Elon Musk – American entrepreneur

Elon Musk (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa) is a South African–born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic payment firm PayPal and formed SpaceX, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also one of the first significant investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electric car manufacturer Tesla. In addition, Musk acquired Twitter (later X) in 2022. Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in U.S. President Donald Trump’s second administration for four months before stepping down in May 2025. Musk is the world’s richest person, with a net worth of $393 billion, as of 2025.

Early life

Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he sought the greater economic opportunities available in the United States.

PayPal and SpaceX

Musk attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics in 1997. He enrolled in graduate school in physics at Stanford University in California, but he left after only two days because he felt that the Internet had much more potential to change society than work in physics. In 1995, he founded Zip2, a company that provided maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999, Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later became PayPal, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion.

Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humanity has to become a multiplanet species, but he was dissatisfied with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002, he founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to make more affordable rockets. Its first two rockets were the Falcon 1 (first launched in 2006) and the larger Falcon 9 (first launched in 2010), which were designed to cost much less than competing rockets. A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company’s Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. The Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy eventually dominated the launch vehicle market, and in 2024 more than half of the world’s orbital launches were done by SpaceX.

Tesla announced several models for the early 2020s, including a semitrailer truck (the Tesla Semi) and a pickup truck, the Cybertruck. Originally slated for production in 2021, the Cybertruck was delayed by supply chain disruptions and design challenges. It entered limited production in late 2023, with the first deliveries that year, and continued a gradual rollout through 2025.

Inventions

Through SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has achieved notable advancements in sustainable space exploration as well as driverless transportation with the research and launch of Full Self-Driving software. Musk has brought this pioneering spirit to other ventures but with mixed results. Among the inventions Musk has spent the most time and money to research are a new high-speed public transportation system and biological software connectivity.

In November 2025, Musk secured shareholder approval for a new $1 trillion compensation package from Tesla, one of the largest in corporate history. Under the plan Musk could receive stock awards worth up to that amount over the next decade if he meets a series of ambitious financial and operational targets. They include increasing Tesla’s market capitalization to about $8.5 trillion—roughly six times its 2025 value—and expanding its robotics and autonomous-driving divisions. The vote, which followed months of debate over corporate governance and executive pay, reaffirmed Musk’s influence at Tesla and his status as the world’s richest person.

Hyperloop

In August 2013, Musk released a concept for a new form of transportation called the “Hyperloop” that would would propel riders in pods through a network of low-pressure tubes at speeds reaching more than 700 mph. He proposed the transit system be built between San Francisco and Los Angeles, an endeavor that the inventor noted could take from seven to 10 years to be built and ready for use. He suggested the Hyperloop run on renewable energy.

Passing off the concept to fellow entrepreneurs, a startup formed to pursue the Hyperloop in 2014. For a time, it was owned by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, but by December 2023, Bloomberg reported the company began to sell off its assets and lay off remaining employees.

Neuralink

In 2017, it was reported that Musk was backing a venture called Neuralink, which intended to create devices to be implanted in the human brain and help people merge with software. Its devices consist of a microscopic chip that connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone or computer.

Concerns over the project arose in 2023, when veterinary records reportedly showed that monkeys receiving the implant in tests suffered “debilitating heath defects” including paralysis and brain swelling. Musk downplayed any risks, saying that only “terminal” monkeys received the implant and that none had died from the experiments.

In January 2024, Neuralink completed its first implant in a human subject, with Musk saying the results showed promise. A year later, the businessman reported there are now three people with Neuralink implants, and he hopes 20 to 30 more people will join them in 2025.

Net Worth

Musk is the richest person in the world, a title he has held at various points since early 2021. He regularly swaps spots with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and French businessman Bernard Arnault, who is the founder and CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. According to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List, Musk is worth $432.1 billion as of May 29, 2025. Bloomberg’s estimate is lower, totaling Musk’s fortune at $386 billion. Because much of his net worth is tied up in stock, Musk’s wealth is highly variable.

A large portion of Musk’s wealth stems from his shares and options in Tesla, which the Washington Post reported to be around $120 billion as of June 2024. That number is almost certainly even higher now as Tesla’s value has grown significantly since.

Musk’s first major financial windfall came via the sale of Zip2 in 1999, which earned him $22 million for his stake. He invested that money into X.com, which turned into a $165 million sum following eBay’s purchase of the renamed PayPal in 2002 and allowed Musk to earn his first billion.

Musk became the first person in history to boast a net worth of $400 billion or more in December 2024. The Washington Post reported the entrepreneur’s net worth grew by more than $200 billion that year. The unprecedented feat followed Musk’s historic milestone of becoming the first person to lose $200 billion at the end of 2022.