[6][7][8][a] His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and property developer, who partly owned a rental lodge at Timbavati Private Nature Reserve.

[25] Elon has recounted trips to a wilderness school that he described as a "paramilitary Lord of the Flies" where "bullying was a virtue" and children were encouraged to fight over rations.

"[28] Elon was an enthusiastic reader of books, and had attributed his success in part to having read The Lord of the Rings, the Foundation series, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[34] Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother to avoid South Africa's mandatory military service,[35][36] which would have forced him to participate in the apartheid regime,[2] as well as to ease his path to immigration to the United States.

[38] Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989, connected with a second cousin in Saskatchewan,[39] and worked odd jobs including at a farm and a lumber mill.

[44][45][46][47][48] He reportedly hosted large, ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition, and wrote a business plan for an electronic book-scanning service similar to Google Books.

"[56] The Musk brothers obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune,[58] and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch.

[79] Seeking a way to launch the greenhouse payloads into space, Musk made two unsuccessful trips to Moscow to purchase intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) from Russian companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras.

[108][109] In 2023, Musk denied Ukraine's request to activate Starlink over Crimea to aid an attack against the Russian navy, citing fears of a nuclear response.

[120][121] Musk resigned from chairman of the board as part of the settlement of a lawsuit from the SEC over him tweeting that funding had been "secured" for potentially taking Tesla private.

[138] In 2014, Musk promoted the idea of SolarCity building an advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States.

[155] In 2017, Musk founded the Boring Company to construct tunnels, and revealed plans for specialized, underground, high-occupancy vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) and thus circumvent above-ground traffic in major cities.

[156][157] Early in 2017, the company began discussions with regulatory bodies and initiated construction of a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 50-foot (15 m) long, and 15-foot (4.6 m) deep "test trench" on the premises of SpaceX's offices, as that required no permits.

[186][187][188][189] In late 2022, Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election.

[200] In August 2013, Musk announced plans for a version of a vactrain, and assigned engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to design a transport system between Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of $6 billion.

[201][202] Later that year, Musk unveiled the concept, dubbed the Hyperloop,[203] intended to make travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances.

[209] In July 2023, Musk launched the artificial intelligence company xAI, which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like OpenAI's ChatGPT.

[243][244][245] From June 2023 to January 2024, Musk hosted a bipartisan set of X Spaces with Republican and Democratic candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,[246] Vivek Ramaswamy,[247] and Dean Phillips.

[270] Various media outlets, including the Associated Press, reported that regardless of what Musk meant, his gesture was widely embraced by right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis.

[278][278] My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk Rejecting the conservative label,[286] Musk has described himself as a political moderate, and his views have become more right-wing over time.

[295] Musk has expressed concern about issues such as artificial intelligence (AI)[296] and climate change,[297] and has been a critic of wealth tax,[298] short-selling,[299] government subsidies,[300] and Wikipedia.

[304][305] Musk has promoted conspiracy theories, and made controversial statements that have led to accusations of sexism, antisemitism,[306][307] transphobia,[308] disseminating disinformation, and support of white pride.

[313][314] Musk was criticized during the COVID-19 pandemic for making unfounded epidemiological claims,[315] defied COVID-19 lockdowns restrictions,[316] and supported the Canada convoy protest against vaccine mandates.

[326] Regarding British politics, Musk blamed the 2024 UK riots on mass migration and open borders,[327][328] criticized Prime Minister Starmer for what he described as a "two-tier" policing system,[329][330][331] and was subsequently attacked as being responsible for spreading misinformation and amplifying the far-right.

[335][f] The securities fraud lawsuit characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies.

[348] In 2020, a judge blocked a lawsuit that claimed a tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price ("too high imo") violated the agreement.

[349][350] Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-released records showed that the SEC concluded Musk had subsequently violated the agreement twice by tweeting regarding "Tesla's solar roof production volumes and its stock price".

[351] In October 2023, the SEC sued Musk over his refusal to testify a third time in an investigation into whether he violated federal law by purchasing Twitter stock in 2022.

[377] Musk plays video games, which he stated has a "'restoring effect' that helps his 'mental calibration'",[378] including Quake, Diablo IV, Elden Ring, and Polytopia,[379][380] and has admitted to "account boosting", or cheating by hiring outside services to achieve top player rankings.

[430] Musk has been described as an American oligarch due to his extensive influence over public discourse, social media, industry, politics, and government policy.