569-596: Was the second largest provider of solar power systems in 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
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