Sure, his name might sound faintly like a celebrity-promoted aftershave but that's not the whackiest thing about Elon Musk by any means.

The sometimes-reckless tech and space pioneer is no stranger to controversy and drama, not least because he's the richest person on the planet. 

Read on to discover what makes this billionaire businessman tick, with all dollar amounts in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The young Musk's talent was evident early on as he began learning how to program computers at the age of just 10.

By the time he was 12, he'd developed a video game called Blastar (pictured). He sold the game's code to a computer magazine for around $500 (around $1,467/£1,219 in 2022) and even though that was back in the early 80s, you can still play the game online today.

Musk took his first big risk when he dropped out of his PhD at the prestigious Stanford University after just a few days of studying. Instead of continuing his education, he decided to devote more time to his first start-up, Zip2 Corporation, which created online city guides for news organisations.

The gamble paid off: when the company was purchased by Compaq Computer in 1999, 28-year-old Musk walked away with a cool $19.02 million, which is around $33.8 million (£28.1m) in today's money.

Quick to build on his success, Musk's next venture was an electronic payments start-up called X.com, which he founded using a sizeable chunk of his newly-acquired wealth.

That investment was spectacularly successful as the company, which rebranded to "PayPal" in 2001, was acquired by eBay for a reported $1.29 billion (£907m) in 2002. Musk netted a colossal $180 million (£149m) from the sale.

By the early 2000s, Musk had become one of the world's most influential business figures. While PayPal's success was undeniable, Musk had his eye on other pursuits: specifically, rockets and space exploration.

Having founded SpaceX in 2002, his first challenge in reaching space was sourcing the rockets to get up there. After deciding they were too expensive in the US, Musk showed his wild streak when he came close to buying three intercontinental ballistic missiles from Russia to convert them.

However, he eventually decided he would build the rockets himself and in 2009, SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately-developed vehicle to put a satellite into orbit. 

On 6 February 2018, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, which comprises three cores, had its maiden voyage, making it the most powerful operational rocket in the world.

The name fits: according to reports, the Falcon Heavy can lift a mass equivalent to five double-decker buses (complete with passengers, luggage, and fuel) into orbit. The mega-rocket has been designed to carry people and is part of Musk’s plans for human space travel.

However, for that experimental debut mission back in 2018, Musk decided on a much smaller, safer load: his old cherry-red Tesla sports car.

A space-suited mannequin, nicknamed "Starman", was strapped into the driver's seat, with the car's radio set to play David Bowie's Life on Mars on repeat. The rocket overshot its intended orbit of Mars but the ambitious launch garnered headlines across the world.

Musk had more success in 2020 when SpaceX worked with NASA to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on 30 May.

Doug Hurley (right) and Bob Behnken (second right) joined NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy (centre) and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin (left) and Ivan Vagner (second left) on the ISS 19 hours after the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Kennedy Space Center.

The mission's equipment was supplied and operated by SpaceX, marking the first time that NASA had worked with a commercial partner rather than using its own spacecraft.

Musk's ultimate cosmic ambitions are much bigger than anything he's achieved so far. A paper written by Musk and published in the New Space journal outlined his plans for colonising Mars, including a fleet of spacecraft carrying hundreds of passengers to and from the Red Planet, with homes and "pizza joints" being constructed before the end of the century.

While his space exploration company was still finding its feet, Musk got involved in another huge project. It's often assumed that he founded Tesla, but the automotive giant was actually launched by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003.

Musk became a significant shareholder shortly afterwards and eventually became the company's CEO in 2008. Tesla's first car, the Tesla Roadster, was launched that same year and sold 2,400 models in 30 countries, which were impressive numbers for electric car sales at the time.

Reports suggested that even Donald Trump had a Roadster in his fleet of motor vehicles.

Tesla's first "Gigafactory" officially opened in Nevada in 2016, although its construction is still in progress. 

When it's finished, the physical footprint of the factory is tipped to make it the largest building in the world, with its construction so far proving to be the driving force behind Tesla's ability to ship its electric car to the mass market.

