Elon Musk
American business executive; founder of SpaceX and chief executive of Tesla
| Elon Musk
| |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 6 1971 (age 55 years old (as of 2026)
) South Africa |
| Occupation | business executive and investor |
| Known for | Chief executive of Tesla; founder of SpaceX and xAI |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania |
Elon Musk (born 28 June 1971) is an American business executive, founder of SpaceX and chief executive of Tesla.[1] On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Musk first in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$923.7 billion; Forbes gives the source of wealth as Tesla, SpaceX.[2] The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as reported by Investopedia, put the figure at US$929 billion on 1 October 2026.[3]
Background
Born 28 June 1971 in South Africa; United States citizen.[1]
In its 2026 Richest in each state profile text, Forbes stated: "As a kid in South Africa, Musk taught himself to code; he sold his first game, Blastar, for about $500."[1]
Education
University of Pennsylvania (bachelor’s degree, per Forbes).[1]
Career and companies
Cofounder of seven companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and xAI. CEO of Tesla since 2008; first backed it in 2004. SpaceX was founded in 2002 and acquired xAI in February 2026; Twitter, bought in 2022, had been merged into xAI. He also founded and holds stakes in The Boring Company and Neuralink.[1]
How the wealth was made
Mainly holdings in SpaceX (Forbes: about 38% including options; SpaceX went public on 12 June 2026, when Forbes says Musk became the first trillionaire) and nearly 11% of Tesla.[1]
Wealth history
Forbes has included this person in its annual World's Billionaires list in 15 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2012. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list, and, where applicable, the rank and estimate in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.[4][1]
| Year | World's Billionaires rank | Net worth (US$ bn) | Forbes 400 rank | Forbes 400 net worth (US$ bn) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 634 | 2.0 | 190 | 2.4 |
| 2013 | 527 | 2.7 | 61 | 6.7 |
| 2014 | 158 | 8.4 | 44 | 10.3 |
| 2015 | 100 | 12.0 | 34 | 13.3 |
| 2016 | 94 | 10.7 | 34 | 11.6 |
| 2017 | 80 | 13.9 | 21 | 20.8 |
| 2018 | 54 | 19.9 | 24 | 19.6 |
| 2019 | 40 | 22.3 | 23 | 19.9 |
| 2020 | 31 | 24.6 | 7 | 68.0 |
| 2021 | 2 | 151.0 | 2 | 190.5 |
| 2022 | 1 | 219.0 | 1 | 251.0 |
| 2023 | 2 | 180.0 | 1 | 251.0 |
| 2024 | 2 | 195.0 | 1 | 244.0 |
| 2025 | 1 | 342.0 | 1 | 428.0 |
| 2026 | 1 | 839.0 | 1 | 908.0 |
Philanthropy
Foundation-level: the following private foundation figures are taken from the IRS Form 990-PF data published by ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Total assets are as reported at the end of each tax year; "grants paid" is the 990-PF line for contributions, gifts and grants paid.[5]
| Foundation | Tax year | Total assets, end of year | Contributions, gifts and grants paid | Contributions received |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Musk Foundation | 2023 | 536.2 | 236.6 | 0.0 |
| Musk Foundation | 2022 | 650.7 | 160.5 | 2,246.0 |
| Musk Foundation | 2021 | 379.6 | 159.9 | 5,703.2 |
| Musk Foundation | 2020 | 217.3 | 10.2 | 0.0 |
Listed as a Giving Pledge signatory, with the pledge year given as 2012.[6][7]
Political donations and public roles
Itemised contributions recorded by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Totals are lower bounds: only the top 100 records per name and cycle were retrieved, and memo entries are excluded.[8]
| Cycle | Total (US$, lower bound) | Records | Largest recipient committees (as filed with the FEC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $229,911,638 | 78 | America PAC ($197,662,036); RBG PAC ($20,500,000); Senate Leadership Fund ($10,000,000); Trump 47 Committee ($924,600) |
| 2026 | $61,754,300 | 97 | America PAC ($20,100,000); Fight for Kentucky ($10,000,000); CLF ($10,000,000); SLF PAC ($10,000,000) |
Led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort as a Special Government Employee; announced his departure in May 2025, writing: “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.”[9]
Lobbying by companies
Company-level: according to Issue One’s analysis of federal lobbying disclosures, X spent $720,000 on lobbying in 2025, the same as in 2024.[10]
| Company | 2025 spending | Change from 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Meta | $26.29 million | about 8% higher (record) |
| Alphabet | $16.62 million | nearly 12% higher |
| Microsoft | $10.1 million | 2% lower |
| Nvidia | $4.95 million | up from $640,000 |
| X | $720,000 | unchanged |
Controversies and legal cases
Settled SEC fraud charges in September 2018 over August 2018 tweets about taking Tesla private; Musk and Tesla each paid a $20 million penalty and Musk agreed to step down as Tesla chairman.[11]
On 14 January 2025 the SEC sued Musk, alleging that he failed to file a required beneficial-ownership report for his Twitter stake on time (it was due by 24 March 2022), and that he then bought more than $500 million of Twitter shares between 25 March and 1 April 2022 at artificially low prices. The complaint says he thereby saved at least $150 million at the expense of Twitter shareholders.[12] On 19 December 2025 the Delaware Supreme Court restored Musk’s 2018 Tesla pay package, worth about $56 billion when it vested. It ruled that the Court of Chancery’s rescission was too extreme a remedy and awarded $1 in nominal damages in the shareholder suit Tornetta v. Musk.[13]
International and political links
This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."
