Timeline
Every year that mattered, 1971 to 2026.
Born in Pretoria
To Errol and Maye Musk.
Blastar
Sells a BASIC space game to a magazine for ~$500 at age 12.
Leaves for Canada
Queen's University the next year; transfers to Penn in 1992.
Zip2
Skips a Stanford PhD after two days to found Zip2 with Kimbal.
$22M
Compaq buys Zip2 for $307M. He founds X.com in March.
PayPal
Marries Justine Wilson; X.com merges with Confinity; the board replaces him as CEO.
SpaceX; $176M; a loss
Founds SpaceX in May; eBay buys PayPal in October; becomes a US citizen; his first son Nevada dies at ten weeks.
Tesla
Leads the $6.5M Series A and becomes chairman; twins Griffin and Vivian born.
The worst year
Falcon 1 reaches orbit on the fourth try; he becomes Tesla CEO; NASA's $1.6B contract and a Christmas Eve financing save both companies; divorce.
IPO, Iron Man, a wedding
Tesla lists at $17; a cameo in Iron Man 2; marries Talulah Riley.
Dragon docks; $2B
First commercial spacecraft to the ISS; first Forbes list appearance; signs the Giving Pledge.
OpenAI
Co-founds OpenAI; Ashlee Vance's biography is published; first Falcon 9 booster landing in December.
Neuralink, Boring, SolarCity
Founds Neuralink; Tesla absorbs SolarCity; The Boring Company begins.
Falcon Heavy, the pay package, the SEC
A Roadster flies to space; Tesla grants the 2018 award; “funding secured” costs him the chairmanship; dates Grimes.
Crew Dragon; Texas
First crewed launch from US soil since 2011; son X born; moves to Texas; pledges to own no house.
Richest person on Earth
Passes Bezos on Jan 7; hosts SNL; first past $300B; Time Person of the Year.
Buys Twitter for $44B; Vivian changes her name; record $200B loss.
xAI and the biography
Founds xAI; Twitter becomes X; Walter Isaacson's biography.
Neuralink's first patient; Trump
First human implant in January; endorses Trump in July; first past $400B in December.
DOGE
Runs the Department of Government Efficiency Jan–May; the salute controversy; the June feud; $500B in October; the $1T Tesla award approved in November.
Trillionaire
SpaceX buys xAI (Feb); Terafab (Mar); SpaceX IPO and first trillionaire (June 12); record loss (July); Gibney's film (Sept–Oct); Roadster revealed (Oct 15); merger committees (Oct 20).