SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is in rarified air.
Musk, the world’s richest person, in June 2026 became the world’s first trillionaire following SpaceX’s Nasdaq debut.While Musk’s net worth can fluctuate, it’s just the latest achievement for one of the preeminent names in business and tech.
Ahead of the 2024 election, Musk spent more than $291 million, largely on sending President Donald Trump back to the White House.His reward was a special title that, for a brief moment in early 2025, gave him unprecedented power inside the federal government.
Musk runs SpaceX, Tesla, X, and the Boring Company.SpaceX, which as of February 2026 includes xAI, has lofty ambitions.Ahead of its IPO, the company told prospective investors that its total addressable market could reach $28.5 trillion, roughly the size of the entire US GDP in 2024.After leaving OpenAI in February 2018, Musk has sought to position xAI as one of its leading competitors.
Here’s how Musk became a titan of American culture, using his immense wealth and influence to get involved with everything from space travel to AI to electric vehicles to the White House.
Elon Musk’s early career
In the 1990s, he founded his first startup, Zip2, with his brother, Kimbal, and began a decades-long career in tech.A group of Silicon Valley investors funded the project.
Musk further entrenched himself in the Silicon Valley network with his second venture, online banking company X.com.
The company merged with a startup of Peter Thiel’s to form PayPal.When PayPal sold to eBay in 2002, Musk made $165 million; he’s considered a member of the “PayPal Mafia” and has a complicated relationship with Thiel.Also in 2002, Musk obtained his American citizenship.
SpaceX
SpaceX is a national and global leader in space exploration, and Musk’s ultimate goal is to bring humans to Mars.Throughout the last 20 years, the company has broken record after record, including the largest number of launches of a single rocket in one year.
In June 2026, SpaceX made its long-awaited initial public offering, debuting on the Nasdaq.The IPO created an estimated 4,400 new millionaires as former employees cashed in.
Beyond its rockets, SpaceX has built a wide satellite network and its global internet traffic more than tripled in 2024.
The Starlink satellite internet system operates in Earth’s lower orbit, with a constellation of up to 42,000 planned.
Starlink has become a key part of SpaceX’s business, but has ensnared Musk in geopolitical conflict.Musk has said Starlink has been crucial for Ukraine in its war with Russia, though some Ukrainian military intelligence officials have said that Russia is using the satellites — an allegation Musk has denied.
In February 2026, SpaceX acquired xAI as Musk moved to consolidate his vast empire amid the global generative AI race.The merger also positioned xAI to achieve one of Musk’s newest lofty ambitions: space data centers.
Musk previously said that he wanted SpaceX to send five of its flagship Starship rockets to Mars in 2026, followed by crewed missions a few years later.The billionaire adjusted the Mars plans in February 2026, saying that SpaceX’s focus would be placed on developing “self‑growing city on the Moon.”
“SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster,” Musk wrote on X.
Mars remains a passion for Musk, who during the 2024 presidential campaign wore his signature “Occupy Mars” shirt during a rally alongside Trump.
SpaceX’s more than two-decade-long history hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
Musk founded the company in 2002, investing $100 million he made from the sale of PayPal.
The company nearly failed.After three unsuccessful launches between 2006 and 2008, funding was running out.Then, on September 28, 2008, SpaceX became the first private company to achieve a successful orbital launch.That same year, SpaceX received a $1.5 billion NASA contract.
SpaceX launches now happen on a regular basis.
The company publishes a SpaceX launch schedule on its website.Launches typically take place at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base or the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The SpaceX Falcon 9, a partially reusable two-stage rocket, is often used for launches.The Falcon 9 family of rockets is a key asset for NASA in servicing the International Space Station since the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
xAI
As of early 2026, xAI is no longer a separate company.That being said, AI is poised to be one of the leading units of SpaceX.
Musk founded startup xAI in March 2023, which has since launched a chatbot called Grok.
