Elon Musk Biography, Age, Net Worth & Companies

Elon Musk, 54, is the world’s richest person with an ~$834B net worth. Explore his biography, Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, DOGE role, 14 children, and 2026 OpenAI trial.

Elon Musk is the most talked-about entrepreneur on the planet — and quite possibly the most polarising. Born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1971, he has spent three decades building an empire that spans electric vehicles, commercial spaceflight, artificial intelligence, social media, and tunnelling. He is simultaneously the world’s richest person, a former White House adviser, and the defendant — and plaintiff — in some of the most consequential technology lawsuits of this era. No single biography can capture the full scope of Musk’s ambition, but the shape of it is unmistakable: he bets on civilisation-scale problems and builds companies to solve them.

In 2026, Musk’s world looks both triumphant and turbulent. He stepped away from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in May 2025 after a public feud with President Trump, lost his lawsuit against OpenAI in court, watched Tesla’s stock swing wildly, and merged his AI startup xAI into SpaceX as it prepares for what could be the largest IPO in history. His estimated net worth sits at around $834 billion — still the world’s highest — and he has shown no sign of slowing down.

Quick Facts About Elon Musk

Field	Details
Full Name	Elon Reeve Musk
Date of Birth	28 June 1971
Age	54 years old (as of 2026)
Place of Birth	Pretoria, South Africa
Nationality	South African, Canadian, American
Net Worth	~$834 billion (Forbes, June 2026)
Companies	Tesla, SpaceX/xAI, X Corp., Neuralink, The Boring Company
Former Spouses	Justine Wilson (2000–2008); Talulah Riley (2010–12; 2013–16)
Children	14 (including X Æ A-Xii, Vivian, Griffin, Kai, Saxon, Damian, and others)
Education	BA Economics & BS Physics, University of Pennsylvania
Known For	Tesla EVs, SpaceX reusable rockets, world’s richest person, DOGE

Early Life: Pretoria to the Silicon Valley Dream

Elon Reeve Musk was born on 28 June 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, to Errol Musk — a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and property developer — and Maye Musk, a Canadian-born model and dietitian who continued gracing magazine covers into her 70s. Elon grew up alongside his younger brother Kimbal and sister Tosca in a financially comfortable household. His parents divorced when he was nine, and he chose to live with his father, a decision he later said he came to regret.

From early childhood, Musk was a voracious reader and a deeply introverted boy who found refuge in science fiction, fantasy, and computers. He devoured books including The Lord of the Rings, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and encyclopaedias. At just ten years old, he taught himself to programme. By twelve, he had created a space video game called Blastar and sold the code to a computer magazine for around $500 — his first taste of commercialising a technical idea.

Education: From Pretoria Boys to Penn

Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School and Pretoria Boys High School, where he excelled in physics and mathematics. In 1988, aged seventeen, he left South Africa for Canada — partly to avoid compulsory military service in the apartheid-enforcing South African army, and partly in pursuit of broader opportunities. He enrolled at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1992. At Penn, he earned two bachelor’s degrees: one in economics and one in physics. He was briefly enrolled in a Stanford University physics PhD programme in 1995 but dropped out after two days to pursue entrepreneurship during the dotcom boom — one of the most consequential university departures in tech history.

The Early Ventures: Zip2, X.com, and PayPal

In 1995, Musk and his brother Kimbal co-founded Zip2, a web software company that provided business directories and maps to newspapers. Compaq acquired it in 1999 for approximately $307 million, netting Elon around $22 million — enough to fund his next move. That same year, he founded X.com, an online financial services and payment company. X.com merged with Confinity in 2000 to become PayPal, and when eBay acquired PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion, Musk — who was the largest shareholder — walked away with approximately $180 million after tax. He became a US citizen the same year, completing a decade-long journey from Pretoria to the American tech elite.

SpaceX: Rockets, Mars, and a 2026 IPO

In 2002, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies — SpaceX — with the singular goal of making humanity a multi-planetary species. The early years were near-fatal: the Falcon 1 rocket failed on its first three launches, burning through most of his PayPal fortune. The fourth launch, in 2008, was a success, and NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract shortly after — saving the company. What followed rewrote the economics of spaceflight. The Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets pioneered reusable first-stage boosters, slashing the cost of reaching orbit. The Dragon capsule became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station.

By 2026, SpaceX is valued at approximately $1.5 to $1.75 trillion and preparing for what analysts expect to be the largest IPO in history. The company is also developing Starship — a fully reusable 124-metre mega-rocket — as the centrepiece of Musk’s Mars ambitions. In May 2026, a Starship test flight encountered a booster anomaly during descent, though the spacecraft itself completed its mission and splashed down in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet network now serves tens of millions of customers globally, adding a high-margin revenue stream alongside launch services.

