Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate, industrial designer, and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, CTO, and chief designer of SpaceX; early investor, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI. A centibillionaire, Musk is one of the richest people in the world.
Musk was born to a Canadian mother and South African father and raised in Pretoria, South Africa. He briefly attended the University of Pretoria before moving to Canada aged 17 to attend Queen’s University. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania two years later, where he received dual bachelor’s degrees in economics and physics. He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University but decided instead to pursue a business career, co-founding web software company Zip2 with his brother Kimbal. The start-up was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999. Musk co-founded online bank X.com that same year, which merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal and was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.
Musk co-founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, of which he is CEO, CTO, and lead designer. In 2004, he joined electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (now Tesla, Inc.) as chairman and product architect, becoming its CEO in 2008. In 2006, he helped create SolarCity, a solar energy services company (now a subsidiary of Tesla). In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit research company that promotes friendly artificial intelligence. In 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company focused on developing brain–machine interfaces, and founded The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company.
Musk has also proposed the Hyperloop, a high-speed vactrain transportation system. In December 2016, he unveiled a concept for the Interplanetary Transport System, a privately funded space transportation system to transport humans to Mars and other planets.
Musk has faced criticism for his public statements and behavior. He has tweeted controversial statements on social media, and his company SpaceX launched a car into space in 2018 using one of its Falcon Heavy rockets. He has also faced criticism and legal action over his statements about taking Tesla, Inc. private and his tumultuous personal life. Despite these controversies, Musk’s work and public profile have continued to attract widespread attention and admiration.
As of January 2021, Musk’s net worth was estimated at $227.2 billion, making him the third-richest person in the world, behind only Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault.