Elon Reeve Musk is a South African-born American entrepreneur and business magnate, widely recognized as one of the world's wealthiest individuals with a net worth of approximately $852 billion by February 2026 per Forbes, primarily from stakes in Tesla and SpaceX, making him the world's wealthiest person. He grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, where he developed an early interest in computers, creating and selling a video game called Blastar at age 12. After his parents' divorce, he lived primarily with his father before moving to Canada at age 17 to avoid compulsory military service under apartheid and pursue greater economic opportunities. He attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, later transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, and briefly enrolled in a Ph.D. program in physics at Stanford, which he left after two days to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging internet industry. His early ventures include co-founding Zip2 in 1995 with his brother Kimbal and Greg Kouri, which was sold to Compaq for nearly $350 million in 1999, netting him $22 million; and founding X.com, which merged into PayPal and was acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion, providing $175 million for future ventures. He is the founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX; CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; owner and CTO of X (formerly Twitter, acquired in 2022 for $44 billion); and CEO of xAI. He is a close personal friend and business associate of Ari Emanuel. Musk's influence has expanded through ambitious projects like reusable rockets at SpaceX, electric vehicles at Tesla, brain-machine interfaces at Neuralink, and AI at xAI. His primary ambitions center on reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption (Tesla, SolarCity) and reducing the 'risk of human extinction' by establishing a human colony on Mars (SpaceX). He has been involved in philanthropy via the Musk Foundation, focusing on science education and clean energy, and served on boards like the X Prize Foundation. Musk is a prominent AI influencer and critic of regulatory overreach, known for his influence in technology, space exploration, and social media policy debates, with growing political influence in conservative circles, including a rightward shift, endorsing Donald Trump in 2024, and taking on an advisory role as a special government employee in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut federal spending. His role in the Trump administration has been described by Levitsky as unprecedented and frightening, noting that democracies have never seen such concentration of political, economic, and media power in an unelected official. Musk's personal life includes three marriages: to Justine Wilson (2000-2008), with whom he had six children (one deceased in infancy), and twice to Talulah Riley (2010-2012, 2013-2016). He has additional children with singer Grimes (Claire Boucher) and Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis. He describes himself as a workaholic, occasionally disclosing use of prescription ketamine for depression. Musk's leadership style, public statements, and business decisions frequently generate significant media attention and controversy, including family estrangements such as with his transgender daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson, workplace allegations at his companies, ongoing SEC scrutiny over tweets and disclosures, numerous regulatory investigations and lawsuits related to his companies and public communications, and being named in Epstein connection documents. He is known for his tech innovation and public commentary.