18 projects Elon Musk: where investments are tehnopredprinimatelya Bashny.Net

Elon Musk is now on the horse. The company SpaceX has just ushered in a new era of space exploration, launching a rocket into space and successfully planted it in the Atlantic Ocean on roboplatformu. His company is a manufacturer of electric vehicles Tesla has taken hundreds of thousands of pre-orders for the coming Model 3, thereby inscribing themselves in automotive history.

The total amount of pre-orders amounted to about $ 14 billion. In April 2016 his condition was 14, 3 billion dollars. And yet it is rumored, does not believe in the word "business".

As if Kamen no designated his services, he was able to weave them in her name: a global online payment system, the construction and the launch of a rocket, an attempt to cover the world with solar panels. This is just a few examples. Below we present the 18 projects, which Musk founded, financed or supported in any other way.

Zip2 Corporation, the first company to mask and the first Internet Yellow Pages. 1995

At 24, Musk threw Masters in Physics from Stanford University and started his first company, Zip2 Corporation. This era of the dotcom media company specializing in software for news corporations. He tied electronic Navteq maps business directory, creating the first-ever network Yellow Pages. Four years later, in 1999, Musk sold the business for 307 million dollars of the company Compaq. At that time it was the largest amount given for the Internet company.

In 1999, he founded the online payment system X.com, which then becomes PayPal

In the same year, after selling Zip2, Musk has spent 10 million on online payment sozdaniesistemy X.com. He wanted to focus on new payment technologies by e-mail. So he merged his company with Confinity competitor. Thus began the system of money transfers PayPal online. Due to the arising of conflict of interest in the user manual cofounders Confinity fired Mask of the board and the company was renamed in PayPal. In 2002, the project was bought by online auction site eBay for 1, 5 billion dollars.

In 2002, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, known to us as SpaceX




In an interview Inc. Musk said that this project - one of the most important events that have occurred in the world over the last 4, 5 billion years:

"First there unicellular life, multicellular later, then began the development of plants and animals, - he said. - On this time scale movement of life on another planet I would put just above the transition from the life of the oceans on the earth »

. To make the rocket more affordable in 2002. Musk founded SpaceX. The company, located in Hawthorne, California, manufactures aerospace equipment. April 8, 2016 Musk made a huge step towards the main goal, running and re-planting rocket Falcon 9.

SpaceX Dragon device production in 2012 became the first commercial spacecraft, carrying loads between the International Space Station and the Earth.

In the end, Musk wants to send people into space and on Mars in the Dragon capsule. In September 2015, he shared his Martian ambitions in the Instagram, saying that describe them all in autumn 2016.

In 2002, Musk and his younger brother Kimball founded the Foundation
Mask 18 Ilona projects Mask: where investments are
tehnopredprinimatelya The purpose of the fund - to provide grants for research in the field of renewable energy, space exploration, education in the field of science and technology, as well as childhood diseases and disorders. According to Inside Philanthropy, Foundation gave a total of 783,700 dollars, including a donation of $ 250,000 for the construction of solar power plants in the Japanese city of Soma. The money was donated after the collapse of the Japanese tsunami on the coast in 2011. Given the fund's ambitions daring, his low-tech website looks fun.

In 2004, Musk has invested in Tesla Motors, to forever change the world of electric vehicles

After funding Tesla Motors (founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpeningom) Musk became a member of the Board of Directors. Their first model, the Roadster, could, like the sports car to accelerate from 0 to 100 km / h in less than four seconds and travel 400 km on one charge, and what struck the audience. After the 2008 crisis Musk became CEO of the company to be more proactive in its structure. He has held this position today.

Their Model S has been so good that broke editions rating Consumer Reports. Around the new model an incredible excitement rose. This phenomenon has been called "the most successful" debut week "for all products ever produced by mankind».

Musk also owns shares in the company-manufacturer Surrey Satellite Technology of small satellites

In 2005, Musk, reportedly, has acquired a 10 percent stake in Satellite Technology. This was to "introduce SpaceX a way of thinking in the world's most successful supplier of small, inexpensive spacecraft and, ultimately, provide for SpaceX business." According to Space News, the development of Surrey Satellite Technology began with the development of amateur radiosputnikov. Today, the company is engaged in the launch and management of small spacecraft, intended for weather monitoring, communications and so on.

To solve problems with power supply, he invested in the manufacturer of solar panels SolarCity

Musk - a longtime supporter of sustainable and environmentally friendly technologies. Continuing the tradition of saving Tesla, he invested a large sum in SolarCity - one of the largest providers of home solar panels in the country. The company was founded in 2006 by his cousin Lyndon and Peter Raivio. Today he is chairman of the board of directors of the company.

SolarCity designs and installs solar energy system environmentally friendly. It is also engaged in checking and installing charging stations for electric vehicles. To enable Tesla battery backed solar system, in April 2015, they announced a partnership.

Musk has invested in a site of questions and answers Mahalo.com

According to CrunchBase, Musk has invested in Mahalo at the time the company was founded in 2007. Mahalo is similar to Wikipedia, Ask Jeeves and Quora together. The site allows people to post questions and answer them. After Google revised its search function, the company was forced in 2011 to lay off 10% of staff. Since then it has changed its strategy, having been engaged in copyright To Videos and live user sessions of questions and answers. Musk himself took a series of commercials for the site in 2011.

