By Varun Talluri (‘23)

As the world is rapidly advancing into what some may call the 4th industrial revolution, there are a few visionaries who have their eyes set on continuous advancements. One such person is the Tesla CEO and one of the richest men alive, Elon Musk. The tech billionaire was born in 1971 in South Africa and later co-founded PayPal, which allowed him to become a multimillionaire at a young age. However, his aspirations did not end there as he soon went on to build many companies including SpaceX, the Boring Company, OpenAI and Neuralink. Let’s take a closer look at these companies and their goals for the future.

The Boring Company, which was founded in late 2016, is far from boring – it’s actually very fascinating. One of the most notable products of the company was their limited edition Not-a-Flamethrower. Currently, these flamethrowers can be bought on exchange platforms for up to a few thousand dollars. However, the word “boring” isn’t just to define something as dull, since it also means to hollow out things such as tubes and tunnels. Similarly, the Boring Company is looking to revolutionize the way we travel by instituting an underground network of systems in which cars travel on high speed while on skates.

On the other hand, SpaceX looks to command the space race. The company shocked the world with drone ship precision landing, which allows for the reuse of rocket boosters and significantly reduces the costs to launch rockets. Over time, the company has outputted many well-known rockets including the Dragon, the Falcon 9, Starship, and the Falcon Heavy. However, SpaceX is not the only commercial company in the space race as they have competition from companies such as Blue Origin, which is owned by Jeff Bezos. Civilization on Mars may soon come to exist and companies like SpaceX are helping us get there one launch at a time.

The Boring Company and SpaceX are Elon Musk’s more notable business adventures, but there are still some other companies to look out for. For example, Neuralink is a company that is trying to combine technology with the human brain to try and cure ailments. However, as the company is still in the early phases of its development, they are currently testing their technology on pigs to have them perform certain tasks. Additionally, Musk’s OpenAI has a mission to research and develop AI so that it can be seamlessly integrated into daily life with the goal that it ultimately benefits humanity. As seen in this article, and many other news sources, Elon Musk is a visionary and is leading the way in many industries. Hopefully, the progress these companies have made will inspire you to embrace the future.