South African Elon Musk, who co-founded PayPal at the end of the last century, has made the Time 100 list.
Musk is included in the “Thinker” section in the annual Time 100 issue in which it names the “people who most affect our world”.
In Iron Man director Jon Favreau's write-up for the magazine, he writes that he sat down with Musk when “trying to bring the character of genius billionaire Tony Stark to the big screen, in Iron Man”.
Musk was born 38 years ago, in SA, to a South African engineer and a Canadian mother, who works as a New York City dietician and model, according to Wikipedia. The online encyclopaedia says his father inspired his love of technology. Musk bought his first computer at 10, and then taught himself how to program.
By the age of 12, he had made his first software sale, selling a space game called Blastar, for $500. Favreau describes Musk as a “rocket scientist” as he designed the Falcon 9 booster that may serve as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's next vehicle to transport cargo and humans into space.
“Even Elon's humble beginnings are not so humble. The little Internet start-up that put him on the map is called PayPal. You may have heard of it... Elon is a paragon of enthusiasm, good humour and curiosity - a Renaissance man in an era that needs them,” writes Favreau.
In February 2001, X.com became PayPal, before being bought by eBay for $1.5 billion the following year.
In March, First National Bank brought PayPal to SA, making the country the 19th in which PayPal has a presence.
Musk is currently CEO of Tesla Motors, which he invested into in 2004. The high-performance electric motor car company has also attracted attention from Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who have also invested in the company.
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