The launch came on the heels of Musk’s falling out with OpenAI’s leaders, including its CEO Sam Altman, over the startup’s pivot toward a partial for-profit model.Musk sued Altman and OpenAI in a move to unwind OpenAI’s restructuring and to remove Altman as its leader.In May 2026, a California jury ruled against Musk, saying he waited too long to file the suit.Musk has vowed an appeal.
xAI’s chatbot and models are named Grok, which Musk borrowed from the 1961 science fiction novel, “Stranger in a Strange Land.” In the book, which is about a human born on Mars who comes to Earth, “grok” refers to a deep understanding.
Like its competitors, Grok can generate images, summarize conversations, and code.The chatbot has been trained on X user data, giving it a crucial boost as it competes against rivals like OpenAI.In October 2025, Musk launched Grokpedia, which he billed as an AI-powered rival to Wikipedia.
SpaceX has inherited one of xAI’s biggest scandals.In December 2025, users began asking Grok to use its image generation to digitally undress people in photos.A month later, regulators and lawmakers expressed outrage as posts showing Grok sexualizing photos went viral.
DOGE
Beyond being the largest single megadonor of the 2024 election cycle, Musk took the campaign trail to host events for Trump and bestow large checks on a few lucky voters.
The SpaceX CEO’s advocacy marked a major sea change for a tech executive who had once donated to both parties.
Following up on a campaign promise, Trump formalized the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency via one of the first executive orders he signed after retaking office in January 2025.An X user suggested the DOGE name to Musk, which was a play on the popular meme and cryptocurrency “doge.”
The initiative would never formally become a department, nor would Musk, at least officially, be its leader.That didn’t stop DOGE from becoming an unprecedented force.
Musk and DOGE rapidly remade the federal workforce, going well beyond the simple IT changes outlined in Trump’s executive order, like announcing the cancellation of a slew of government contracts, pushing for the shutdown of USAID, and advocating for getting rid of the US penny.
“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk wrote on X in early February 2026 of the fate of an agency responsible for administering foreign aid.
We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Could gone to some great parties.
Did that instead.[https://t.co/0V35nacICW][February 3, 2025]
Trump offered Musk, who was formally a special government employee, unheard-of levels of access to the government.
The billionaire tech executive spoke at Cabinet meetings and at times slept in the White House’s famed Lincoln bedroom.
Musk’s public role came with costs.
Protesters took to Tesla dealerships around the world, leading Trump to buy one of the electric vehicles himself as a thank you to his embattled friend.
Trump’s self-described “first buddy” left the White House in May 2025, as his 130-day limit as a special government employee expired.
Musk and Trump’s relationship collapsed after the SpaceX CEO publicly opposed Trump’s then-proposed “Big Beautiful Bill.” Trump threatened Musk’s companies and their federal contracts.Musk responded by taunting Trump over the Epstein Files.
By September 2025, tensions began to cool.They were seen publicly together for the first time at the memorial service for conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.In June 2026, Trump said that Musk “had a bad moment, but now he’s a friend of mine again.”
DOGE has a mixed legacy.
Despite Musk’s hopes, federal spending increased by nearly 6% during its tenure.
According to the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project, the increase was largely attributed to the type of mandatory spending, like Medicare and Social Security, that DOGE did not touch.The Lancet, a medical journal, published a study that projected that cuts to USAID, which DOGE led, could lead to “more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.” Musk has strongly disputed the findings.
X/Twitter
Elon Musk started buying shares in Twitter, now called X, in January 2022 and initiated an acquisition three months later.In the years since, he has reframed the platform as a replacement for legacy media.The app has also served as a personal megaphone for Musk, who has more than 215 million followers — the most of any user.Musk posts frequently, sometimes more than 100 times per day.
By the time Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, he had actually spent months trying to back out of the agreement.
Earlier in 2022, he sent a letter to Twitter purporting to terminate the acquisition.Twitter promptly sued him.
When the sale went through, Musk immediately ousted a number of Twitter executives, including its CEO, CFO, and chief legal officer.Shortly after, Musk issued an ultimatum to employees: work at an “extremely hardcore” rate or accept a three-month severance package.He would go on to lay off about 80% of Twitter’s staff.
In May 2023, Musk named Linda Yaccarino as Twitter’s new CEO.
“Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app,” Musk said in a tweet.Come July 2023, Twitter was rebranded to X.The Securities and Exchange Commission is currently investigating Musk’s acquisition of the company.
