Elon Musk: The Story Behind the Fortune

Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and one of the most closely watched entrepreneurs in the world. Born in Pretoria, South Africa, he moved to Canada and then the United States, where he co-founded the online payments company that became PayPal.

He has since built a sprawling portfolio of companies spanning electric vehicles, spaceflight, satellite internet, tunnelling, brain-computer interfaces, and artificial intelligence, and acquired the social platform now known as X.

Elon Musk built this fortune from the ground up — a self-made success in automotive & aerospace.

He studied at University of Pennsylvania and is based in Austin, Texas.

A few of the highlights on the public record: Taught himself to code as a child and sold his first game, Blastar, for around $500; Co-founder of multiple companies including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and xAI; Acquired Twitter (now X) in 2022 for roughly $44 billion.

The journey to get here is well documented. In 1995, started his first company, the web-software firm Zip2, with his brother Kimbal. In 1999, after selling Zip2, he founded the online bank X.com, which became PayPal. In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal; Musk used the proceeds to found the rocket company SpaceX. In 2004, led an early investment in Tesla and joined as chairman of its board. In 2008, took over as Tesla's CEO; SpaceX reached orbit with the Falcon 1. In 2022, bought Twitter for about $44 billion and later renamed it X. In 2023, launched the artificial-intelligence company xAI.

Beyond Tesla, SpaceX, his track record includes SpaceX, where he serves as Founder & CEO — rocket and satellite company; also operates the Starlink satellite internet network; The Boring Company, where he serves as Founder — tunnel construction and infrastructure company; Neuralink, where he serves as Founder — brain-computer interface company; xAI, where he serves as Founder — AI company behind the Grok chatbot; X (formerly Twitter), where he serves as Owner — social media platform, acquired in 2022.

The success shows up in what's publicly reported, too: Gulfstream G650ER — long-range private jet, one of several aircraft he's reported to use; Bel Air, California home — purchased in 2013; notable partly because Musk has otherwise sold off most of his real estate and says he doesn't own a yacht.

In his own words: "When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor." — said CBS 60 Minutes interview, on SpaceX in 2012.

On net worth alone, the closest companies are Michael Dell ($324.48B) and Jeff Bezos ($265.71B) — a reminder of how tightly bunched the very top of the wealth list really is.

On the personal side: Elon is not currently married.

Today, Elon is worth an estimated $417.59B — #1 in the world on our real-time list, a figure that moves with TSLA's share price.