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Tech

Elon Musk: Technology Entrepreneur and Founder

Profile Picture
Human Profile
Name:Elon Reeve Musk
Birthday:June 28, 1971 (age 54 years), Born in Pretoria, South Africa
Height:6'2" (188 cm)
Education:Waterkloof House Preparatory School (Diploma)
Bryanston High School (Student)
Pretoria Boys High School (Diploma)
University of Pretoria (Student)
Queen's University (Student)
University of Pennsylvania (BS), Physics
University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School (BA), Economics
Stanford University (Dropped Out), Applied Physics and Materials Science

Overview

Elon Musk is a South African-born American entrepreneur who taught himself programming at an early age and co-founded internet companies Zip2 and X.com, which later became PayPal.

Latest News (Jan 8, 2026): Elon Musk's xAI recently announced a successful $20 billion funding round, yet his Grok AI chatbot simultaneously faces global backlash and regulatory investigations, including action from European regulators and some political parties ceasing their use of X, due to its generation of sexualized, non-consensual images of women and children. Additionally, Musk, in a podcast published this week, stated that SpaceX is unlikely to attempt a Mars mission in 2026, deeming it a "low-probability shot and somewhat of a distraction."

Early life and education

Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. His mother, Maye Musk, is a Canadian-born model and dietitian raised in South Africa. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and property developer. Elon Reeve Musk has a younger brother, Kimbal, and a younger sister, Tosca.

After his parents divorced in 1979, Elon Reeve Musk primarily lived with his father. He developed an early interest in computing and taught himself how to program. At the age of 12, he created a video game called Blastar and sold it to a computer magazine. He attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School and graduated from Pretoria Boys High School.

In 1988, at the age of 17, Elon Reeve Musk moved to Canada, obtaining citizenship through his mother. He made this move to avoid mandatory service in the South African military and to seek greater economic opportunities in the United States. He attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, for two years. He then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics.

Following his graduation, Elon Reeve Musk moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University for a Ph.D. in applied physics. However, he dropped out after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions in the burgeoning internet industry. He became a U.S. citizen in 2002.

Career beginnings

In 1995, Elon Reeve Musk and his brother, Kimbal, founded Zip2, a software company that provided online city guides, maps, and business directories to newspapers. The company secured contracts with publications such as The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. In 1999, Compaq Computer Corporation’s AltaVista division acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options.

Following the sale of Zip2, Elon Reeve Musk co-founded X.com in 1999, an online financial services and payments company. The following year, X.com merged with a competing software company, Confinity, which had been founded by Peter Thiel. The merged entity initially operated as X.com, with Elon Reeve Musk as its CEO. Due to internal disagreements, he was later replaced by Thiel, and the company was renamed PayPal. In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Elon Reeve Musk received a significant share from his stake in the company.