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Elon Musk's current net worth is $922.91 billion (about ₹87.67 lakh crore), ranking 1st among billionaires globally and 1st in the United States.
Elon Reeve Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a Pretoria-born entrepreneur who has been the world’s wealthiest person since 2025. He became the first U.S. dollar trillionaire in June 2026; as of October 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.1 trillion. Musk built Zip2, PayPal, SpaceX, Starlink, and Tesla, and bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, later rebranding it X.
June 28, 1971
55 years
Tesla, SpaceX
Technology
United States
Austin, Texas
Bachelor of Arts/Science, University of Pennsylvania
Justine Wilson (Married: 2000, Divorced: 2008); Talulah Riley (Married: 2010, Divorced: 2012; Married: 2013, Divorced: 2016)
At least 14, including Vivian Wilson
Errol Musk (father); Maye Musk (mother)
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. Growing up in a wealthy family, Musk developed an early passion for technology and literature, teaching himself programming at the young age of ten. In 1983, at just twelve years old, he successfully created and sold his first video game, a space-themed shooter called Blastar, for approximately $500. However, his childhood was marked by severe personal adversity. Following his parents' divorce in 1979, Musk chose to live with his father, a decision he later deeply regretted. His school years in South Africa were characterized by intense hardship, including attending a harsh, paramilitary-style wilderness school and experiencing severe bullying that once resulted in hospitalization after a physical altercation.
Seeking new opportunities and wishing to avoid South Africa's apartheid-era military service, Musk moved to Canada in 1989, securing citizenship through his mother. He briefly attended the University of Pretoria before enrolling at Queen's University in Ontario in 1990. He then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in physics and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School. Though he was accepted into a materials science PhD program at Stanford University in 1995, Musk chose not to enroll, opting instead to dive into the rapidly expanding internet boom, an action that later drew legal scrutiny regarding his work and visa status at the time.
Elon Musk: Family
Elon Musk's lineage and immediate family have played a significant role in his personal and public life. He is the son of Maye Musk, a Canadian-born model and dietitian, and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, property developer, and emerald dealer. His maternal grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman, was a far-right, anti-democratic aviator and activist who supported apartheid and conspiracy theories, with some suggesting his views influenced Musk.
Musk has two younger siblings, brother Kimbal and sister Tosca, alongside four paternal half-siblings. Over time, Musk grew deeply estranged from his father, Errol, following years of domestic tension.
His romantic relationships and growing family have frequently occupied the public spotlight. Musk married his first wife, Justine Wilson, in 2000; the couple suffered the tragic loss of their first child to SIDS at ten weeks before welcoming twins in 2004 and triplets in 2006 via IVF. Their eldest twin, Vivian Jenna Wilson, legally changed her name and severed ties with Musk in 2022. Musk was later married and divorced twice to actress Talulah Riley (from 2010 to 2012, and again from 2013 to 2016) and briefly dated actress Amber Heard in 2017. In 2018, he began dating musician Grimes (Claire Boucher). The couple had three children through IVF and surrogacy, including their eldest, X Æ A-Xii, before semi-separating in 2021, leading to a custody lawsuit filed by Grimes in 2023.
Musk's family expanded further through his partnership with Shivon Zilis, a director at Neuralink, with whom he has four children: twins born in 2021, a child born via surrogacy in 2024, and another child in 2025. Musk publicly identified Zilis as his partner in July 2026. Additionally, author Ashley St. Clair claimed Musk fathered her child Romulus in 2024, filing for custody in 2025. Despite expressing uncertainty about his paternity, Musk reportedly paid St. Clair $2.5 million, structured partially as a loan, alongside $500,000 annually. In total, Musk is the father of at least fourteen documented children, though sources close to him suggest the true number may be higher.
Elon Musk: Career Highlights
Musk’s career began with Zip2, an online city guide he co-founded in 1995 with his brother Kimbal and Greg Kouri, which was acquired by Compaq in 1999 for $307 million, netting Musk $22 million for his seven percent share.
