1971–present
Elon Musk News: Entrepreneur Responds to Criticism Over Salute
Elon Musk sparked outrage this week after he gave a straight-armed salute at the Presidential Parade celebrating President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. For his part, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is downplaying the controversy.
Addressing a crowd at the Capitol One Arena in Washington D.C., Musk thanked attendees for Trump’s election victory before placing his right hand on his heart and extending his arm over his head with his palm facing down. He then turned around and repeated the move. “My heart goes out you,” Musk then said. “It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured.”
The 53-year-old received significant backlash for the gesture, with many social media users likening it to the Nazi salute, while others disagreed. Musk responded to the criticism later that day, dismissing the comparison. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks,” he wrote on X Monday night. “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
Musk, who campaigned for Trump, is now leading the Department of Government Efficiency, a retooling of the U.S. Digital Service that former President Barack Obama founded during his second administration. Per Trump’s executive order, DOGE is housed within the executive branch and tasked with increasing efficiencies within the federal government, including modernizing technology, over the next 18 months. The organization has already been hit with a federal transparency lawsuit.
Who Is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, among other companies. Their success has propelled him to become the richest person in the world, with a net worth greater than $435 billion. The South African–born entrepreneur started his first businesses in the 1990s: an online city guide called Zip2 and a digital payment company named X.com, which later became PayPal. Musk, who became an American citizen in 2002, then moved into the transportation industry via his most recognizable companies. He diversified his holdings in 2022 by purchasing Twitter, which he renamed X. A vehement supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, Musk is head of the Department of Government Efficiency, a new advisory group, under Trump’s second administration. Beyond his professional life, Musk is a father to 12 kids.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Elon Reeve Musk
BORN: June 28, 1971
BIRTHPLACE: Pretoria, South Africa
SPOUSES: Justine Wilson (2000–2008) and Talulah Riley (2010–12; 2013–16)
CHILDREN: Nevada, Vivian, Griffin, Kai, Saxon, Damian, X Æ A-Xii, Strider, Azure, Exa, Techno, and an infant
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer
Where Is Elon Musk From?
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. His mother, Maye Musk, is a Canadian model and the oldest woman to star in a CoverGirl campaign. When Elon was growing up, she worked five jobs at one point to support her family. Elon’s father, Errol Musk, is a wealthy South African engineer.
Elon spent his early childhood with his brother, Kimbal, and sister, Tosca, in South Africa. His parents divorced when he was 10.
Around this time, Musk developed an interest in computers and taught himself how to program. When he was 12 years old, Musk developed his own game called Blastar that he sold for $500. He was often so lost in his daydreams about inventions that his parents and doctors ordered a test to check his hearing.
The short, introverted, and bookish child was bullied until he was 15. By that point, he went through a growth spurt and learned how to defend himself with karate and wrestling. He has continued to practice martial arts as an adult.
At age 17, in 1988, Elon moved to Canada against his parents’ wishes to attend university and avoid mandatory service in the South African military. He obtained his Canadian citizenship that year, in part because he felt it would be easier to obtain U.S. citizenship via that path. Elon moved to the United States a few years later and officially became an American citizen in 2002.
“I came to North America because I felt this was where there was opportunity to do great things in technology,” he said in 2013.
Education
Musk’s move to Canada coincided with his enrollment in Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He studied there for two years before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He graduated five years later with bachelor’s degrees in economics and physics.
Musk then headed to Stanford University to pursue a doctorate in energy physics. However, his relocation to California was timed perfectly with the internet boom, and he dropped out of Stanford after just two days in favor of joining the rising tech wave.
Companies: SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter, and More
Now one of his most recognizable entities, SpaceX was the third company Elon Musk founded.
Musk launched his first company while he was still in college. Today, he leads several businesses, including SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and social media site X (previously Twitter). His current and past ventures include:
Inventions
Through SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has achieved notable advancements in sustainable space exploration as well as driverless transportation with the research and launch of Full Self-Driving software. Musk has brought this pioneering spirit to other ventures but with mixed results. Among the inventions Musk has spent the most time and money to research are a new high-speed public transportation system and biological software connectivity.
