Today we're talking about famous people in tech, and we will start with boosting your vocabulary. Let's first talk about Elon Musk. Elon Musk is a man who needs no introduction. Elon Musk has inspired and amazed people for years with his ambitious and innovative projects. I think you agree with that. Musk founded numerous businesses. When I say numerous, that means a lot, many, that's a synonym. He founded numerous businesses providing cutting-edge solutions to problems. Cutting edge means innovative. That's another synonym for innovative. Cutting-edge solutions to problems most people wouldn't know how to tackle. Just a friendly reminder, I think I have shared this expression with you before. To tackle problems means to solve problems. Here I'm going to give you synonyms for the bolded words so that you can understand the information better. Numerous, many, cutting-edge, innovative, tackle the problem, solve the problem. Let's talk more about Elon Musk here. Elon Musk earned his first billion dollars after his first notable venture PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock. Acquired means bought, so eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion in stock. Musk used that money to establish, to build, yet to start SpaceX, which landed a contract with NASA. That's another good idiom for you, land a contract means get a contract. SpaceX, which landed a contract with NASA to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station. Technically SpaceX got a contract with NASA to handle, to deal with cargo transportation. SpaceX was supposed to do cargo transportation for International Space Stations. By the way, I notice how I pronounce the name of the company SpaceX. Not x it's x, SpaceX. However, Musk's vision for SpaceX has always been much greater than doing space deliveries. Technically, originally when he landed a contract with NASA, SpaceX was a delivery company, delivering goods. The company's ultimate goal, ultimate means the biggest goal, the final goal, the company's ultimate goal is to prevent human extinction, human extinction, it means the end of human life, so human extinction by setting up a colony on Mars. Setup is a very popular phrasal verb in the tech world. To set up, to arrange. To arrange, to assemble a colony on Mars. Musk also co-founded a number of other companies including Tesla, where he oversees product development. Now that's a good word for you. To oversee product development means to be in charge of product development, so he's the boss. To oversee it means to control. He controls product development. The Boring Company, that's a funny name of one of the other company where he is a co-founder. The Boring Company, which mission is to reduce street traffic. The Boring Company, this is a company that is developing the Hyperloop, the underground tunnels where people would be able to move using the tunnel. OpenAI is another company which is aimed at researching and regulating artificial intelligence, and the list goes on. Again to be aimed at, it means to have a goal that is directed to have an intention, to be aimed at is this company has an intention to research and regulate AI. I hope you like the story about Elon Musk and I hope you learned a lot of new information as well as a lot of new vocabulary. If you can find other words that you don't know in the text, write them down and look them up in the online dictionary. We will talk more about these words at the end of this vocabulary lesson. Now, I would like to move on and talk about another famous person in tech.
