Who is entrepreneur and engineer Elon Musk?
Elon Reeve Musk is an entrepreneur and engineer born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. He is known for leading and founding technology companies including SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company and xAI. Musk has played prominent roles in electric vehicles, commercial spaceflight, satellite communications, artificial intelligence and online platforms. He is also the owner and chief technology officer of X, the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Background/biography
Musk was raised in Pretoria. His mother, Maye Musk, is a model and dietitian, and his father, Errol Musk, worked as an engineer. Musk has said that he developed an early interest in computers, science fiction, engineering and video games.
He attended the University of Pretoria briefly before moving to Canada. He later studied at Queen’s University in Ontario and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned degrees in economics from the Wharton School and physics from the College of Arts and Sciences. Musk was admitted to a graduate physics program at Stanford University but left shortly after enrolling to pursue internet-business opportunities during the 1990s technology boom.
Business and engineering career
- Co-founded Zip2, an online city-guide software company, in 1995.
- Founded X.com, an online financial-services company, in 1999; it later became part of PayPal.
- Founded SpaceX in 2002, developing Falcon launch vehicles, Dragon spacecraft and the Starlink satellite network.
- Joined Tesla in 2004 as an early investor and later became its chief executive officer and product architect.
- Co-founded Neuralink in 2016, a company developing brain-computer interface technology.
- Founded The Boring Company in 2016, focused on tunnel and transportation infrastructure projects.
- Acquired Twitter in 2022; the company was renamed X in 2023.
- Founded artificial-intelligence company xAI in 2023.
Musk’s early business success came from the sale of Zip2 and from PayPal’s acquisition by eBay in 2002. He subsequently directed much of his wealth toward SpaceX, which has become a major provider of launch services for commercial and government missions, and Tesla, which helped expand the market for battery-electric vehicles.
At SpaceX, Musk has promoted the long-term goal of establishing a human presence on Mars. The company’s reusable rocket program, including Falcon 9, has been central to its commercial-launch business. Tesla, meanwhile, has produced electric cars, battery-storage systems and solar-energy products, though Musk’s leadership of multiple companies has also drawn public and investor scrutiny.
From Twitter to X
Musk’s 2022 purchase of Twitter was among the most closely watched technology acquisitions of the decade. After taking ownership, he made major changes to the company’s leadership, workforce, platform policies and subscription offerings. In 2023, Twitter was rebranded as X, reflecting Musk’s stated ambition to develop it into a broader digital platform.
Net worth
Net-worth estimates for Musk fluctuate substantially because much of his wealth is tied to his ownership stakes in privately held and publicly traded companies. Forbes estimated his net worth at around $342 billion in its 2025 annual billionaires list. His principal reported sources of wealth include shares and compensation linked to Tesla, as well as stakes in SpaceX and other ventures.
Did you know?
- Musk wrote and sold the code for a simple space-themed video game called Blastar as a teenager.
- He holds citizenship in South Africa, Canada and the United States.
- SpaceX’s first successful orbital launch came in 2008 with the Falcon 1 rocket.
- In 2020, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon became the first commercially built spacecraft to carry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
- The name “X” has appeared repeatedly in Musk’s business projects, including X.com and the later rebranding of Twitter.
