Musk is the founder and CEO of Space Exploration Technologies (http://www.SpaceX.com). The goal of SpaceX is to revolutionize the cost of access to space, initially for satellites and eventually for humans. Falcon, the company's first launch vehicle, is under construction in Southern California and will be ready for launch in late 2004. Prior to SpaceX, Musk co-founded and served as chairman and CEO of PayPal, the world's leading electronic payment system. PayPal has over 20 million customers in 38 countries, processes several billion dollars per year, and went public on the NASDAQ in early 2002. He was a PayPal director and its largest shareholder until the company was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002. Prior to PayPal, in 1995 Musk co-founded Zip2 Corp., a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the media industry, with investments from the New York Times Co., KnightRider, MDV, SoftBank, and the Hearst Corp. After serving as chairman, CEO, and chief technology officer, in March 1999 he sold Zip2 to Compaq for the largest cash deal in Internet history. |