Who is Elon Musk?
Who is Elon Musk?
Who is Elon Musk? He is the engineer-founder behind the rocket company SpaceX and the electric-car maker Tesla. Since 2021 he has usually been the richest person on Earth, and in June 2026 he became the first person worth more than $1 trillion when SpaceX listed on Nasdaq 2.
Musk grew up in South Africa, moved to Canada at 17 and built his first companies in California. Today he lives and works mainly in Texas. He is known for setting very large goals, such as cheap reusable rockets, mass-market electric cars and a human settlement on Mars, and for working under extreme deadlines.
He is also one of the most debated public figures in business. His posts on X, his political spending and his 2025 role leading the US government’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have drawn both strong support and strong criticism 3.
How did Elon Musk make his money?
Musk is self-made. His fortune grew in four steps:
- Zip2 (1995-1999): He co-founded the online city-guide company with his brother Kimbal. Compaq bought it for $307 million, and Musk received about $22 million 3.
- X.com and PayPal (1999-2002): His online bank merged into PayPal. When eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002, Musk’s 11.7% stake was worth about $176 million 3.
- SpaceX and Tesla (2002 onwards): He put most of that money into SpaceX and became Tesla’s largest investor in 2004. Both companies nearly failed in 2008 before recovering 3.
- The SpaceX IPO (2026): SpaceX merged with xAI in February 2026 and listed on Nasdaq on 12 June 2026, valuing his stake at hundreds of billions of dollars 2.
Today SpaceX makes up nearly four-fifths of his net worth, according to Forbes 1. Read the full breakdown in Elon Musk’s net worth.
What companies does Elon Musk own?
Musk runs or controls six companies. SpaceX builds rockets and runs the Starlink satellite internet service, and since February 2026 it also owns xAI, the maker of the Grok chatbot, and with it the social network X 2. He is CEO of Tesla and co-founded the brain-implant company Neuralink and the tunnelling firm The Boring Company.
His past companies include Zip2, X.com, PayPal and SolarCity, which merged into Tesla in 2016. He also co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and left its board in 2018 3. Every role, stake and exit is listed in Elon Musk’s companies and investments.
What is Elon Musk’s net worth?
Elon Musk’s net worth was $869 billion on 1 November 2026, according to Forbes, down $68 billion in a month as SpaceX shares fell 1. Bloomberg’s index put him at about $865 billion at the end of October 5. He first passed $1 trillion on 12 June 2026, the day SpaceX began trading, and has moved above and below that line since 25. The figure, how it is calculated and its history since 2012 are on Elon Musk’s net worth.
Early life, education and rise
Musk was born in Pretoria to Errol Musk, an engineer, and Maye Musk, a model and dietitian. At 12 he sold a video game called Blastar for about $500. He moved to Canada in 1989, studied at Queen’s University and then the University of Pennsylvania, and dropped a Stanford graduate place in 1995 to start Zip2 3. The full story, from Pretoria to Starbase, is in the Elon Musk biography.
Who is in Elon Musk’s family?
Musk has been married three times: to the author Justine Wilson, and twice to the actress Talulah Riley. He has at least 14 children, publicly reported, with four mothers, including the musician Grimes and Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis 3. His mother Maye, brother Kimbal and cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive have all been part of his business story. See Elon Musk’s wife, children and family.
Where does Elon Musk live?
In 2020 Musk pledged to “own no house” and sold seven California homes for about $128 million 6. He has said his main home is a roughly $50,000 prefab house in Starbase, Texas, rented from SpaceX, while companies linked to him own several homes near Austin 78. His homes, cars and jets are covered in Elon Musk’s house, cars and lifestyle.
Elon Musk’s career at a glance
From selling a video game at 12 to listing SpaceX at 54, Musk’s career runs through more than a dozen companies. Key dates include Zip2 (1995), PayPal (2002), SpaceX (2002), Tesla (2004), the Twitter purchase (2022), xAI (2023) and the SpaceX IPO (2026). Each year is set out in the Elon Musk career timeline.
