Rare interview with billionaire Elon Musk on his plans to colonize Mars - 60 Minutes CBS Australia.

The story of Elon Musk is almost too incredible to believe. He's an engineer and entrepreneur worth more than 15 billion dollars. He backs himself and his high-risk ventures, which invariably earn huge profits. First there was PayPal, the way to buy and sell on the internet. Then Tesla, the electric supercar he built. And SpaceX, the rocket company NASA uses - not bad for a 44-year-old guy. As Ross Coutlhart learns, Elon is not stopping there and his next venture is truly out of this world: the colonisation of Mars. If Elon Musk reminds you of Tony Stark - Ironman - you're right, because he is also the inspiration behind the Hollywood superhero.

By 2016, Elon Musk is moving fast with several new business ideas: building underground tunnels, creating chips that can be inserted into people's brains and attempting to build the biggest battery factory the world has ever seen.
All the while he is edging closer to his ultimate dream of taking humanity to Mars.

In 1995, at the start of the Silicon Valley tech boom, Elon Musk arrives with his younger brother Kimball Musk to join the gold rush and be part of the creation of the internet. They’re geeky young South Africans battling to make a fortune, but Elon is still sleeping on the floor of his office and washing at the local YMCA.

Burdened with student debt, Elon and his brother create their first company,which they go on to sell for millions. Within just four years, at the age of 28, Musk is a multi-millionaire. But on his honeymoon, things start to go wrong.

Elon Musk wants to electrify cars and settle on Mars. First, he must avoid financial ruin.

Elon Musk is working hard to revolutionise the car market and take mankind to Mars. But first, he must weather a global financial crisis to realise his interplanetary mission.

In 2009, the financial crash sends shockwaves across the world and threatens to cripple Elon. To realise his dream, Elon must gain the confidence of the financial markets to allow his electric car company Tesla to become viable.

Elon’s space rocket enterprise, SpaceX, is awarded a Nasa contract and starts to enjoy success. However, Tesla is on the ropes and haemorrhaging money. To compound this pressure, Elon is to marry his second wife, British actress Talulah Riley.

Despite these challenges, Elon is determined to create a new car, the Model S, that he believes will be the first mass-produced all-electric car in history.

Who is Elon Musk?

Elon Musk, 51, is a tech entrepreneur who grew up in South Africa - his father Errol. Is a former engineer, politician in the anti-apartheid Progressive Party, and half owner of a large Zambian emerald mine. His mother, Maye, is a model and dietician. Musk also has brother,Kimbal, asister, Tsoca.

Musk moved to Canada when he was 17, and then to California in 1995 where he pursued a business career in the midst of the Silicon Valley boom. He is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of SpaceX, CEO and product architect of Tesla, and founder of the Boring Company. He also founded X.com which is now a part of PayPal, and co-founded Neuralink, OpenAI, and Zip2.

Through these companies, and investment in cryptocurrency, Musk established himself as one of the richest tech bros in the world - in 2020 he had a net worth of $27 billion. His net worth has since skyrocketed, and is estimated to be worth more than $200 billion today. Musk eclipsed the former world’s richest man, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in January 2021.

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