Israel (investments, operations, donations, contracts, statements)
Visited Israel on 27 November 2023; toured Kfar Azza with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and met President Isaac Herzog.[14] Israel’s communications minister said that day that Israel and Musk had reached an agreement in principle under which “Starlink satellite units can only be operated in Israel with the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Communications, including the Gaza Strip.”[15]
Zionist or pro-Israel organisations and lobbying groups
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Jewish communal charities
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Gulf states
Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s office kept Twitter shares worth $1.89bn after Musk’s 2022 takeover, becoming jointly the second-largest investors; Qatar Holding was among those funding the purchase.[16] Kingdom Holding Company said in December 2024 that its total investment in xAI had risen to $800 million.[17]
China
Tesla broke ground on its Shanghai gigafactory on 7 January 2019 (investment over 50 billion yuan, per Xinhua); Li Qiang, then Shanghai Communist Party secretary, met Musk that day.[18]
Russia
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
India
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Palestinian or Arab causes
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Home government
See DOGE role and SEC settlement above.[9][11] Company-level: on 16 April 2021 NASA selected SpaceX to develop the human landing system for Artemis; the firm-fixed-price, milestone-based contract had a total award value of $2.89 billion.[19]
Other international links
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
See also
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Forbes, Forbes profile record for Elon Musk (Forbes data feed behind forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/) Forbes, live record, real-time timestamp 20 October 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Forbes, Forbes Real-Time Billionaires data feed Forbes, live; downloaded 20 October 2026 11:51 UTC, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Investopedia, The 10 Richest People in the World (citing Bloomberg Billionaires Index, figures as of 1 Oct 2026) Investopedia, updated 2 October 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Forbes, Forbes World's Billionaires list data feed, annual editions 2001–2026 (one file per year at this path with the year substituted; all 26 files downloaded and read) Forbes, annual lists; downloaded 20 October 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Musk Foundation (EIN 85-2133087) – Nonprofit Explorer record with IRS Form 990-PF financial data ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, IRS filings as processed by ProPublica; accessed 20 October 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ The Giving Pledge, Elon Musk – pledger page The Giving Pledge, pledge 2012, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ The Giving Pledge, Pledger list The Giving Pledge, live page, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ U.S. Federal Election Commission, OpenFEC Schedule A (itemised individual contributions) query, contributor name "MUSK, ELON"; 2024 cycle shown in link, the 2022, 2024 and 2026 cycles were queried with the same parameters; top 100 records per name and cycle; compiler filtered by employer/occupation and excluded memo entries from totals U.S. Federal Election Commission, data as filed; queried 20 October 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Associated Press, Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after leading effort to slash federal government Associated Press, 29 May 2025, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Issue One, Armies of Lobbyists Helped Big Tech Rack up Victories During First Year of Trump's Second Term Issue One, 21 January 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Elon Musk Settles SEC Fraud Charges; Tesla Charged With and Resolves Securities Law Charge (press release 2018-226) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 29 September 2018, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 26219: Elon R. Musk U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 14 January 2025, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ CNBC, Musk's $56 billion Tesla pay package must be restored as court rules cancellation was too extreme CNBC, 19 December 2025, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Associated Press, Elon Musk visits Israel to meet top leaders as accusations of antisemitism on X grow Associated Press, 27 November 2023, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ CNBC (Reuters), Israel hosts wartime visit by Elon Musk, eyes Starlink for Gaza CNBC (Reuters), 27 November 2023, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Al Jazeera, Saudis ‘second largest investors’ in Twitter after Musk takeover Al Jazeera, 28 October 2022, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Kingdom Holding Company, Kingdom Holding Company Increases Investment in xAI to USD 800 Million in Series C Financing Round Kingdom Holding Company, 25 December 2024, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Xinhua, Xinhua Headlines: Tesla breaks ground on gigafactory in Shanghai Xinhua, 7 January 2019, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ NASA, As Artemis Moves Forward, NASA Picks SpaceX to Land Next Americans on Moon NASA, 16 April 2021, accessed 20 October 2026.