Musk has invested in launched in 2010, the online payment system Stripe

Musk has ceased to fund PayPal, but invested in its largest competitor - online payment system Stripe. The purpose of the project - to allow applications and companies like Lyft and Facebook to receive payments from anywhere and from anyone. This project has been estimated at five billion dollars. He also signed an agreement with Twitter, which now adds to the Tweets button "buy».

DNA sequencing company Halcyon Molecular Inc. - One of the few failures mask. It closed in 2012

The ambitious project in modern genetics and biotechnology was founded in 2008 by brothers Andregg. Their goal: "to reveal the biggest secrets in the DNA." In 2009 it was announced that the company wants "to sequence 100% of the human genome in less than a minute and a quire of $ 100." According to Fierce Biotech, the project was closed due to the fierce competition in the development of cheap and rapid method of DNA sequencing.

Personal love of science led the mask in 2014 to give money to the Scientific Center Tesla

Musk donated a million dollars to fund a new science museum. He appeared in 2014 thanks to vebkomiksu The Oatmeal and is dedicated to Nikola Tesla as one of the most important inventors in history. The center is located in Vordenklife in New York - the same place where Tesla built a giant telecommunications tower for experiments with the transmission of messages and wireless power supply. Musk even going to build a parking lot Superzaryadnik Tesla Museum - the fastest charging station in the world

. Despite the fear of AI, Musk has invested in a startup Vicarious

Musk does not trust artificial intelligence. Moreover, in 2014, the annual event AeroAstra Centennial Symposium, held by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he called AI "attempt to call the Devil." However, there is nothing strange that Musk has invested in a number of leading AI companies trying to understand how to make smart robots friendlier future. In the spring of 2014 Vicarious Musk gave $ 40 million.

About the company is not very much information. However, their website says that Vicarious «develops a unified algorithmic structure of intelligence which can be compared to a human. The system can just as people perceive visual information and language and motor skills to control. " The founder of Vicarious Scott Phoenix said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the company wants to create a "computer that thinks like a man, but not sleeping and not eating».

Another AI project, which invested mask was sold Google

In a news release CNBC Musk said, "Do not consider my investment as an attempt to get more money. I just want to keep track of what is happening in the AI ​​industry. I think that it lies in a potential threat. " He continues: "This was filmed movies. We all watched them. Take, for example, the Terminator. AI Development could potentially lead to frightening consequences, and we must be sure that the impact will be positive. " So now it is investing heavily in companies such as founded in 2011 DeepMind. The startup was bought by Google in 2014 and renamed Google DeepMind. The purpose of the project - by combining machine learning and neuroscience "to reveal the secret of the mind", and create a powerful general-purpose computer algorithm

. Musk also gave money to the institute Future of Life

In January 2015, he donated 10 million organization Future of Life Institute. She conducts research in the area of ​​reducing the risks associated with the development of artificial intelligence. Some institute projects include the creation of ethical rules and systems for AI. Others focused on keeping weapons under the control of AI.

He is a member of the Board of Fund X Prize - a nonprofit organization that awards for bringing benefit to mankind invention

This organization organizes public contests for the promotion of technological inventions that will benefit mankind. Prizes are awarded in several categories. For example, for the achievements in the field of fisheries management, protection from asteroids and synthetic astrobiology, for the development of invisibility cloak, and so on. Now the list of awards includes the Google Lunar XPrize ($ 30 million for sending to the moon rover created by a private company), and the prize Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPrize (2 million for assistance in restoring ocean ecosystems). Musk is a member of the board of trustees.

Musk funded startup NeuroVigil, develops technique to analyze brain activity

NeuroVigil was launched in 2007. The startup has developed a portable brain scanner is the first in the world called iBrain. In May 2015 Musk became a major investor in the company. NeuroVigil explores the electrical signals of the brain. So the project helps pharmaceutical companies to conduct clinical trials, diagnosis and treatment of patients with neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. Yet they want to help NASA monitor the brain activity of astronauts living on the International Space Station.

Officially, Musk is not engaged in the development of the concept of high-speed passenger transportation system Hyperloop, but it is a lot invested in the idea

18 Ilona projects Mask: where investments are tehnopredprinimatelya

More in 2013. Musk has publicly announced the concept of high-speed passenger transportation system Hyperloop. At the same time, he laid out in free access to ideas and research results.

Hyperloop - transport system project, which would smuggle people into capsules of vacuum tubes at speeds of over 800 km / h. Musk initially said about him as a fast, safe and economical way to travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Musk and SpaceX say they have no plans to commercialize the technology. However, the publication of this Motherboard have an opinion. Several private companies (like the one from Los Angeles) are working on the commercialization of technology. They recently announced that they intend to examine the possibility of building such a system in Europe.

Guided by their fear of AI, Musk recently invested in a non-commercial project OpenAI

When the AI ​​will become so smart that he can think and act like human beings, we are, in the opinion of mask must be prepared to a controlled confrontation potentially dangerous effects. To this end, in 2015 it became one of the founders of OpenAI - a non-profit project, the repository of scientific articles, blog posts, code and patents. Leading scientists and institutions can add to it your articles and work on them together. Musk added to the amount of money invested in the $ 1 billion that the project raised during the investment round.

Author: Artem Franic