Elon Musk is a businessman, industrialist and former public official who serves as chief executive officer and largest shareholder of Tesla and SpaceX. Born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1971, he emigrated to Canada in 1989 and later became an American citizen. He co-founded several companies, including Zip2, PayPal, Neuralink and the Boring Company, and co-founded OpenAI before leaving it. Musk has been widely described as one of the world's wealthiest people, and his business ventures and political activities have made him a prominent and polarizing public figure.
Early life
Musk was born into a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa, to a South African father and a Canadian-born mother. He moved to Canada in 1989, and he received bachelor's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 before relocating to California. As a child he taught himself to program and sold a computer game as a teenager, interests that later shaped his business career.
Business ventures
In 1995 Musk co-founded Zip2, a web software company, and later helped create the online payment service that became PayPal. In 2002 he founded SpaceX, which has led developments in reusable rockets, and he became chief executive of Tesla, a leader in electric vehicles. He has also founded or co-founded Neuralink, the Boring Company and xAI, and in 2022 he acquired the social networking service Twitter, which he renamed X.
Political activity
Musk was the largest donor in the 2024 United States presidential election, supporting Donald Trump. In 2025 he served as an advisor to Trump and was the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency, leaving the administration in May of that year. His political views and public statements have drawn criticism, and his role in government and his changes at Twitter have been controversial.