Gigafactories have also been erected in Berlin and Texas, and recent reports suggest that Musk is primed to begin the development of a new premises in Britain, too.

While you might think that SpaceX and Tesla are more than enough to keep Musk on his toes, he's got other plans up his sleeve. "We have planes, trains, automobiles and boats... What if there was a fifth mode?" Musk famously mused in July 2012, before unveiling plans for his "Hyperloop" transportation system the following year.

The visionary new approach to getting from A-to-B would see pods sent hurtling through a vacuumed tube at lightning speeds – for example, the four-hour journey between LA and San Francisco would be slashed to around 30 minutes.

Key to the plan is a network of tunnels and, with this in mind, Musk set up a firm dedicated to boring holes in the ground. The Boring Company (get it?) was founded in 2016 and set to work tunnelling under the Las Vegas Convention Center. 

So far, the Hyperloop project has had very limited success – perhaps because Musk and his engineers have been entertaining themselves with dangerous gadgets instead.

In January 2018, The Boring Company developed its controversial "flamethrower". Comprising a blowtorch shaped like a gun, 20,000 of them were made available for pre-order. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they'd all sold out by the end of the month.

In August 2020, Musk introduced the world to Gertrude the pig, the main test subject of what's perhaps his most controversial project yet.

Gertrude had a computer chip implanted in her brain, with the wireless device developed to collect data from more than 1,000 of her neurons, and did so with astonishing success. However, animal rights groups such as PETA have expressed their concerns about the welfare of the animals involved in such experiments.

This research was carried out by Musk's start-up Neuralink as part of its development of technology to adjust neural firing patterns. The ultimate goal is to cure disorders stemming from the brain, including Parkinson's disease and dementia.

Musk has even claimed that the technology could allow paralysed people to walk and "will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs". Human trials are currently awaiting approval.

Musk has long been a controversial figure on Twitter, but on 6 March 2020 he took things to another level.

He took to the social network to declare that "the coronavirus panic is dumb", angering many just five days before the World Health Organization declared the global outbreak of the infectious disease to be a pandemic.

Around two weeks later, he caused further fury when he tweeted that "kids are essentially immune" to the virus, despite evidence to the contrary.

In yet another controversial tweet, Musk claimed in May 2020 that Tesla's stock price was too high, causing it to fall immediately and wiping nearly $15 billion (£12.4bn) off the company's valuation in just a day.

Shares were $760 (£630) at the time and fell by about 10%. The comment didn't do any lasting damage, however, with Tesla overtaking Toyota to become the world's most valuable automaker just weeks later.

In fact, one year on from Musk's share-slashing tweet, Tesla was worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM, and Ford combined.

One of Musk's most shocking tweets – and there are many to choose from – dates from July 2018. At that time, the world was gripped by the story of a group of children who had become trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand.

Musk asked his engineers at SpaceX and The Boring Company to build a mini submarine that could save them. Remarkably, the submarine was completed in just eight hours and Musk offered it to the rescue team.

By then, however, eight of the 12 children had already been retrieved and Vern Unsworth, a recreational diver who had been involved in the mission, criticised Musk’s efforts as a pointless PR stunt. Musk’s ill-advised response – which understandably led to legal action – was to take to Twitter and call Unsworth "a pedo".

All of this controversy and drama has in no way dampened Musk's enthusiasm for Twitter. In fact, in April 22 he took the shocking step of offering to buy the social network for the mammoth sum of $44 billion (£36.6bn); as of July, however, he appears to have withdrawn from the agreement. The controversy continues...

Musk's response to the coronavirus pandemic has been somewhat mixed. While his initial Twitter activity seemed to undermine the situation, he was quick to offer Tesla's services to produce life-saving ventilators.

Musk also donated hundreds of ventilators sourced from China to hospitals in New York City and other US hotspots, while SpaceX began to produce hand sanitiser and provided Tyvek protective suits to an LA hospital. 

On 11 May 2020, however, Musk announced he would be reopening the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, in defiance of local public health orders.

