Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on June 12, 2026, the day SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO began trading on the Nasdaq. As of June 2026 his net worth sits near $1.2 trillion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, more than the next several richest people on Earth combined. He runs Tesla y SpaceX, owns the social platform X, and founded the artificial intelligence company xAI, maker of the Grok chatbot.
That mix of rockets, electric cars, social media, and AI makes him one of the most talked-about figures of the decade, and one of the most searched. This guide answers what people actually ask about him: how old he is, where he is from, whether he is a US citizen, how many children he has, how he made his money, and what he is building in AI right now. Every figure here is dated and sourced, because Musk’s wealth and headlines change by the week.
The Key Takeaways
- World’s first trillionaire since June 12, 2026, after SpaceX’s IPO; net worth around $1.2 trillion (Bloomberg, June 2026).
- Born June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa; he is 54 and holds South African, Canadian, and US citizenship.
- Leads Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, X, Neuralink, y The Boring Company.
- His AI company xAI builds Grok, a direct rival to ChatGPT and Gemini.
- He has 14 children with four mothers, as widely reported in 2026.
Who Is Elon Musk?
Elon Reeve Musk is a South African-born American entrepreneur and engineer, best known as the CEO of Tesla y SpaceX and the founder of the AI lab xAI. He has been the richest person in the world since 2021, and in June 2026 he became the first person ever valued above $1 trillion. His career spans payments, electric vehicles, spaceflight, social media, brain implants, and artificial intelligence, which is unusual for one person and a big part of why he draws so much attention.
Here are the fast facts most people search for, gathered in one place and current as of June 2026.
| Fact | Detail |
| Full name | Elon Reeve Musk |
| Born | June 28, 1971 |
| Age | 54 |
| Birthplace | Pretoria, South Africa |
| Citizenship | South Africa, Canada, United States |
| Lives | Boca Chica (Starbase), Texas |
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m), commonly reported |
| Known for | Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, X, PayPal |
| Net worth | ~$1.2 trillion (Bloomberg, June 2026) |
| Children | 14, with four mothers |
Early Life: Where Is Elon Musk From?
Elon Musk is from Pretoria, South Africa, where he was born on June 28, 1971 to engineer Errol Musk and Canadian-born model and dietitian Maye Musk. He grew up in apartheid-era South Africa, taught himself to code as a child, and reportedly sold his first piece of software, a game called Blastar, at age 12. His parents divorced when he was young, and he has described a difficult relationship with his father.
From South Africa to North America
At 17, Musk left South Africa for Canada in 1989, partly to avoid mandatory military service. He qualified for Canadian citizenship through his mother, then moved to the United States to study at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned degrees in physics and economics. He briefly enrolled in a physics PhD at Stanford in 1995 but dropped out within days to start his first company during the early internet boom.
Is Elon Musk a US Citizen?
Yes. Musk holds triple citizenship in South Africa, Canada, and the United States. He became a naturalized US citizen in 2002, the same year he sold his stake in PayPal. He has lived and worked in the US for more than three decades, and today his companies are headquartered mostly in Texas and California.
Elon Musk’s Net Worth: How He Made His Money
As of June 2026, Elon Musk is worth roughly $1.2 trillion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with Forbes giving a similar figure. That makes him the world’s first trillionaire, a milestone he crossed on June 12, 2026 when SpaceX’s IPO began trading. His fortune is not cash; it is mostly the paper value of his ownership stakes in two private and public giants.
His money was not inherited, and it did not come from a single company. It was built in stages across three decades, starting with two internet exits in the 1990s and early 2000s, then scaling massively through Tesla and SpaceX.
| Company | Musk’s role | Outcome |
| Zip2 | Co-founder | Sold to Compaq in 1999 for about $307 million |
| X.com / PayPal | Co-founder | Sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion in stock |
| Tesla | CEO, ~20% stake | Public; core of his wealth |
| SpaceX | CEO, ~41% stake | IPO June 12, 2026 at roughly $1.8 trillion valuation |
The SpaceX IPO That Made Him a Trillionaire
The event that pushed Musk past $1 trillion was the SpaceX IPO on June 12, 2026, the largest in history. SpaceX raised a reported $75 billion at a valuation near $1.8 trillion, trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX. Before the listing Musk was worth around $780 billion per Forbes; once SpaceX shares had a public price, his combined Tesla and SpaceX stakes lifted him past $1.1 trillion in a single day, and his net worth briefly touched $1.4 trillion in the days that followed, as CBS News reported.
Is Elon Musk a Trillionaire?
Yes, on paper. Musk is the first and so far only person with a net worth above $1 trillion, a status he reached in June 2026. This number moves with Tesla and SpaceX share prices, so it swings by tens of billions in a single week. Almost all of it is tied up in equity rather than liquid cash, which is why his ranking on wealth indexes shifts so often.
