The life
From a Pretoria bedroom to a pad that aims at Mars.
Public biography, not an authorized memoir.
1971–1988
He read the library.
Maye Musk has said he read everything. School was brutal; he has described being thrown down stairs. At twelve he coded Blastar and sold it. At seventeen he left apartheid-era conscription behind for Canada, then the United States.
1971
Pretoria
Elon Reeve Musk is born 28 June 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, to Maye Musk, a dietitian and model, and Errol Musk, an engineer. He reads encyclopedias for hours. At 12 he sells a BASIC game, Blastar, to a computer magazine for about $500.
1989–95
North America
He leaves South Africa via Canada, studies at Queen's University, then the University of Pennsylvania (physics and economics). In 1995 he starts Stanford graduate physics, then walks out after two days to build internet companies.
1995–02
Zip2 and PayPal
Zip2 sells to Compaq. X.com merges into what becomes PayPal. eBay buys PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion. That year Musk becomes a U.S. citizen and founds SpaceX with a slice of the proceeds.
2002–08
Three failures, then orbit
Falcon 1 fails three times. A fourth launch in 2008 reaches orbit — the first privately funded liquid rocket to do so. Tesla, which he funded in 2004 and later led as CEO, survives the same near-death year.
2010–20
Reusable flight
Falcon 9 lands. Crew Dragon flies NASA astronauts. Model S, 3, X, and Y push electric cars into the mainstream. SolarCity becomes Tesla Energy. Starlink starts wiring the planet from orbit.
2022–26
X, xAI, Starship
He acquires Twitter and rebrands it X. xAI is founded, later drawn closer to SpaceX. Starship tests continue. He has said a self-growing city on the Moon is the nearer civilizational bet, with a Mars city still the long aim.