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Steve Jobs (L) and Elon Musk (R). [File photo]

Less than two years have passed since the Steve Jobs' early demise on October 5, 2011, and Silicon Valley has welcomed a new star-Elon Musk. The 42-year-old is best known as the co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors. He also founded PayPal and SpaceX.

Many IT professionals have touted Musk as the successor to Jobs, while some people on Wall-Street are not convinced. A close look at the experiences of Jobs and Musk reveals many resemblances between the two.

They are both half American, from their mother's side

Jobs was an illegitimate child. His biological father was a Syrian Muslim immigrant and his biological mother was an American. He was given up for adoption as a child. His biological parents subsequently married and had a second child. Though Jobs recognized his birth parents and developed a close relationship with them, he said his adoptive parents "were my parents 1,000%."

Musk was luckier than Jobs. His father was a South African and his mother was a Canadian American. Thanks to his mother, he got a Canadian passport and later studied in America. Even today Musk's English has a strong South African accent.

Both made their first money during middle school

When Jobs was 15, he earned money by selling second hand circuit boards. With his father's support, he bought a Nash Metropolitan car.

Musk started even earlier. He created and sold a videogame called Blastar for $500, aged 12.

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