Elon Musk

Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1971. He moved to Canada at 17, later earning degrees in physics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Musk co-founded the software company Zip2, whose sale to Compaq funded the launch of X.com, which became PayPal. After PayPal’s acquisition, he founded SpaceX in 2002 to lower the cost of access to space through reusable rockets. He invested early in Tesla and became CEO, guiding development of vehicles such as the Model S, Model 3 and Cybertruck. Musk acquired Twitter in 2022 and rebranded it as X in 2023, aiming to create an “everything app.” He is also involved with Neuralink, The Boring Company and, since 2023, xAI. As of early 2025 his net worth is estimated at about $400 billion, but his primary focus remains making life multiplanetary and advancing cutting-edge technology.