What's known about Trump's top associate. 7 Facts about Ilon Musk

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo has named American businessman Ilon Musk the man of the year and Julius Caesar of the XXI century. Earlier he was recognized as the man of the year by Time magazine, although this year the editorial board chose Donald Trump (we told you what we know about the man of the year - 2024 here). The foreign press calls Musk a genius, a clown and a lord of extremes. What is known about Ilon Musk - in the material "Izvestia".

Fact 1. The richest man in the world

- His first product - a computer game - Ilon Musk developed and sold at the age of 12, receiving for it $ 500, and in 2021 he was named the richest man in the history of Forbes ratings - his fortune then approached $ 300 billion. Now he owns seven major companies, and his fortune exceeds $ 400 billion. Since then, he regularly takes the leading place in the rating, and now his fortune has reached $ 454 billion - almost twice as much as the owner of Amazon Jeff Bezos, who occupies the second line of the rating. Musk's businesses primarily develop automotive, advanced computer and space technologies, with the exception of social network Twitter (X), which he acquired in 2022 for $44 billion.

- The market is sensitive to Musk's statements: any phrase of his can raise or collapse the shares of companies. In 2016, in response to a rumor that Samsung batteries would be used for Tesla's new electric car, Musk said that the company only works with Panasonic components. After that, Samsung's shares fell by 8.02% and the company's capitalization fell by $580 million, while Panasonic's shares soared and its capitalization increased by $800 million. At the same time, the company Tesla, which is managed by Musk, more often lost value than gained from his statements.

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Fact 2: Supporter of conspiracy theories

- Elon Musk is known as a COVID skeptic and vaccination opponent. In 2023, he commented on the news of a cardiac arrest in the son of legendary basketball player LeBron James by saying that myocarditis was an alleged side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine.

- Musk also spread the word that the 2020 US presidential election was rigged, and during Trump's campaign, he told voters that voting machines manipulated data during the count. The foreign press also notes that the entrepreneur's entourage and his social media interlocutors hold extreme right-wing views and conspiracy theories.

Fact 3: An effective businessman and manager

- Musk is regularly criticized in the press, but even his detractors admit that he is successful in whatever business he takes on. The Tesla plant in California was the least efficient plant while it was owned by General Motors, but under Ilon Musk's leadership it has become the most productive.

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- With Musk ' s arrival, SpaceX has markedly cut costs in the space cargo business and became the first company to send a private mission to the ISS. The only business that has lost more than gained from the leadership of Ilon Musk is the social network X (formerly Twitter), but, according to the entrepreneur himself, this asset he acquired not to increase income, but to maintain freedom of speech. At the same time, according to foreign analysts, Donald Trump's election campaign, against which the White House mobilized all available resources, was won thanks to social network X, where Trump received an interactive platform for campaigning voters.

Fact 4: Fighter for raising the birth rate and a father of many children

- Elon Musk has been called the wealthiest and most influential spokesman for pro-natalists - pro-childbearing advocates who often oppose birth control and abortion. In 2021, he anonymously donated $10 million to the University of Texas at Austin for research designed to show the dangers of low birth rates.

- The entrepreneur himself has 11 or 12 children, according to various reports. Despite the entrepreneur's rather conservative views, all of his children came about through IVF. After the death of his firstborn, Musk and his first wife decided to resort to this procedure, and all subsequent children were also born as a result of artificial insemination.

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- Musk believes that IVF is a more efficient way of childbearing because it allows parents to determine the number of children and the sex of the child.

Fact 5: He has radically changed his political views

- Ilon Musk does not belong to any political party, but in all previous elections he has supported the leftists. In past presidential elections, he voted for Democratic Party candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden. His decision to come out in favor of Republican candidate Donald Trump in 2024, with whom the businessman had previously clashed over the climate agenda, came as a surprise. At the same time, Musk claimed in 2022 that he was "neither right-wing nor left-wing in the conventional sense," but he became disillusioned with the Democratic Party amid restrictions amid the pandemic and rising taxes.

- The foreign press noted trolling by the entrepreneur against Biden's team throughout the 2024 election campaign. Ilon Musk himself stated that he saw the Democrats as a threat to free speech, which outweighed all other political issues and provoked a "battle for the future of civilization."

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Fact 6: Has spoken out in favor of peace between Russia and Ukraine

- In October 2022, Musk spoke out about the need for peace between Russia and Ukraine and outlined four conditions for a possible end to the conflict: referendums in new regions of the Russian Federation under UN supervision, recognition of Crimea as Russian (at the international level. - Ed.), neutral status of Ukraine and guarantees on water supply to Crimea. After this tweet, the White House started talking about the possibility of checking the businessman and his companies on the threat to national security because of the "friendly position" towards Russia.

- In November 2024, Musk said the fighting in Ukraine has turned into an endless conflict "without progress," sacrificing the lives of young Ukrainians for no territorial gain. The entrepreneur believes the conflict will end with the arrival of Trump's team and condemns the decision of US President Joe Biden's administration to allow Kiev to hit targets on Russian territory with long-range missiles.

Fact 7: Ilon Musk's influence in the U.S. is close to the presidential one

- The foreign press highlights thatMusk controls five strategically important companies spanning transportation (Tesla), aerospace (SpaceX), healthcare (Neuralink), telecommunications (Starlink) and social media (X). All of them intersect with government operations and give the entrepreneur unprecedented influence, and running the government's prime contractor, the rocket company SpaceX, also gives Musk access to federal classified information.

- The decision on how and how much Ukraine will use the Starlink satellite cell phone and Internet service is almost entirely up to Ilon Musk, and these powers are comparable to those of the president. The Biden administration treats Musk's growing business empire as a threat, especially since the businessman is oriented on the international arena not toward political goals, but toward effective cooperation. Thus, Musk is closely tied to China, where Tesla cars are produced, and in 2022 he spoke in favor of uniting Taiwan and Beijing, which contradicts the official position of the United States.