He immediately leveraged this capital to transition into online banking by launching X.com in 1999. Following a merger with Confinity in 2000, the company became PayPal. Though Musk was ousted as CEO in 2000 due to technical rifts, eBay's eventual acquisition of PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002 earned him $175.8 million as the largest shareholder. Decades later, Musk returned to digital platforms by acquiring Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, immediately terminating top executives, executing massive layoffs, restructuring user verification with paid subscriptions, and rebranding the network to X in 2023.
Beyond early technology and social media, Musk’s career is characterized by major ventures into artificial intelligence, infrastructure, and politics. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, though he departed the board in 2018 after donating $50 million of a pledged $1 billion. In response to OpenAI's direction, he launched competitor xAI in July 2023, which later became a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2026. Under xAI, he introduced the AI-driven alternative to Wikipedia known as Grokipedia in October 2025, which faced scrutiny and was frozen by April 2026. Musk's career also extended directly into the United States government following the 2024 presidential election. He served as an advisor and de facto head of the newly proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in early 2025, pushing for massive federal agency cuts before his 130-day term expired on May 28, 2025.
Elon Musk: Companies
Throughout his career, Elon Musk has founded, funded, and managed a diverse portfolio of heavy-industry and high-tech companies. His early ventures include Zip2 and X.com (later PayPal). In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX with $100 million of his early fortune, aiming to build affordable, reusable rockets. This was followed by his alignment with Tesla, Inc. in 2004, where he led the Series A funding round with $6.35 million, later taking the role of CEO and being legally recognized as a co-founder alongside Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, and others.
Musk also backed SolarCity, a solar energy company founded by his cousins that Tesla later acquired in 2016 for $2 billion, triggering lawsuits from shareholders alleging self-dealing which were eventually resolved in Musk's favor in 2022.
Additionally, Musk expanded his industrial footprint with the creation of Neuralink in 2016, a neural-implant technology firm focused on brain-computer interfaces, and The Boring Company in 2017, which builds high-speed underground transit tunnels. He also spearheaded Starlink, an expansive low-Earth orbit satellite internet constellation developed under SpaceX starting in 2015. Musk's enterprise ecosystem expanded further with his acquisition of the social media giant X (formerly Twitter) in 2022 and the creation of xAI in 2023, representing his primary vehicles for public communication, media, and artificial intelligence development.
Elon Musk: Major Achievements
Elon Musk's financial climb represents one of the most unprecedented wealth accumulations in history, making him the world's wealthiest person since 2025 and briefly the first U.S. dollar trillionaire in June 2026, with Forbes placing his net worth at $1.1 trillion in October 2026. Among his greatest industrial achievements are the milestones accomplished by SpaceX, including launching Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008, logging the first vertical landing of a reusable orbital rocket stage in 2015, and securing an $843 million NASA contract in 2024 to design the spacecraft that will deorbit the International Space Station. Under SpaceX, he also developed Starlink, which operates over 7,600 active satellites as of May 2025, accounting for 65 percent of all functioning satellites in orbit.
Under Musk's leadership, Tesla became a titan in the automotive market, successfully bringing electric vehicles like the Roadster, Model S, Model X, Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck to mass production. This success culminated in Tesla shareholders approving a $1 trillion, ten-year milestone-based pay package for Musk in November 2025, dependent on target achievements such as reaching an $8.5 trillion market cap.
Additionally, his bio-tech venture Neuralink progressed significantly by achieving FDA approval for human trials in September 2023, while his transportation-focused tunnel network beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was finalized by The Boring Company in 2021.
Elon Musk: Awards & Achievements
Elon Musk’s contributions to aerospace and engineering have earned him numerous prestigious awards and memberships. Recognized early on for his development of Falcon rockets, Musk was honored with the AIAA George Low Transportation Award in 2008, the FAI Gold Space Medal in 2010, and the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal in 2012. Additionally, he was presented with an IEEE Honorary Membership and an honorary doctorate in engineering and technology from Yale University in 2015.
