Elon Musk

June 28, 1971

South African-born businessman who leads Tesla and SpaceX, central to the growth of electric cars and reusable rockets.

Biography

Elon Musk is a businessman born in South Africa in 1971 who moved to Canada and then the United States. He co-founded the online payment company that became PayPal.

He founded the rocket company SpaceX in 2002, which developed reusable launch vehicles and the Starlink satellite network, and became the main executive of the electric car maker Tesla. He also started or backed Neuralink and the Boring Company.

In 2022 he bought Twitter and renamed it X. He became closely involved in United States politics, supporting Donald Trump in 2024 and leading the Department of Government Efficiency in 2025 before leaving it. He has been one of the richest people in the world.

Affiliations

Education

Jan 1, 1990 – Jan 1, 1992 Smith School of Business
Jan 1, 1991 – Jan 1, 1995 University of Pennsylvania
Jan 1, 1992 – Jan 1, 1995 Wharton School
Queen's University at Kingston
University of Pretoria
Stanford University

Employment

Jan 1, 1995 – Feb 1, 1999 Zip2 Co-founder; sold to Compaq February 1999
Jan 1, 1999 – Jan 1, 2002 PayPal Co-founded X.com (1999), which merged with Confinity in March 2000 to form PayPal; PayPal sold to eBay 2002
from Jun 1, 2002 SpaceX
from Apr 23, 2004 Tesla, Inc.
Dec 11, 2015 – Jan 1, 2019 OpenAI
from Jul 1, 2016 Neuralink
from Dec 17, 2016 The Boring Company
from Oct 27, 2022 Twitter, Inc. Bought the company on 27 October 2022; CEO, then executive chairman and CTO
Jan 20, 2025 – May 1, 2025 Department of Government Efficiency De facto head; left the administration in May 2025
SolarCity