that one bro who watched Elon become the first human ever to reach trillionaire status.
believes his turn is soon.
The first human to ever become a trillionaire.
Elon Musk.
Here's the full story:
1971
β born in Pretoria, South Africa
β father is an engineer, mother a model and dietitian
β parents divorce when he is 9
β stays with his father
childhood
β bullied relentlessly at school
β beaten badly enough to be hospitalized once
β small, nerdy, obsessive about books and computers
β reads the entire Encyclopedia Britannica at age 9
β finishes it
β then reads it again
β teaches himself to code at age 10
β at 12 creates a video game called Blastar
β sells it to a magazine for $500
β age 12
β describes his childhood as deeply unhappy
β says books were his escape
β reads science fiction obsessively
β Hitchhiker's Guide, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein
1989
β leaves South Africa at 17
β does not want to serve in the apartheid military
β moves to Canada on a tourist visa
β arrives with almost no money
β works on a farm
β cleans boilers at a lumber mill
β does it alone, without connections or help
1990
β enrolls at Queen's University in Ontario
β starts meeting people for the first time in his life who think like him
β transfers to University of Pennsylvania two years later
1992
β studies economics and physics at UPenn
β becomes interested in three areas that will change the future:
β the internet
β clean energy
β space
1995
β gets accepted to Stanford PhD program in energy physics
β defers after two days
β decides the internet is happening right now
β cannot afford to wait
β moves to Silicon Valley with his brother Kimbal
β they share a cheap apartment
β shower at the YMCA to save money
β starts Zip2
Zip2
β a software company for newspapers
β helps media companies go online
β builds city guides and maps for them
β the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and others sign on
β works 23 hours a day sometimes
β sleeps in the office
β showers at the YMCA
1999
β Compaq acquires Zip2 for $307 million
β Elon's share: $22 million
β age 27
β his first exit
β immediately puts $10 million into his next company
β does not slow down
β does not take a break
X / PayPal
β founds X in 1999
β an online financial services and payments company
β the idea: a bank that lives entirely on the internet
β merges with Confinity in 2000
β Confinity has a product called PayPal
β PayPal wins
β board removes Elon as CEO in 2000 while he is on his honeymoon
β he stays on as a major shareholder
β continues pushing the company forward
2002
β eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion
β Elon's share: $180 million
β he is 30 years old
β he now has two exits before age 31
β most people would retire
β Elon has other plans
SpaceX
β founds SpaceX in 2002
β the mission: make humanity multiplanetary
β everyone laughs
β rockets are for governments, not startups
β travels to Russia three times to buy old ICBMs
β Russians refuse to sell
β laugh at him on the third trip
β he does the math on the flight home
β realizes he can build rockets cheaper himself
β starts SpaceX with $100 million of his own money
β hires engineers rejected by NASA
β sets up in a warehouse in El Segundo, California
2004
β quietly invests in a tiny electric car startup called Tesla Motors
β puts in $6.5 million
β becomes chairman
β is not a founder but will later be listed as co-founder
β the original founders: Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning
β also starts thinking about solar energy
β the idea of sustainable energy becomes an obsession
2006
β helps found SolarCity with his cousins
β provides the founding capital
β the goal: make solar accessible and affordable for homes
Falcon 1
β SpaceX builds its first rocket
β three launches
β all three fail
β 2006: first launch, fails 33 seconds in
β 2007: second launch, fails
β August 2008: third launch, fails
β SpaceX is nearly out of money
β Tesla is nearly out of money
β it is 2008
β the financial crisis hits
β both companies are days from bankruptcy
2008
β the darkest year
β SpaceX has enough money for one more launch
β Tesla's funding round collapses
β Elon divorces his first wife Justine
β he is sleeping on friends' sofas
β he is broke on paper despite having been worth hundreds of millions
β September 2008: Falcon 1 fourth launch
β it works
β first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit
β in history
β NASA notices
β awards SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract
β SpaceX survives
β December 2008: Tesla closes a funding round on Christmas Eve
β Elon puts in his last $20 million
β borrows money from friends to pay his rent
β Tesla survives
2010
β SpaceX launches Falcon 9 for the first time
β successfully reaches orbit
β Dragon spacecraft is unveiled
β the plan: resupply the International Space Station
β Tesla goes public
β first American car company to IPO since Ford in 1956
β raises $226 million
2012
β Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the ISS
β SpaceX delivers cargo to the space station
β a private company doing what only governments had done before
β Tesla releases the Model S
β earns the highest safety rating ever recorded by NHTSA
β wins Motor Trend Car of the Year
β the automotive industry starts paying attention
2013
β Tesla opens Supercharger network
β free charging across America
β range anxiety begins to die
β short sellers pile in
β Elon fights them publicly on Twitter
β stock doubles in the year
2015
β SpaceX lands a Falcon 9 first stage booster for the first time
β a booster that launched to space and landed back on a drone ship
β everyone said it was impossible
β it lands
β the economics of rocketry change forever
β Tesla releases the Model X
β falcon-wing doors
β the safest SUV ever built at the time
β co-founds OpenAI
β $1 billion nonprofit
β the goal: ensure AI is developed safely for humanity
β later leaves the board over strategic disagreements
2016
β founds Neuralink
β brain-machine interface technology
β goal: merge human cognition with AI
β founds The Boring Company
β goal: solve traffic with underground tunnels
β starts with a joke on Twitter
β builds a real tunnel within two years
β SpaceX reveals the Interplanetary Transport System
β the plan to colonise Mars
β presented at the International Astronautical Congress
