The breadth of Elon Musk's business empire from social media to space travel

• 

• 1 / 11

Tesla founder Elon Musk's empire is about to expand in a major way after Twitter announced that it has accepted the billionaire's offer to buy out the company for $44 billion. Within a month, Musk went from buying 9 percent stake in the company, to rejecting a board seat and finally acquiring the microblogging platform. The 50-year-old has made his Twitter plans absolutely clear and despite the staggering amount involved in the takeover, it is a drop in the ocean compared to Musk's expansive net worth. Here's a look at the length and breadth of the SpaceX CEO. (Image: Reuters)

• 

• 2 / 11

According to Forbes, Musk's net worth stands at around $268.2 billion, but this could change after the Twitter deal is completed. He already oversees multiple ventures that range from space exploration, ground tunnels and even unlocking the potential of the human mind. (Image: Reuters)

• 

• 3 / 11

Twitter announced, on April 25, that it has agreed to Musk's offer to buy the company for $44 billion. It will put the world's richest man and the eighth most-followed Twitter personality in charge of one of the world's most influential social networks. In its first quarter earnings, Twitter generated a profit of nearly $40 million on $1.2 billion in revenue as per FactSet data, New York Times reported. (Image: Reuters)

• 

• 4 / 11

Musk's SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp, which produces low-cost reusable rockets for outer space missions, has established itself as one of the key players in the space industry. Musk founded the company in 2002. It has already launched a network of Satellites called the ‘Starlink’ and it's heavy next-generation reusable rocket Starship is set to launch in May 2022, Musk confirmed in a tweet. SpaceX became the second-most valuable private company when its valuation skyrocketed to $100 billion last year. The long-term goals of the company are to reach Mars and beyond, and ferry humans between the planets after establishing a city on the red planet. (Image: Reuters)

• 

• 5 / 11

Tesla is the world's sixth most-valuable company by market cap and is valued at over $1 trillion, according companiesmarketcap.com. Musk has co-founded the company and serves as its CEO. Tesla has pushed far beyond simply manufacturing cars as it has opened multiple giga factories in several countries that make lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicle components. There are now six factories around the world. Tesla is leading the EV revolution in key markets and has become the most valuable car company in a very short span of time. (Image: Reuters)

• 

• 6 / 11

Musk has also founded Neuralink, which is valued at between $500 million to $1 billion. The neurological company that develops implantable brain-machine interfaces is dedicated to developing a device that looks like a chip and can be implanted in the human skull (or brain in the future) to allow a computer to translate a person's thoughts into action in real time. Neuralink was founded in 2016 and Musk serves as the CEO of the company, which he believes is a made-up title. The company is funded by 14 investors including Musk, Mirza Canada and Valor Equity Partners. (Image: Shutterstock)

• 

• 7 / 11

The Boring Company, which is valued at $5.67billion is an infrastructure and tunnel construction services company founded by Elon Musk in 2016. The company aims to build a high-speed hyperloops as intro-city transit systems. Till now it has completed two tunnels in Las Vegas for loop travel. Hyperloop travel is a high-speed transportation system in which passengers would travel in pod-like trains through vacuum tubes. The technology and transport system are being developed by Virgin Hyperloop. (Image: Reuters)

• 

• 8 / 11

Musk started his career early. As a 12-year-old, while living in South Africa he built a videogame called Blastar. He sold the code for the game to PC and Office Technology magazine for a mere $500. Following this, Musk and his brother Kimbal started Zip2, an online business directory in 1995. The company was sold in 1999 to Compaq for $307 million, from which Musk earned $22 million.

• 

• 9 / 11

In 1999, Musk setup his second startup X.com, which was an online bank. It went on to become PayPal, which was bought by eBay in 2002 for a $1.5 billion. Musk made $100 million from the sale. (Image: Shutterstock)

• 

• 10 / 11

In 2006, Musk backed renewable energy company SolarCity, which was founded by two of his cousins. It was later sold to Tesla for $2.6 billion, however the sale is subject to a shareholder lawsuit. (Image: Shutterstock)

• 

• 11 / 11

Open AI: Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 to develop the technology so that it can help humanity. However, Musk left the company in 2018.