Musk's standing within international scientific communities was cemented by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018 and his subsequent election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2022. Media recognition has also been extensive, with Time naming him one of the world's most influential people in 2010, 2013, 2018, and 2021, and naming him their "Person of the Year" in 2021, highlighting his profound influence on and off Earth.
Elon Musk: Personal Life & Legacy
As a global figure holding South African, Canadian, and American citizenship, Musk's lifestyle, health, and philosophy heavily shape his public legacy. After relocating from California to Texas in 2021, Musk openly disclosed having Asperger syndrome while hosting Saturday Night Live that same year. He manages chronic back pain stemming from prior spine surgeries, survived a severe case of malaria in 2000, and uses doctor-prescribed ketamine for depression, though media investigations in places like the New York Times have sparked concerns among associates regarding potential systemic drug overuse. Philosophically, Musk identifies as a cultural Christian, a pronatalist who views global demographic decline as an existential threat, and a passionate advocate for Mars colonization to preserve human consciousness.
Musk's legacy is also deeply tied to his charitable organization, The Musk Foundation, which held over $14 billion in assets by the end of 2024.
However, his political and social influence has sparked intense polarization. His evolution from voting for Democrats like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden to emerging as a major conservative donor—contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to Republican PACs, Ron DeSantis, and Donald Trump—has altered the political landscape. Described as an "American Oligarch" and "co-president" due to his massive power over administrative policies, Musk has also faced ongoing backlash for promoting conspiracy theories, COVID-19 misinformation, white nationalist rhetoric, and implementing severe administrative cuts via DOGE that researchers blamed for massive casualties in humanitarian program shutdowns.
Furthermore, Musk's legacy is marked by high-profile legal battles. He has faced investigations and suits from the SEC over his social media disclosures, including a $20 million settlement in 2018. Over the years, he was sued by Twitter investors, culminating in a 2026 San Francisco jury finding him liable for misleading investors, and faced a major lawsuit over his massive Tesla compensation package in Delaware, which was ultimately validated by the Delaware Supreme Court in 2025, enabling him to exercise his options in June 2026. Legal disputes with OpenAI also concluded in 2026, with an Oakland jury ruling his claims barred by the statute of limitations.
Elon Musk: Trivia
Beyond his business portfolio, Elon Musk is associated with several unique pop-culture quirks, personal hobbies, and bizarre controversies. He is a music and gaming enthusiast, having released self-made electronic tracks like "RIP Harambe" and "Don't Doubt Ur Vibe" on SoundCloud, while admitting to hiring "account boosting" services to cheat his way to top rankings in video games. His gaming interest also led to a public feud with Ubisoft over the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows in late 2024 and early 2025. Demonstrating sentimental value for his early career, Musk negotiated to repurchase the X.com domain name in 2017, nearly two decades after first founding the online bank.
He also proposed an open-source high-speed transit concept called the Hyperloop in 2013.
Musk's personal associations and behaviors have sparked frequent global news cycles. In 2018, he defeated a $190 million defamation lawsuit filed by British rescue diver Vern Unsworth, whom Musk had labeled a "pedo" online. In late 2022, Musk sparked free speech debates when he banned the "ElonJet" tracking account and temporarily suspended several reporting journalists. Additionally, unsealed Epstein investigation files in January 2026 revealed cordial emails from 2012 and 2013 in which Musk discussed party options and potential tours of SpaceX with Jeffrey Epstein, directly contrasting Musk's public denials. Controversy also arose at Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025, where Musk was criticized for twice presenting a gesture resembling a Nazi salute, which Musk dismissed as "dirty tricks" by political opponents.
Elon Reeve Musk born in Pretoria, South Africa.
Parents divorce; Musk later chooses to live with his father (decision he later regretted).
Musk teaches himself computer programming at age 10.
Sells first video game 'Blastar' for about $500 (age 12).
Moves to Canada partly to avoid South Africa’s apartheid-era military service; attains Canadian citizenship via his mother.