β the room is silent, then erupts
2017
β Tesla releases the Model 3
β the mass-market electric car
β production hell begins
β Elon sleeps on the factory floor
β works 120-hour weeks
β the company nearly dies a second time
β Tesla semi revealed
β Roadster 2.0 revealed
β 0-60 in 1.9 seconds
β fastest production car ever announced
β SpaceX launches first reused Falcon 9 booster
β proves reusability at scale
β the cost of reaching space starts to collapse
2018
β Falcon Heavy launches
β most powerful operational rocket in the world
β carries Elon's personal Tesla Roadster as the payload
β Starman in a spacesuit in the driver's seat
β orbiting the sun
β the internet loses its mind
β SEC sues Elon over a tweet about taking Tesla private
β "funding secured"
β settles for $20 million fine
β and $20 million fine for Tesla
β forced to have tweets reviewed by lawyers
β he fights it for years
β the New York Times publishes a damaging profile
β describes him as erratic, sleepless, taking Ambien
β Tesla stock drops
β he smokes weed on Joe Rogan's podcast
β SpaceX executives resign
β he doesn't slow down
2019
β Model 3 becomes the best-selling premium car in the US
β beats BMW, Mercedes, Audi combined in its category
β Tesla finally becomes sustainably profitable
β Cybertruck revealed
β unveiling goes wrong
β the unbreakable windows break on stage
β the internet mocks it
β pre-orders hit 250,000 overnight anyway
β Starlink announced publicly
β a global satellite internet constellation
β the goal: connect the entire planet
2020
β Tesla joins the S&P 500
β one of the largest additions in the index's history
β institutions are forced to buy
β stock rises 700% in one year
β SpaceX launches Crew Dragon
β first crewed orbital spaceflight from American soil since 2011
β Elon watches from the ground and cries
β NASA astronauts arrive at the ISS on a SpaceX rocket
β Elon becomes the richest person in the world briefly
β net worth passes $100 billion
β a year earlier he was worth around $25 billion
2021
β Elon sells 10% of Tesla shares via Twitter poll
β asks his followers if he should
β they say yes
β sells $15 billion in stock
β pays the largest individual tax bill in US history
β approximately $11 billion
β Tesla reaches $1 trillion valuation
β Elon is officially the richest person alive
β passes Jeff Bezos
β passes Bill Gates
β SpaceX Starship prototype testing in Boca Chica, Texas
β several dramatic explosions
β each one called a success
β they learn from every failure
β Inspiration4: first all-civilian orbital spaceflight
β SpaceX puts four civilians in orbit
β no professional astronauts on board
β space tourism becomes real
2022
β offers to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share
β $44 billion total
β tries to back out
β Twitter sues
β loses
β forced to complete the deal in October
β fires 50% of Twitter's staff on day one
β the world predicts collapse
β the platform does not collapse
β advertisers flee
β revenue drops
β he keeps going
β renamed to π
β rebuilds the product
β adds long-form posts, video, payments infrastructure
β the vision: π as an everything app
β Tesla Model Y becomes the best-selling car on Earth
β not just EV
β all cars
β across all categories
2023
β launches xAI
β builds Grok, an AI assistant integrated into π
β directly competing with OpenAI, which he helped found
β the AI arms race accelerates
β Starship launches for the first time as a complete system
β both stages
β it explodes
β FAA launches an investigation
β SpaceX calls it data
β Starship launches again
β makes it further
β explodes again
β they call it progress
β they mean it
β Tesla Cybertruck finally delivered
β years late
β polarizing design
β becomes the best-selling electric truck in America almost immediately
2024
β Starship completes a full test flight
β first stage booster caught by mechanical arms at the launch site
β the arms are called Mechazilla
β the internet watches live
β it works
β the most significant moment in rocketry since the moon landing according to some
β SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission
β first private spacewalk in history
β civilians floating in open space
β Elon watches
β π reaches profitability
β advertisers slowly return
β daily active users hit record highs
β Elon endorses Donald Trump publicly
β becomes deeply involved in the 2024 US presidential campaign
β puts hundreds of millions of his own money in
β Trump wins
β Elon appointed co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency
β DOGE
β tasked with cutting federal spending
β the most powerful unelected position in American history arguably
β net worth crosses $400 billion
β briefly surpasses the GDP of some nations
β the wealthiest human being alive by a distance
2025
β DOGE begins cutting federal agencies
β hundreds of billions in proposed cuts
β fights with Congress, media, and former allies
β does not slow down
β SpaceX valued at over $350 billion
β the most valuable private company in history
β Tesla releases next-generation affordable model
β EV adoption accelerates globally
β charging infrastructure expands to 70 countries
β Neuralink implants chips in multiple patients
β human trials ongoing
β first patient plays video games with his mind
β types faster than most people on keyboards
β Starlink reaches 100 countries
β connects remote communities, disaster zones, military operations
β Ukraine uses it to coordinate battlefield communications
β changes the nature of modern warfare
β xAI raises billions in funding
β Grok 3 releases
β benchmarks compete directly with GPT-4 and Gemini
2026
β Tesla IPO valued at $1.77 trillion
β the largest IPO in human history
β Elon Musk becomes the first trillionaire
β net worth crosses $1,000,000,000,000
β no human has ever done this before
β not Rockefeller adjusted for inflation
β not anyone
he started with nothing in a new country
β worked insane hours
β slept on factory floors
β nearly went bankrupt twice
β got mocked, sued, attacked
kept building anyway
Payments. Cars. Energy. Space. Social Media. AI. Brain implants. Government.
Nobody has changed more industries in a single lifetime.
History won't remember the people who said it couldn't be done.
It will remember the people who did it anyway.
Congratulations Elon.
The first trillionaire.