Tesla: From Near-Bankruptcy to Electric Vehicle Titan

Musk did not found Tesla — that credit belongs to Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003 — but he joined as chairman of the board and lead investor in 2004, then became CEO in 2008 during a severe financial crisis. Under his leadership, Tesla transformed from a niche electric sports car maker into the most valuable automaker in the world at its peak, pioneering long-range EV batteries, over-the-air software updates, and the global Supercharger network. The Model 3 became the best-selling EV in history.

Tesla’s journey in 2024 and 2025, however, was turbulent. The stock fell sharply from nearly $400 to around $220 by April 2025, driven by weak sales, slowing EV demand, and backlash against Musk’s political activities. European sales cratered. Dealerships were vandalised. Tesla’s own filings acknowledged that “political sentiment” could hurt the business. The stock recovered significantly through late 2025 and into 2026 — rising over 80% in one twelve-month stretch — as investors refocused on the company’s autonomous driving ambitions and the Optimus humanoid robot programme.

xAI, X Corp., and the AI Wars

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 alongside Sam Altman and others, contributing early funding and credibility to the non-profit AI research lab. He departed from the board in 2018, citing disagreements over direction and his belief that OpenAI was drifting from its founding mission. In 2023, he launched xAI — his own AI company — and unveiled the Grok large language model to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In early 2025, xAI merged with X Corp. (formerly Twitter, which Musk acquired in 2022 for $44 billion), creating a combined entity valued at over $100 billion. By 2026, xAI became a subsidiary of SpaceX, with Musk describing the integration as building “the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth.”

His legal battle with OpenAI dominated headlines in 2026. Musk sued OpenAI and Sam Altman alleging the company had betrayed its non-profit founding mission by pursuing for-profit ventures. The trial featured dramatic testimony and a pre-trial text from Musk to OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman suggesting settlement talks. In May 2026, a federal jury dismissed Musk’s claims, finding he had waited too long to file — a significant legal defeat, though it did little to cool his rivalry with Altman.

DOGE: Washington, Controversy, and Exit

When Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Musk — who had publicly backed him and contributed heavily to the campaign — was appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory body designed to cut federal spending and modernise government technology. DOGE announced sweeping cuts across more than 30 federal departments, with around 149,000 government employees taking buyouts or being laid off and an estimated $175 billion in savings reported on its official website. The episode made Musk one of the most powerful — and controversial — unelected figures in American political history.

The role came at a measurable cost to Tesla. Consumer surveys showed a majority of American adults holding a negative view of Musk personally, and Tesla sales in key markets declined. In May 2025, Musk exited his White House role following a public feud with President Trump and stepped back from day-to-day DOGE involvement to refocus on his companies. DOGE itself was chartered to disband in early July 2026.

Personal Life: Marriages, Children, and Family

Musk has been married twice. His first marriage to Canadian author Justine Wilson ran from 2000 to 2008; they had six children together, including twins and triplets, though their firstborn Nevada died of sudden infant death syndrome as an infant. One of his children with Justine, Vivian Wilson, publicly transitioned and distanced herself from Musk. His second marriage to British actress Talulah Riley occurred twice — from 2010 to 2012 and again from 2013 to 2016. He has also had children with musician Grimes and Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis. In total, Musk has 14 known children, many with unconventional names including X Æ A-Xii, Strider, Azure, Exa, Techno, Arcadia, Seldon, and R.S.C. He has spoken about his belief that low birth rates represent one of the world’s greatest risks — a conviction that appears to shape his personal choices.

Net Worth: The Road to a Trillion Dollars

Musk is the world’s richest person by a substantial margin. Forbes estimates his net worth at approximately $834 billion as of June 2026 — a figure driven primarily by his stakes in SpaceX (approximately 43% ownership, 79% of voting shares), Tesla (around 14%), and xAI. Tesla shareholders approved a compensation package potentially worth up to $1 trillion, following a long legal battle. Some analysts believe Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire if the SpaceX IPO proceeds at its expected valuation and his other companies continue to grow.

The Bottom Line

Elon Musk defies easy categorisation. He is a genuine visionary who has reshaped multiple industries — and a figure whose personal conduct regularly generates controversy that overshadows even his most extraordinary achievements. SpaceX has fundamentally changed commercial spaceflight. Tesla accelerated the global shift to electric vehicles by a decade. His AI ventures are shaping the next frontier of technology. At the same time, his political entanglements, erratic public behaviour, and legal battles have made him one of the most divisive figures of the modern era.

What is not in doubt is his capacity to build things — and to bet on futures that most people consider science fiction. Whether his Mars ambitions, AI dreams, or trillion-dollar valuation projections eventually materialise, the story of Elon Musk remains one of the defining narratives of the twenty-first century. The final chapter is a long way from being written.