This came after Tesla sued Alameda county, claiming that its local orders violated California's constitution. Putting an end to the feud, the county's Public Health Department announced on 13 May that Tesla would be able to recommence business operations, providing it adhered to strict safety regulations. 

When Musk tweeted that Tesla's stock price was too high, that wasn't the first time he'd shot himself in the foot. In fact, the eccentric billionaire seems to have a talent for self-sabotage.

In September 2018, he smoked a cannabis-tobacco joint on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, resulting in outrage – and another fall in Tesla's stock value.

More recently, Musk has described his Tesla Gigafactories as "gigantic money furnaces", stating that they are losing billions of dollars as a result of supply chain issues and EV battery shortages. 

Given how much he talks down the business, it's not clear how much Musk is really concerned about Tesla's stock market success...

In 2000, Musk married Justine Wilson, with whom he had six children. However, the pair got divorced in 2008.

Musk then married the English actress Talulah Riley (pictured left) in 2010. The couple divorced in 2012, remarried in 2013, and then ended things for good in October 2016, with Riley later describing their marriage as "quite hard, quite the crazy ride".

Soon after his divorce, Musk started an on-off relationship with actress Amber Heard, and more recently his love life has centred around Canadian singer Grimes.

But it seems like that relationship hasn't worked out either. In September 2021, Musk confirmed that the pair had separated. They soon reunited, although by the end of the year it was seemingly over once more, with Grimes announcing their split on Twitter.

On 4 May 2020, Musk and Grimes announced the birth of their first son. The couple gave the child a rather unusual name, calling him "X Æ A-12".

Grimes took to Twitter – where else? – to explain the unorthodox choice, telling her followers that "X" stands for "the unknown variable", while "Æ" is the elven spelling of AI (signifying both love and artificial intelligence).

The "A-12" element is a nod to the Lockheed A-12 aircraft, which is the precursor to the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and is an aircraft loved by the couple as it has "no weapons, no defenses, just speed". Finally, the "A" on its own also refers to "Archangel", Grimes' favourite song.

Later that month, the child's name was tweaked slightly, with "A-12" replaced by "A-Xii". Using Roman numerals meant that the name complied with Californian law, with Grimes noting via an Instagram post that the new spelling "looks better".

Not satisfied with conventional schools, 2014 saw Musk decide to set up his own to educate his kids.

Ad Astra School in Los Angeles was co-founded by Musk and teacher Joshua Dahn, and originally started out in a conference room at SpaceX.

Today, it has around 40 students, who study a curriculum that includes AI, engineering, and ethics. Subjects such as sports, music, and foreign languages are not taught, and children aren't graded. Instead, they receive numbered scores on their work, which reportedly includes assignments like building battle-bots and experimenting with flamethrowers.

Musk has become one of the most prominent mavericks in contemporary culture, as demonstrated when Robert Downey Jr turned to him for inspiration upon landing the role of Tony Stark in the Iron Man movies.

The SpaceX factory was actually used as a filming location for the Hollywood blockbusters and Musk also made a brief cameo in Iron Man 2.

In May 2021, the tech billionaire event hosted Saturday Night Live, becoming the first non-actor or athlete to take on the prestigious presenting gig since 2015. 

And of course, as his fame has rocketed, so has Musk's wealth.

He recently reclaimed his position as the richest person on the planet due to the remarkable success of Tesla over the last 12 months, with Forbes reporting that he's the wealthiest person in the world by some way. 

As of 1 July 2022, his estimated net worth is a jaw-dropping $218.9 billion (£182bn), which dwarfs the still-colossal net worths of Bernard Arnault ($146.8bn/£122bn) and Jeff Bezos ($133.5bn/£111bn). To put that into some kind of context, Musk's fortune is about the same as the GDP of Portugal.

Musk has indicated that he plans to spend half his wealth on helping improve things on Earth and the other half on establishing human life on Mars. We'll have to wait and see whether or not he'll follow through with his out-of-this-world promises...

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