Elon Musk Vazhenin Stepan, TN-17-02 • Elon Reeve Musk is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and engineer. He holds South African, Canadian, and U.S. citizenship and is the founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; co-founder and CEO of Neuralink; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder and co-chairman of OpenAI; and cofounder of PayPal. • Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa, the son of Maye Musk, a model and dietitian from Canada, and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. He has a younger brother, Kimbal and a younger sister, Tosca. • As an adult, Musk has severed relations with his father, whom he has referred to as "a terrible human being". • Ilon Mask describes his childhood as "agonizing and isolated", which took place in the shadow of his father, who constantly ridicule his ability to sciences. • At the age of 17, in 1989, Elon Musk moved to Canada to attend Queen's University, avoiding mandatory service in the South African military. He left in 1992 to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed for a second bachelor's degree in physics. • After leaving Penn, Elon Musk headed to Stanford University in California to pursue a PhD in energy physics. However, his move coincided with the Internet boom, and he dropped out of Stanford after just two days to become a part of it, launching his first company, Zip2 Corporation. Family • Musk met his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, while both were students at Ontario's Queen's University. They married in 2000 and separated in 2008. Their first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) at the age of 10 weeks. They later had five sons through in vitro fertilization – twins in 2004, followed by triplets in 2006. They share custody of all five sons. • In 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley, and in 2010, the couple married. In January 2012, Musk announced that he had ended his four-year relationship with Riley, tweeting to Riley, "It was an amazing four years. I will love you forever. You will make someone very happy one day." In July 2013, Musk and Riley remarried. In December 2014, Musk filed for a second divorce from Riley; however, the action was withdrawn. The media announced in March 2016 that divorce proceedings were again under way, this time with Riley filing for divorce from Musk. The divorce was finalized in late 2016. • Musk began dating American actress Amber Heard in 2016 but the two split up after one year due to their conflicting schedules. On May 7, 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes revealed that they had begun dating. • Talulah Riley • Amber Heard • • Claire Elise Boucher (Grimes)