Attends Queen’s University (Ontario) after brief attendance at the University of Pretoria.
Accepted to a materials science PhD program at Stanford but chooses not to enroll; co-founds Zip2 (with Kimbal Musk and Greg Kouri).
Graduates from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in physics and a BS in economics (Wharton).
Compaq acquires Zip2 for $307 million; Musk nets about $22 million for his 7% stake; Musk co-founds X.com.
X.com merges with Confinity to form PayPal; Musk is ousted as CEO; Musk contracts severe malaria.
Marries Justine Wilson.
Attains U.S. citizenship; eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion and Musk receives $175.8 million; founds SpaceX with about $100 million.
Twins with Justine Wilson are born (via IVF).
Leads Tesla Series A funding with $6.35 million; later becomes central leader at Tesla.
Triplets with Justine Wilson are born (via IVF).
Funds SolarCity (founded by cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive).
Divorces Justine Wilson.
SpaceX’s Falcon 1 reaches orbit after early failures, helping secure key NASA cargo/crew contracts.
Receives AIAA George Low Transportation Award (Falcon rockets work).
Marries Talulah Riley (first marriage).
Receives FAI Gold Space Medal; named one of Time’s most influential people (2010).
Divorces Talulah Riley (first divorce).
Receives Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal.
Emails Jeffrey Epstein seeking a party scene after Christmas; exchange discusses visiting Epstein’s island (per later-unsealed files).
Time lists Musk among most influential people (2013).
Proposes the Hyperloop concept as open-source high-speed transportation.
Epstein invites Musk to New York during UN General Assembly; Musk declines (per later-unsealed files).
Marries Talulah Riley (second marriage).
SpaceX achieves first vertical landing of a reusable orbital rocket stage.
SpaceX devises Starlink low-Earth-orbit satellite internet constellation.
Co-founds OpenAI; later donates $50 million of a pledged $1 billion and leaves the board in 2018.
Receives IEEE Honorary Membership and an honorary doctorate from Yale University.
Divorces Talulah Riley (second divorce).
Founds Neuralink with about $100 million investment.
Tesla acquires SolarCity for $2 billion (later prompts shareholder self-dealing lawsuits; Musk prevails in 2022).
Dates Amber Heard.
Founds The Boring Company.
Repurchases the X.com domain name.
Begins relationship with Grimes (Claire Boucher).
Cave rescue defamation incident: calls diver Vern Unsworth a 'pedo'; later found not liable by jury.
Settles SEC case over 'funding secured' Tesla tweet: pays $20 million fine, steps down as Tesla chair for three years, agrees to preclear certain tweets.
Elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).
Time lists Musk among most influential people (2018).
Musk Foundation donations increasingly target organizations affiliated with Musk/businesses (trend noted since 2020).
Resigns as Tesla Chairman in May as part of SEC settlement terms.
Moves from California to Texas.
Discloses having Asperger syndrome while hosting Saturday Night Live.
Las Vegas Convention Center tunnel network by The Boring Company is completed.
Time lists Musk among most influential people (2021) and names him Time’s Person of the Year (2021).
Twins with Shivon Zilis are born.
Biden administration excludes Tesla from a White House EV executive order event; Musk later criticizes the administration and opposes Build Back Better.
Elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Acquires Twitter for $44 billion in October; fires top executives, later shifts roles (CEO then Executive Chairman/CTO), launches paid verification, conducts mass layoffs; later rebrands platform to X (2023).
Bans @ElonJet account and suspends journalists who reported on the suspension.
SolarCity shareholder litigation resolves in Musk’s favor.
Voted Republican for the first time (Mayra Flores) and donates over $50 million to Citizens for Sanity PAC.
Eldest twin with Justine Wilson changes name to Vivian Jenna Wilson and cuts ties with Musk.
Provides Starlink support to Ukraine during the Russian invasion; later controversies include refusing to block Russian state media and denying Starlink use over Crimea to prevent an offensive attack.
Rebrands Twitter as X.