Hyperloop
In August 2013, Musk released a concept for a new form of transportation called the “Hyperloop” that would would propel riders in pods through a network of low-pressure tubes at speeds reaching more than 700 mph. He proposed the transit system be built between San Francisco and Los Angeles, an endeavor that the inventor noted could take from seven to 10 years to be built and ready for use. He suggested the Hyperloop run on renewable energy.
Passing off the concept to fellow entrepreneurs, a startup formed to pursue the Hyperloop in 2014. For a time, it was owned by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, but by December 2023, Bloomberg reported the company began to sell off its assets and lay off remaining employees.
Neuralink
In 2017, it was reported that Musk was backing a venture called Neuralink, which intended to create devices to be implanted in the human brain and help people merge with software. Its devices consist of a microscopic chip that connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone or computer.
Concerns over the project arose in 2023, when veterinary records reportedly showed that monkeys receiving the implant in tests suffered “debilitating heath defects” including paralysis and brain swelling. Musk downplayed any risks, saying that only “terminal” monkeys received the implant and that none had died from the experiments.
In January 2024, Neuralink completed its first implant in a human subject, with Musk saying the results showed promise. A year later, the businessman reported there are now three people with Neuralink implants, and he hopes 20 to 30 more people will join them in 2025.
Net Worth
Musk is the richest person in the world, a title he has held at various points since early 2021. He regularly swaps spots with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and French businessman Bernard Arnault, who is the founder and CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH.
According to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List, Musk is worth $430.4 billion as of January 22, 2025. Bloomberg’s estimate is higher, totaling Musk’s fortune at around $447 billion. Because much of his net worth is tied up in stock, Musk’s wealth is highly variable.
A large portion of Musk’s wealth stems from his shares and options in Tesla, which the Washington Post reported to be around $120 billion as of June 2024. That number is almost certainly even higher now as Tesla’s value has grown significantly since.
Musk’s first major financial windfall came via the sale of Zip2 in 1999, which earned him $22 million for his stake. He invested that money into X.com, which turned into a $165 million sum following eBay’s purchase of the renamed PayPal in 2002 and allowed Musk to earn his first billion.
Musk became the first person in history to boast a net worth of $400 billion or more in December 2024. That followed a historic milestone of becoming the first person to lose $200 billion at the end of 2022.
Ex-Wives and Children
Although Musk is currently single, he has been married three times to two women and has 11 living children. His firstborn died as an infant.
Ex-Wife Justine Wilson
In 2000, the entrepreneur wed Justine Wilson. They met as students at Queen’s University.
In 2002, their first son, Nevada, died at 10 weeks old from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The loss didn’t prevent them from growing their family later on. Elon and Justine welcomed twins, Griffin and Vivian, in 2004 followed by triplets—Kai, Saxon, and Damian—in two years later. All five children were conceived through in vitro fertilization.
Vivian is transgender and legally changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson in 2022. She doesn’t wish to be associated with Elon in any way. In a 2024 interview with NBC News, she called her father “uncaring and narcissistic” and said he was cruel to her as a child for being queer.
Ultimately, Elon and Justine’s marriage broke down. Their contentious divorce was finalized in 2008.
Ex-Wife Talulah Riley
Elon Musk and actor Talulah Riley have been married and divorced twice.
Musk met actor Talulah Riley after his first marriage collapsed. Today, she is best known for her roles in the 2005 movie Pride & Prejudice and the TV show Westworld.
Musk and Riley married in 2010 but split by 2012. They decided to marry again in 2013, but their relationship ultimately ended in a second divorce in 2016.
Relationship with Amber Heard
Musk reportedly began dating actor Amber Heard in 2016 after finalizing his second divorce with Riley and following Heard’s divorce from actor Johnny Depp. Their busy schedules caused Musk and Heard to break up in August 2017. The couple got back together in January 2018 and split again one month later.
Relationship with Grimes
Elon Musk and Grimes attend the Met Gala in May 2018.
In May 2018, Musk began dating musician Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher. That month, Grimes announced she had changed her name to “c,” the symbol for the speed of light, reportedly at the encouragement of Musk. Fans criticized the feminist performer for dating a billionaire whose company had been described as a “predator zone” amid accusations of sexual harassment.
However, the couple discussed their love for one another in a March 2019 feature in the Wall Street Journal Magazine. Musk told the Journal, “I love c’s wild fae artistic creativity and hyper-intense work ethic.”
