Perhaps no one among US entrepreneurs has a reputation as obscure as Elon Musk. Throughout her bright, creative and in many ways talented life, she does not get tired of shocking the audience, say, with scandalous performances. Musk’s tweets are discussed by many politicians and journalists. Yes, and Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has been accompanied by accusations, threats of lawsuits, and other deceptions. Musk accused the acquired company of inflating the cost and closing the number of accounts due to fake accounts. But the deal still ended, costing the entrepreneur $44 billion. As it turns out, the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has joined the deal on Musk’s side, which plans to assist the businessman in promoting blockchain technology to the social network and also (given its global reach) in creating a new cryptocurrency. IT. These two situations have fueled interest in Elon Musk as an innovator, and this is reflected in the share dynamics of the companies involved in his business empire. It includes Tesla Motor and Space X, as well as artificial intelligence company OpenAI, brain-computer interface researcher Neuralink, and The Boring Company, which develops a high-speed underground transportation system. Musk was named Person of the Year by Time magazine in 2021.
It’s worth noting that Musk has built businesses in a variety of industries and has successfully sold them. Born in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk moved to Canada at the age of 17 and moved to the United States a few years later, where he earned a BA in economics and physics from the University of Pennsylvania. While still a student there, Elon and his brother started a software company and successfully sold it to the famous computer company Compaq for $307 million. Success inspired the young entrepreneur – he and his partners founded PayPal, the fintech company that provides online payments, which was later bought by the Ebay market for $ 1.5 billion.
Musk then establishes the SpaceX company to reduce the cost of services to deliver goods and people to space, and to produce new, more advanced space technology. Musk sets ambitious goals for a manned flight to Mars.
Musk’s second project is the production of electric vehicles for the mass buyer. While many automakers have already started making such cars, Musk and his team have at least managed to solve the problem that has hampered industrial electric vehicle production – batteries that are large enough and fast-charging. Now Tesla cars are successfully driving on the streets from Oslo to Beijing.
It should be said that Musk himself did not create the legendary Tesla company, he entered the capital of the company only as the main investor – the founders of Tesla Motors, Martin Eberhard and Mark Tarpenning, understood that the engineer Elon Musk has money, entrepreneurial talent, knowledge and experience. will be required to implement their projects. And Musk first invested $6.5 million in the company’s capital, becoming a “business angel” for them. Elon was obsessed with the idea of ridding the United States of its dependence on oil and “green transportation.” He immediately stepped in and called Jay Strobel, the founder of a lithium-ion battery company. Apparently his home was half a mile from the Tesla Motors office and was immediately hired by Musk, the CEO.
The company’s path was different from America’s auto giants, which raised capital by issuing stocks and bonds and by the combined efforts of hundreds of thousands of people. No, it was more like the history of startups in the IT solutions space, like guys like Steve Jobs and his friends who started small businesses.
In 2006, the first prototype of the company’s first car, the Roadster, was created. Investors are beginning to understand the potential that Tesla has. Among the entrepreneurs who believed in the success of the venture were Sergey Brin, Larry Page and other “business angels” who invested a total of $40 million in the project. The electric car, which can accelerate to 100 km / h in 4 seconds, made a sound at the auto show in Santa Clara, California. A number of entrepreneurs, including Brin and Page, as well as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, have agreed to buy it in a still raw, pre-production version.
After a well-executed public relations campaign, those willing to pay $100,000 for a roadster lined up at the Tesla Motors office. The company knowingly made a bet on the wealthy folk who were ready to be the first to invest in an expensive toy. “Yes, cell phones, color televisions, and even a refrigerator were not mass-market products – they were originally intended for private consumers, but technological progress has made them generally available,” said the auto company’s founders.
However, mass production of an electric car was still far away. Top executives hired by Musk claimed that the Roadster cost 200,000 in mass production, although the company does not plan to sell the Roadster for more than $85,000. Inflated prices, problems with suppliers in Asia, underdeveloped transmission – all this can scare off buyers who have already made the first installments.
And Musk, as before, began to solve problems – immediately contacted suppliers, forcing him to lower prices, improve product quality. The company offered its employees to work 24 hours a day like himself. It was Elon Max’s style at SpaceX that drove Tesla Motors to success.
Recently, Musk has been dealing with the acquisition of the social network Twitter. I have to say that Musk’s investment strategy is different from most modern companies – they sell non-core assets while Musk buys them.
He is obsessed with the idea of restructuring the social network, increasing its transparency, overcoming the dictates of leadership. Although his tweets are rather vague in meaning. Everyone knows about his proposals to resolve the situation in Ukraine and the situation around Taiwan.
Even his lawsuit over his acquisition of Twitter could easily be seen as manipulating the stock price to cheapen it. It should be noted that the American regulator – the Securities and Exchange Commission – could easily sentence anyone to 20 years for such lawsuits, but not Elon Musk. In addition, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that although she previously declined to comment, US officials did not check businessman Elon Musk’s connections with foreign countries for a threat to national security.
To be honest, the Twitter acquisition, which initially caused a strong drop in Tesla shares, leaves an ambiguous impression. What is it – another toy from one of America’s richest people, or a government order aimed at collecting data on social network users? As an IT expert told me, there is a certain connection between user messages and their metadata (where he went, what he looked at, and other “tracks”).
Twitter is known to be a widely used market manipulation tool by Donald Trump. The fact is that the deal cost Musk dearly, and according to statistics, 75% of transactions in the M&A market do not reach the stated result. Musk had to sell some of Tesla’s shares because many advertisers did not understand the new owner’s policies and cut their advertising budgets after the deal. Twitter will need additional funding to cover its growing losses. It is obvious that Musk did not consider a risky step such as buying Twitter for nothing.
Musk recently unblocked Trump’s Twitter account, which was “permanently” blocked by the social network’s former leadership due to the actions of supporters of the former US president, sparking riots in Washington to take over the Capitol. Trump immediately began to see a sharp increase in his subscriber base, which exceeded 25 million in a matter of hours. Trump’s return to the social network could restore the former president’s political influence and give Elon Musk himself a powerful tool of political influence. And if Musk cannot become the country’s president because he was born outside of the United States, then according to political scientist Georgy Bovt, Musk could become a “president maker” using a resource like the social network. And the effect, as you know, is money.
There is another interesting aspect. Binance, which entered into a deal with Musk to buy the social network, could use blockchain technology to help Musk gain a monopoly over the use of insider information to generate even more profits. In addition, it will be possible to place a new cryptocurrency through the social network – payments and gifts to participants, activity accruals, etc. And then Twitter will become the most powerful tool for making money.
How did you find this Elon Musk?
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.
Source: Gazeta
Dolores Johnson is a voice of reason at “Social Bites”. As an opinion writer, she provides her readers with insightful commentary on the most pressing issues of the day. With her well-informed perspectives and clear writing style, Dolores helps readers navigate the complex world of news and politics, providing a balanced and thoughtful view on the most important topics of the moment.