FDA approves Neuralink for human trials (September).
Launches xAI (July).
Grimes sues Musk for parental/custody rights.
Jury finds Musk not liable in shareholder case tied to Tesla 'funding secured' tweet.
SEC sues to compel Musk testimony about 2022 Twitter stock purchases (later leading to 2025 securities-violation lawsuit).
Awarded an $843 million NASA contract for SpaceX to design a spacecraft to deorbit the ISS.
Donates $10 million to Ron DeSantis’s 2024 campaign and hosts announcement on X Spaces.
After an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Musk publicly endorses Trump and becomes the largest individual donor in the 2024 election (spending $291 million), joins Trump on stage, promotes election conspiracy theories, and funds PAC ads targeting Kamala Harris.
Delaware Judge McCormick rescinds Musk’s $55 billion Tesla compensation package.
Child with Shivon Zilis is born via surrogacy.
Ashley St. Clair claims Musk fathered her child 'Romulus' (custody filing follows in 2025).
Musk backs Germany’s far-right AfD; makes comments tied to 2024 UK riots and UK politics.
Musk publicly feuds with Ubisoft over 'woke' content in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (spanning 2024/2025).
Musk Foundation holds more than $14 billion in assets by end of 2024.
Trump inaugurated; DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) created by executive order; Musk serves as advisor and de facto head as a 'special government employee' (administration denies formal authority).
At Trump’s second inauguration, Musk makes gestures widely criticized as Nazi salutes; he dismisses accusations as 'dirty tricks.'
Public backlash over DOGE-backed cuts including USAID; later claims attribute large death tolls to these cuts by late 2025.
Musk’s DOGE role ends upon expiration of his 130-day term.
Public feud with Trump erupts on social media; Musk posts about Trump/Epstein and calls for impeachment; Trump threatens contracts.
Musk apologizes and deletes the Trump-related tweets.
Tesla approves a $1 trillion, 10-year milestone-based pay package for Musk (November), contingent on targets including an $8.5 trillion market cap.
As of May, Starlink operates over 7,600 satellites (~65% of all active satellites).
Launches Grokipedia (October) as an AI-generated Wikipedia alternative using Grok.
Becomes the world’s wealthiest person (status noted as since 2025).
Spends $19 million on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
SEC-related securities violations lawsuit arises from investigation into Musk’s 2022 Twitter stock purchases.
Kamala Harris calls excluding Tesla from the 2021 White House EV event a 'big mistake' (statement made in 2025).
Child with Shivon Zilis is born.
Musk falls out with Nigel Farage and shifts UK-related financial backing to Restore Britain.
Delaware Supreme Court overturns rescission of Musk’s $55 billion Tesla compensation package (late 2025).
Epstein files unsealed show 2012–2013 emails between Musk and Epstein; Musk disputes closeness and calls release a 'distraction,' accusing the administration of suppressing documents to protect powerful individuals.
San Francisco jury finds Musk liable for misleading Twitter investors during the buyout; estimated damages $2.5 billion.
Grokipedia freezes; faces criticism for recycling Wikipedia content, factual errors, unreliable sources, and political slant.
Oakland jury rules against Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, finding claims barred by statute of limitations.
Becomes the first U.S. dollar trillionaire (June), though a SpaceX stock collapse briefly drops him below; also exercises Tesla compensation options on June 16.
xAI becomes a subsidiary of SpaceX.
Attends World Economic Forum for the first time and participates in Peter Thiel’s 'Dialog'.
Spends over $366 million in the 2026 U.S. election supporting Republicans, including $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and $76 million to America PAC.
Calls Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez a 'tyrant' over proposed social media age limits; publicly supports independence of Quebec, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
Publicly identifies Shivon Zilis as his partner.
Forbes estimates Musk net worth at $1.1 trillion.
What is Elon Musk's current net worth?
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In which industry does Elon Musk primarily operate?
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Why has Elon Musk faced major political and legal controversies, including X (Twitter), DOGE, and lawsuits?