Grimes gave birth to their first son in early May 2020, with Musk announcing they named the boy X Æ A-12. The name was partly inspired by the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft. Later in the month, after it was reported that the State of California wouldn’t accept a name with a number, the couple said they were changing their son’s name to X Æ A-Xii.
Musk and Grimes welcomed their second child, a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, in December 2021. The child was delivered via a surrogate. In September 2023, journalist Walter Isaacson revealed in his biography about Musk that Grimes and Musk had a third child, a son named Techno Mechanicus and nicknamed “Tau.”
Grimes announced in March 2022 that she and Musk had broken up.
Kids with Shivon Zilis
During his relationship with Grimes, Musk quietly welcomed two children, a son named Strider and a daughter named Azure, with Shivon Zilis in November 2021. Zilis is the project director of his Neuralink company. Musk confirmed the couple had a third child together in June 2024; the child’s name and sex haven’t been revealed.
The New York Times reports Zilis and the three kids live on a compound in Austin, Texas, that Musk helped purchase. The property includes two mansions and is close to a third home Musk regularly stays at when he’s in town. A day after the Times article was published, the entrepreneur told Page Six he didn’t own and isn’t building such a compound.
Advisor to Donald Trump
After Donald Trump was elected U.S. president in 2016, Musk found himself on common ground with the incoming commander-in-chief and his advisers as Trump announced plans to pursue massive infrastructure developments. That December, Musk was named to the president-elect’s Strategy and Policy Forum. Further solidifying their collaboration, he joined Trump’s Manufacturing Jobs Initiative in January 2017.
While sometimes at odds with the president’s controversial measures, such as a ban on immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, Musk defended his involvement with the new administration. “My goals,” he tweeted in early 2017, “are to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy and to help make humanity a multi-planet civilization, a consequence of which will be the creating of hundreds of thousands of jobs and a more inspiring future for all.”
Following Trump’s announcement in June 2017 that he was withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord, Musk stepped down from his advisory roles.
Elon Musk, who had served as an advisor in President Donald Trump’s first administration, took an active role in the Republican candidate’s 2024 reelection campaign.
Despite their uneven relationship during Trump’s first administration, Musk endorsed the Republican nominee for president in the 2024 election against Vice President Kamala Harris. Following an attempted assassination of Trump at a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, Musk said he would appear with Trump for another rally at the same location in October.
Later that month, Musk announced he would randomly give away $1 million dollars each day to a person who signed a petition from his political action committee supporting the Constitution as part of an effort to register voters who might support Trump. The giveaway became the subject of a lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleging it could improperly influence the November 5 election, but Musk’s lawyers argued that recipients were not actually chosen randomly, and a judge allowed the prizes to continue. Trump ultimately won a second term as president.
Musk had an up-close view of Trump’s inauguration come January 2025 and even spoke at a modified Presidential Parade, held indoors like the rest of the inaugural events on account of extreme cold. During his brief remarks, he made a straight-arm salute that caused controversy as some people liked it to the Nazi salute.
The president quickly appointed Musk to lead a temporary organization called the Department of Government Efficiency that works to cut unnecessary federal spending and modernize technology within the federal government. Trump has granted DOGE 18 months to accomplish its mission before disbanding in early July 2026. “Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader, and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency,” a Trump transition team spokesperson said.
SEC Investigation and Lawsuit
Not entirely surprising for the CEO of major public companies, Musk has at times faced scrutiny over his business decisions as well as his own investments. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the entrepreneur in 2018 after he floated the possibility of making Tesla a private company. Several years later, in 2025, the SEC filed a ongoing lawsuit against Musk concerning his shares in Twitter prior to purchasing the now-private company and renaming it.
2018 SEC Investigation
Prior to his purchase of the site, Twitter was the genesis of a financial scandal involving Musk. On August 7, 2018, Musk dropped a bombshell via a tweet: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” The announcement opened the door for legal action against the company and its founder, as the SEC began inquiring about whether Musk had indeed secured the funding as claimed. Several investors filed lawsuits on the grounds that Musk was looking to manipulate stock prices and ambush short sellers with his tweet.
Musk’s tweet initially sent Tesla stock spiking, before it closed the day up 11 percent. The CEO followed up with a letter on the company blog, calling the move to go private “the best path forward.” He promised to retain his stake in the company and added that he would create a special fund to help all current investors remain on board.
