WHO IS ELON MUSK?

■ Born in South Africa, Elon Musk, who holds US and Canadian nationalities, completed academic work in Ontario and a prestigious business school in Pennsylvania.

■ By 25, he had created Zip2, an online advertising platform, and was a millionaire by age 30 after selling the company to Compaq Computer in 1999.

■ He followed that with the creation of the online bank, X.com, which was later merged into PayPal and in 2002 bought by eBay for $1.5 billion.

■ With $100 million of his early fortune, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, in May 2002. It develops and manufactures space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of rocket technology.

■ Following the financial crisis of 2008, Musk assumed leadership of electric carmaker Tesla as CEO and product architect, positions he still holds today.

■ Forbes estimates Musk’s current wealth at $22.1 billion. He also manages a foundation focused on education, renewable energy and paediatric health.

■ Musk has had a stormy personal life and has been divorced three times - twice from the same woman. He has five living sons. Besides Tesla, his current ventures include SpaceX which aims to “revolutionise space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets”.