From Tesla tequila to Iron Man inspiration: 7 things you may not know about Elon Musk | US News

The name Elon Musk is perhaps one of the most recognisable in the modern day.

The richest man in the world is known for being the owner of various companies including electric vehicle maker Tesla and Space X, his takeover of social media company Twitter – which he renamed X – and, until most recently, his work within the US government.

After nearly 130 days as head of the Department of Government Efficiency – known as DOGE for short – Musk announced he is leaving his role within Donald Trump’s administration.

His work within the department and his close relationship with Mr Trump led to Musk being in the headlines more than ever, but there is much to the billionaire businessman that is rarely reported.

Here are seven things you may not know about Musk.

Child video game creator

In the early 1980s, at the age of 12, Musk created the video game Blastar.

He created the game, which tasks players to use their keyboards to shoot at alien fighter spaceships, through his knowledge of coding and programming, which he picked up at the age of nine, according to Ashlee Vance’s 2015 biography of the tech mogul.

By 1984 the game was so good, Musk sold it to PC and Office Technology magazine for $500 (£371), where it featured in the publication’s December issue.

First big pay cheque

From the get-go, it was clear Musk had a talent for business. In 1995, age 24, he set up his first company, Zip2 with his brother, Kimbal.

The pair set up the company, which created online city guides for newspapers, for around $28,000 (£20,000). It was sold for around $300m (£222m) four years later in 1999.

Before cashing in on the success of Zip2, Musk said he and his brother were pretty much broke and both slept in the office where they worked – a behaviour he reportedly replicated in the early days of Tesla.

From the sale of the company, Musk walked away from Zip2 with a cool $22m, and the first thing he bought was a McLaren F1.

He told CNN at the time: “Just three years ago I was sleeping on the office floor, and now I’ve got a million-dollar car.”

Musk’s musk

Despite having huge success, some of Musk’s ideas have not proved to be as long-lasting.

In 2022, he launched a perfume called Burnt Hair, which is described on his The Boring Company website as “the essence of repugnant desire”.

The scent, which cost $100 (£74) a bottle, was a smash hit, according to Musk, who said it had sold 10,000 bottles in just a few hours, earning him a million dollars.

“With a name like mine, getting into the fragrance business was inevitable – why did I even fight it for so long!?” Musk said at the time.

It is unknown if the product was serious, and (sadly) is no longer available on The Boring Company website.

In addition to perfume, Tesla launched its own tequila in 2020, and in the same year, Musk followed through on a joke to sell limited edition pairs of Tesla short shorts as a way to prove investors who bet against the electric vehicle maker wrong.

The original PayPal

Long before Twitter became X, Musk created X.com, an online banking and financial services company.

The platform quickly attracted a large customer base, and in the year 2000, it merged with Confinity, which was co-founded by tech entrepreneurs Peter Thiel and Max Levchin.

The platform was later renamed PayPal.

Musk went on to become chief executive of PayPal, but was later ousted from the position as arguments over the company’s name and overall direction emerged.

In 2002, the banking site was bought by eBay for $1.5bn (£1.4bn). Years later, in 2017, eBay sold the domain X.com back to Musk.

Inspiration for Iron Man

Musk’s life as a billionaire entrepreneur sounds like the start of a Hollywood blockbuster. And in reality, Musk’s personality and accomplishments were partly used as inspiration for Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In a 2022 interview, Iron Man screenwriter Mark Fergus said his version of Tony Stark was based on a culmination of Musk, Mr Trump and Apple creator Steve Jobs.

“Musk took the brilliance of Jobs with the showmanship of Trump. He was the only one who had the fun factor and the celebrity vibe and actual business substance,” Mr Fergus told New York Magazine.

Musk’s unusual connection to the fictionalised billionaire was played out on camera when he made a cameo in Iron Man 2 in 2010.

The real Tesla founder?

Contrary to belief, Musk did not start Tesla. He was actually an early investor in the company and was the fourth chief executive when he took over the role in 2008 – shortly after the company released its first car – the Roadster sports car.

It was in fact, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning who founded the company in 2003, albeit Musk was the one to propel it on to a global stage.

Desire for the ‘everything app’

After taking over social media platform X for $44bn in 2022, Musk became one step closer to achieving his goal of creating an “everything app”.

The tech mogul has previously said he wishes for X to become similar to WeChat – a Chinese app that offers a wide range of features beyond messaging, including payments, ordering taxis, sharing social media posts and conducting business – think of it as a mix between Facebook, Apple Pay, WhatsApp and Google.

Musk’s vision of this “super app” seems to be shared by those at X, including chief executive Linda Yaccarino, who said at the end of last year that 2025 would be the year that X “connect[s] you in ways never thought possible. X TV, X Money, Grok and more”.

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And this appears to be somewhat coming true.

In January, Musk announced X had partnered with payment giant Visa, which will allow users to move funds between traditional banks and a digital X wallet and make payments to friends.