Musk has rebranded more than just the name of the company.
A self-described “free speech absolutist,” Musk fired many of Twitter’s content moderators and opted instead for a community notes system.He reinstated previously suspended accounts, including Trump’s, but a transparency report from 2024 revealed that X suspended more accounts on average than Twitter did.
Musk launched a Twitter Blue subscription, which lets anyone pay to be verified, and led to some users impersonating public figures.In 2023, he got rid of the social media site’s blue-tick verification for accounts of “public interest,” like those belonging to politicians, journalists, and celebrities.
On various occasions, Musk has used his account on X to shape global political discourse.He posted about and tanked a government funding bill, ignited a raging immigration debate about the H-1B visa program for skilled workers, and demanded the British prime minister resign over his handling of the UK’s rape-gang scandal.
The Boring Company
Musk’s The Boring Company was created as a subsidiary of SpaceX and later became its own entity.
Inspired by LA traffic gridlock, the tunneling venture has several ongoing projects on the West Coast.
In April 2022, the company raised $675 million at a valuation of almost $5.7 billion, according to a Boring Company news release.Boring Company stock is not publicly traded.
In 2018, Musk sold 20,000 Boring Company flamethrowers in just five days.The product, called “Not-A-Flamethrower,” has been off the market for years.However, it’s acquired something of a cult status among the tech mogul’s fans, and some people have been paying hundreds of dollars to buy them on eBay.
Among Musk’s other innovative products is a 5’8″ humanoid Tesla robot named Optimus, announced in 2021.
The robot is designed to help reduce the labor shortage, according to Musk, and keep workers safer.
Musk said in June 2024 he thinks people will think of their personal Optimus robot as “sort of a friend,” and remained optimistic they will start shipping next year.
Neuralink
Musk’s brain-chip company Neuralink has begun implanting its devices in human skulls — and like many of Musk’s ventures, the new technology has been met with both fanfare and skepticism.
Neuralink aims to treat patients with neurological conditions, such as paralysis and blindness.Initially, in the first human trial, Neuralink’s goal is to help patients with paralyzed limbs control devices like a computer mouse or keyboard with only their thoughts.
Noland Arbaugh became the first person to receive Neuralink’s brain-chip implant in January 2024.The 29-year-old quadriplegic told Business Insider it had helped him regain independence and reconnect socially.
Musk has said he wants Neuralink to ultimately help humans achieve “symbiosis” with artificial intelligence so that they don’t get “left behind” as AI evolves over time.
Elon Musk’s family and personal life
Musk was born in South Africa to parents Maye and Errol Musk, who divorced in 1979.He moved to Canada with his mom and two siblings after graduating high school, spending two years studying there before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania.
After graduating, he enrolled in Stanford University, but deferred admission after just two days in California to pursue entrepreneurship and never went back to the school.
Musk’s former spouses include Justine Musk, whom he met at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, and Talulah Riley, whom he married in 2010.He met Riley at a bar in London, and the couple divorced and remarried before splitting again.
It is unclear if Musk is currently dating.Musk reportedly split in 2022 with actor Natasha Bassett, who is believed to be his last public girlfriend.
Before that, Musk briefly dated actor Amber Heard in 2017 amid her divorce from actor Johnny Depp.
The two first connected on the red carpet of the 2016 Met Gala, which Depp was expected to attend but did not.
He and the musician Grimes started dating in 2018.Since then, they’ve broken up and gotten back together a few times.They appear to be on reasonable terms again after a contentious legal battle over the three children they share.
Musk has 11 living children and fathered one child who died in infancy with his ex-wife, Justine.Together, the couple had six kids.Another one of their children, Vivian, is transgender and has publicly rejected Musk in light of his criticism of transgender laws for children under 18.She has said she no longer wants “to be related to my biological father in any way.”
The billionaire has brought one of the children he shares with Grimes, X Æ A-12, to meetings at the Capitol.
Musk quietly had twins in November 2021 with one of his top executives, Shivon Zilis.
In 2024 he confirmed he’d had another child with Zilis.He frequently laments America’s declining birthrate, a theme that garnered attention during the 2024 presidential election..