Six days later, Musk sought to clarify his position with a statement in which he pointed to discussions with the managing director of the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund as the source of his “funding secured” declaration. He later tweeted that he was working on a proposal to take Tesla private with Goldman Sachs and Silver Lake as financial advisers.
On August 24, one day after meeting with the board, Musk announced that he had reversed course and wouldn’t be taking the company private. Among his reasons, he cited the preference of most directors to keep Tesla public, as well as the difficulty of retaining some of the large shareholders who were prohibited from investing in a private company.
On September 29, 2018, it was announced that Musk would pay a $20 million fine and step down as chairman of Tesla’s board for three years as part of an agreement with the SEC.
2025 SEC Lawsuit
More than six year later, in January 2025, the SEC sued Musk for allegedly failing to disclose his large stake in X in 2022, before he purchased the social media site then known as Twitter. The ongoing federal lawsuit contends that Musk committed securities fraud by not disclosing that he owned more than 5 percent of Twitter’s shares until 11 days after the report was due, allowing him to buy stock in the company at “artificially low prices.”
According to the SEC, the Tesla and SpaceX founder underpaid investors by $150 million for the additional shares he bought after surpassing the 5 percent ownership threshold. “Had Musk and his wealth manager disclosed his ownership as required, the stock price would likely have increased significantly,” the suit reads. In its complaint, the SEC requested that the court order Musk to pay “disgorgement of his unjust enrichment” as well as a civil penalty.
Musk responded to the filing in an X post, calling the SEC a “totally broken organization” that is spending their time on him “when there are so many actual crimes that go unpunished.”
Personal Life: Religion, Asperger’s Syndrome, and More
Beyond his work and family lives, Musk is an avid video game player. Biographer Walter Isaacson, who released an authorized account of Musk’s life in 2023, even classified the hobby as an “addiction.” He is a big fan of Elden Ring, which he previously called “the most beautiful art I’ve ever seen.”
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
Isaacson’s biography about Musk, which was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, is currently in the process of becoming a biopic. Director Darren Aronofsky is attached to the movie. “Glad Darren is doing it,” Musk shared on social media after news about the project broke in late 2023. “He is one of the best.”
Where Does Elon Musk Live?
In May 2020, Musk claimed in a series of social media posts he planned to sell nearly all of his physical possessions. According to biographer Walter Isaacson, this eventually spurred Musk to sell multiple properties and make a $50,000 rental home in Boca Chica, Texas, his primary residence. The house is located near SpaceX’s development and testing site.
Asperger’s Syndrome
In May 2021, Musk revealed while hosting an episode of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live that he has Asperger’s syndrome, a developmental disorder that can cause difficulty with socialization and communication as well as obsessive interest in very specific topics. He elaborated further about his experience growing up with the condition a year later.
“I would just tend to take things very literally… but then that turned out to be wrong—[people were not] simply saying exactly what they mean, there’s all sorts of other things that are meant, and [it] took me a while to figure that out,” Musk explained at the TED2022 conference.
Religion and Political Views
Although long considered an atheist, Musk said in 2024 he considers himself a “cultural Christian” and believes in the teachings of Jesus Christ—even though he might not follow all tenets of the faith. “I do believe that the teachings of Jesus are good and wise,” he said in an interview with psychologist and podcast host Jordan Peterson.
This notable shift has coincided with Musk’s growing support of conservative political causes. He criticized lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has used social media to amplify his beliefs related to free speech. According to PBS, he has shared memes and sometimes misinformation on X about topics such as illegal immigration, alleged U.S. election fraud, and transgender policies.
In broader terms, the boundless potential of space exploration and the preservation of the future of the human race have become the cornerstones of Musk’s abiding interests, and toward these, he has founded the Musk Foundation, which is dedicated to space exploration and the discovery of renewable and clean energy sources.
In October 2019, Musk pledged to donate $1 million to the #TeamTrees campaign, which aims to plant 20 million trees around the world by 2020. He even changed his Twitter name to Treelon for the occasion.
Musk has also been vocal about his concerns over a looming world population collapse caused by lower birth rates, calling it a “bigger risk to civilization than global warming.” However, many demographers have disagreed with his assessment.
Quotes
- I’m very pro-environment, but let’s figure out how to do it better and not jump through a dozen hoops to achieve what is obvious in the first place.
- Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.
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