Who is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), is a prominent billionaire frequently in the news. He currently holds the title of the world's richest person.
In October 2025, Musk became the first individual to surpass a net worth of half a trillion dollars (£370.9bn), according to Forbes. The following month, Tesla shareholders approved a historic compensation package for him, potentially worth $1 trillion.
The anticipated public offering of SpaceX, which develops rockets and space infrastructure and owns xAI and Starlink, is expected to elevate Musk's net worth to approximately $1 trillion.
Musk has advanced human brain chip trials through his company Neuralink and has actively engaged in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence, despite expressing concerns that AI could threaten humanity's existence.
He is also known for using his social media platform to express opinions on a wide range of subjects, especially politics.
In early 2024, Musk's influence expanded following Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election, a contest in which Musk played a significant but contentious role. Their relationship later deteriorated into a public feud.
Musk's political involvement extends beyond the US, with his posts on current affairs in the UK, Germany, and other European countries often provoking criticism from politicians.
However, his political activities appear to have impacted his businesses negatively. Analysts have linked declines in Tesla sales in 2025 partly to customers' disapproval of Musk.
Where was Elon Musk born?
Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa. From an early age, he demonstrated entrepreneurial skills, selling homemade chocolate Easter eggs door-to-door with his brother and creating his first computer game at age 12.
Musk has described his childhood as challenging, marked by his parents' divorce, bullying at school, and difficulties interpreting social cues due to Asperger's Syndrome.
He left home at the earliest opportunity to attend college, moving first to Canada and then to the United States. He studied economics and physics at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution.
In a 2010 essay for Marie Claire, Musk's first wife, Justine Musk, whom he met in college and married in 2000, described him as "not a man who takes no for an answer."
"The will to compete and dominate, that made him so successful in business, did not magically shut off when he came home," she recalled, adding that he told her while dancing at their wedding, "I am the alpha in this relationship."
How did Elon Musk make his money?
Musk was accepted into a physics graduate program at Stanford University but dropped out quickly to found two technology startups during the 1990s dotcom boom.
These ventures included a web software company and an online banking firm that eventually became PayPal, which eBay acquired in 2002 for $1.5 billion (£1.2 billion).
He reinvested his earnings into SpaceX, aiming to create a cost-effective alternative to NASA, and Tesla, an electric car company where he became chairman and later CEO in 2008.
Both companies have disrupted their industries, despite facing financial difficulties at times.
More recently, Musk acquired the social media platform Twitter in October 2022. He significantly reduced its workforce, including controversial cuts to teams responsible for platform safety, rebranded the company as X, and introduced premium subscription services to diversify revenue beyond advertising.
Musk envisions X as an "everything app" offering a variety of services. However, the company's valuation dropped from $44 billion at acquisition to an estimated $9.4 billion.
Since Musk's takeover, some companies have left the platform in what has been called "the great X-odus." Reports indicate an increase in hate speech under Musk's leadership, prompting some firms to distance themselves.
He has also pursued ventures in artificial intelligence, initially investing in ChatGPT's parent company before parting ways in 2018. In 2023, he founded xAI with the goal of "understanding the true nature of the universe."
In February 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging that the company abandoned its non-profit, open-source origins by partnering with Microsoft. However, in May 2026, a California jury dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that Musk had delayed filing.
Musk aims to consolidate his companies' capabilities to establish a competitor to OpenAI and Google in AI development.
Journalist Chris Stokel-Walker commented,
"I'm never hugely convinced that he knows what he wants to do tomorrow. He very much leads by instinct."
Author Ashlee Vance described Musk in a 2015 biography as "a confrontational know-it-all" with an "abundant ego," but also noted his awkward dancing and reserved public speaking.
In the media, Musk has been labeled both a "mad genius" and Twitter's biggest troll, recognized for his ambitious goals as well as his public disputes and legal challenges related to issues such as racial discrimination and the credibility of his claims.
Divorced three times, including twice from British actress Talulah Riley, Musk openly acknowledges his flaws.
"If you list my sins, I sound like the worst person on Earth," he said in a 2022 TED interview.
"But if you put those against the things I've done right, it makes much more sense."
What is Elon Musk's net worth?
Musk's contradictions have not hindered his wealth accumulation.
In October 2025, he became the first person to surpass a net worth of half a trillion dollars (£370.9bn), according to Forbes.
Bloomberg estimates his net worth at approximately $726 billion, placing him ahead of other tech billionaires such as Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.
Should SpaceX's shares be offered at the planned price of $135 each, Musk's net worth could rise to about $988 billion.
Tesla's board has approved a compensation package that could reward Musk with over $1 trillion if he meets ambitious targets over the next decade, including increasing Tesla's value eightfold, selling one million AI robots, and 12 million Tesla cars.
Throughout 2024, Musk was involved in a legal dispute over a $56 billion Tesla pay package, with a Delaware judge rejecting his claim twice by December.
Judge Kathaleen McCormick described the payout as an "unfathomable sum," noting Musk's influence over the company's board and shareholders, 75% of whom supported the deal.
Musk also supports digital currencies and is involved in smaller ventures, such as the Boring Company, which specializes in tunnel construction.
Known for his intense work ethic, Musk has stated he is not motivated solely by money, a sentiment he reiterated regarding his Twitter acquisition.
Ross Gerber, a friend and Tesla investor, said,
"Elon only gets involved with things if he feels that they're critically important for some reason... for the sake of society or humanity."
Why did Elon Musk team up with Trump?
For many years, Musk resisted political labels, describing himself as "half-Democrat, half-Republican," "politically moderate," and "independent."
He has stated he voted for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and reluctantly, Joe Biden, all Democrats.
However, in recent years, he supported Donald Trump, a Republican.
Musk officially endorsed Trump for a second term in 2024 following an assassination attempt on the former president and became a prominent backer and influencer of his campaign.
He criticized the Democratic Party's positions on issues such as the economy, immigration, and gun control, labeling many policies as "woke."
Musk's America Super PAC ran a controversial $1 million giveaway to voters in battleground states late in the campaign, and Musk appeared on Trump's campaign trail.
After Trump's election, he appointed Musk as the self-styled "first buddy" to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which implemented significant and contentious public spending cuts.
The friendship between Musk and Trump ended publicly after a dispute over a tax and spending bill escalated into personal insults exchanged on their social media platforms.
Musk announced his departure from the White House on 28 May.
Following Musk's polling of X followers on forming a new political party and his unsubstantiated suggestion that Trump appeared in unreleased files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, relations worsened.
The White House condemned the allegation, and Trump proposed saving government funds by cutting subsidies and contracts to Musk's companies.
Musk then called for Trump's impeachment and threatened to decommission his Dragon spacecraft, which NASA relies on, though he quickly retracted this statement.
Trump later declared the end of his relationship with Musk.
How many children does Elon Musk have?
Musk has described his businesses as philanthropic efforts aimed at addressing major global challenges such as climate change.
However, he has moderated his stance on climate change, tweeting that it is "real, just much slower than alarmists claim."
Despite his interest in AI, Musk has been a vocal critic of the potential existential risks posed by super-intelligent artificial intelligence.
He has warned that the combination of AI advancement and declining birth rates could lead to a population shortage.
Musk has fathered 14 children: six with his first wife, Justine Musk; three with Canadian singer Grimes; four with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis; and one with conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair.
Following the birth of twins with Zilis, Musk tweeted,
"Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis."
In February 2025, St. Clair gave birth to Musk's child and later sued his company xAI in January 2026 after the AI system Grok was used to create sexualized deepfakes of her on X.