Elon Musk’s Companies
Musk runs or controls more major companies than almost any other executive, spread across transport, space, social media, and AI. Each one targets a market he describes as important to humanity’s future, from sustainable energy to making life multiplanetary. Below are the businesses that define his current empire.
Tesla and SpaceX
Tesla, where Musk has been CEO since 2008, is the electric-vehicle and energy company that turned him into a household name and remains a pillar of his wealth. SpaceX, founded in 2002, builds the Falcon and Starship rockets and operates the Starlink satellite-internet network; its June 2026 IPO valued the company at roughly $1.8 trillion. Together these two firms account for the overwhelming majority of his fortune.
X, Neuralink, and The Boring Company
Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion and rebranded it X, folding it into his broader AI ambitions. Neuralink, his brain-computer interface startup, has been running human trials of its implant, while The Boring Company digs tunnels aimed at easing urban traffic. These are smaller than Tesla and SpaceX, but they feed the same long-term themes of computing, connectivity, and infrastructure.
Elon Musk and Artificial Intelligence
Musk’s deepest current obsession is artificial intelligence, and his history with it is longer than most people realize. He helped start the field’s most famous lab, walked away from it, then launched a competitor that is now one of the best-funded AI companies in the world. AI is also where his work overlaps most with everyday users, through the Grok chatbot built into X.
Did Elon Musk Found OpenAI?
Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015, helping fund and launch the nonprofit alongside Sam Altman and others. He left the board in 2018, citing potential conflicts with Tesla’s own AI work, and has since become one of OpenAI’s loudest critics, even suing the company over its shift toward a for-profit model. If you want the other side of that story, see our profile of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
What Is xAI and Grok?
In 2023 Musk founded xAI, an AI company whose flagship product is the Grok chatbot. Grok is integrated directly into X and positioned as a more unfiltered rival to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, trained on xAI’s massive Colossus supercomputer in Memphis. The company has shipped rapid upgrades through 2026, including new voice and image-to-video features, and is training its next flagship model. For the full picture, read everything we know about Grok 5 and how Grok stacks up against ChatGPT.
If you would rather use Grok alongside other top models without juggling separate subscriptions, the Fello AI app for Mac gives you Grok, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek under one $9.99 monthly plan. It is a simple way to compare how each model answers the same question side by side.
Elon Musk’s Family and Personal Life
Musk’s personal life draws nearly as much attention as his companies, especially his large and growing family. He has been married, divorced, and linked to several high-profile partners, and his children come from four different mothers. Here is the current picture, based on 2026 reporting.
How Many Kids Does Elon Musk Have?
As widely reported in 2026, Musk has 14 children with four mothers. He had six children with his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, including a child who died in infancy. Elon Musk shares three children with the musician Grimes, and four with Shivon Zilis, an executive at his startup Neuralink. He also has a child with writer Ashley St. Clair, confirmed after a paternity dispute. Musk has spoken often about declining birth rates and calls having children a priority.
Is Elon Musk Married?
No, Musk is not currently married. He was married to Justine Wilson from 2000 to 2008, then twice to English actress Talulah Riley between 2010 and 2016. His later relationship with Grimes ran from 2018 to 2021. He has remained single in the legal sense since, even as his family has continued to grow.
How Tall Is Elon Musk and Where Does He Live?
Musk is commonly reported to stand 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m). He lives mainly in Texas, reportedly in a compact prefabricated house near SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, having moved his base from California in 2020. Companies tied to him also own larger properties in the Austin area, but he has cultivated an image of living modestly relative to his wealth.
Why Elon Musk Matters in 2026
Beyond the wealth records, Musk matters because he sits at the center of several technologies shaping the decade: reusable rockets, mass-market electric cars, satellite internet, brain implants, and frontier AI. His decisions move markets, his platform X shapes public debate, and his AI lab is racing the biggest names in the field. Whether you see him as a visionary or a provocateur, his companies touch how millions of people travel, communicate, and increasingly how they use AI.
For readers, the most practical Musk story is the AI one. Grok has become a serious option alongside ChatGPT and Gemini, and it is improving fast. To keep up with the people driving this race, browse our People of AI profiles, including Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, and watch how their labs compete over the next year.
FAQ
How old is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk is 54 years old. He was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, and turns 55 in late June 2026.
What is Elon Musk’s net worth in 2026?
About $1.2 trillion as of June 2026 according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the world’s first trillionaire. The figure moves with Tesla and SpaceX share prices.
How did Elon Musk make his money?
He made early fortunes selling Zip2 to Compaq in 1999 and PayPal to eBay in 2002, then built far greater wealth through his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX.
How many kids does Elon Musk have?
He has 14 children with four mothers as widely reported in 2026: six with Justine Wilson, three with Grimes, four with Shivon Zilis, and one with Ashley St. Clair.
What AI company does Elon Musk own?
Musk founded xAI in 2023, which builds the Grok chatbot integrated into X. He was also a co-founder of OpenAI in 2015 before leaving its board in 2018.
