Boss of Tesla and SpaceX. Born in South Africa, Musk arrived in America to study physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He has 13 or 14 known children with four women. He donated $10m to the Population Wellbeing Initiative at the University of Texas, Austin, a project conducting research on fertility, parenting and the future of population and economic growth. He spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Donald Trump in 2024, including through a "lottery" awarding $1m each day to a registered voter in Pennsylvania. He headed Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a role that provoked protests and arson attacks at Tesla showrooms. During the presidential transition, Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, then co-leaders of DOGE, argued that deregulation would mean the government needed far fewer civil servants. Critics note that Trump's deregulatory push has loosened rules on crypto and self-driving cars, benefiting Musk and Tesla directly.
In the first quarter of 2025 Musk announced during a Tesla earnings call that he would be spending "far more" of his time away from Washington and back at the company. He predicted Tesla would become the world's most valuable firm, and that its Optimus humanoid robots would one day generate more than $10trn in annual sales. He expected "thousands" of Optimus robots to be working in Tesla's factories by the end of 2025, and 1m by 2030.
Musk has acknowledged that Chinese companies are likely to dominate ranks two through ten in the humanoid-robot market.
DOGE software engineers tried to knit together government databases—including IRS taxpayer data—to create a masterfile to help deport immigrants. The effort was stymied by a 1976 law making it a criminal offence for public officials to share taxpayer data. Musk attempted to install Gary Shapley as acting IRS commissioner, but Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, had Shapley removed after just two days.
Taiwan has ruled out using Musk's Starlink satellite constellation as a backup to its vulnerable undersea communication cables, owing to concern that Musk is partial to China.
On March 17th 2025 DOGE staffers took over the headquarters of the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. They fired the board and president, and handed the building's keys to the federal government. A federal judge later declared the takeover illegal and "null and void".
Musk announced his departure from government service on May 28th 2025 via a post on X. Steve Davis, a lieutenant who had reportedly run much of the DOGE operation, also stepped down, as did Katie Miller, DOGE's spokesperson. Trump presented Musk with a golden key and insisted he would still advise, but the departure was substantive.
Musk appears to have fallen out with Trump. He criticised Trump's tax bill for undermining his cost-cutting efforts, calling it a "disgusting abomination". The bill would add trillions to America's deficit and remove subsidies on sales of electric vehicles. Trump has since proposed to cut government contracts with Musk's companies, including SpaceX.
DOGE failed to fulfil its promises. Having pledged to save $2trn in federal spending, Musk eviscerated foreign aid and sent tens of thousands of workers packing—but foreign aid and federal salaries together made up only 6% of government spending. By DOGE's own dubious accounting, $175bn of savings were made. According to Treasury figures, spending overall continued to rise. Mass firings got bogged down in lawsuits, and most departments were forced to make cuts via the traditional legal process. Bill Gates accused Musk of "killing the world's poorest children".
When the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed Congress in July 2025, Musk declared himself horrified by its profligacy and pledged to set up a new political outfit, the "America Party", to try to unseat Republicans who voted for it.
Steve Bannon, a prominent MAGA figure, called on June 5th 2025 for the full nationalisation of SpaceX in the wake of Musk's falling-out with Trump.
On September 13th 2025 Musk appeared via video call at a far-right rally in London attended by as many as 150,000 protesters. He called for the crowd to overthrow the British government. He had also fallen out with Nigel Farage.
In early 2026 Musk called Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary an "idiot" for not installing Starlink Wi-Fi on the airline's planes, and threatened to buy the carrier. O'Leary noted that Musk, who is not an EU citizen, cannot buy the Irish airline.
Though Musk previously warned against "killer robots", he appears to have shed his compunctions. SpaceX and xAI are said to be competing together in a Pentagon contest to build voice-activated drone-swarming technology.
Musk helped establish OpenAI but left in 2018. He has since pursued a vendetta against Sam Altman, its boss, deploying an unsolicited $97bn bid for the assets of OpenAI's non-profit entity and a lawsuit to block its restructuring. Court documents released in April 2026 revealed that Musk is demanding up to $134bn, based on a $500bn valuation, as a return on his original $38m donation. The trial Elon Musk v Sam Altman et al began in Oakland on April 27th 2026. Betting markets deem a Musk victory unlikely.
Musk runs a rival AI lab, xAI, which he has merged with X. In July 2025 xAI released Ani, a flirtatious chatbot, and Valentine, described as "dapper, mysterious and licensed to charm". In June 2025 SpaceX invested $2bn in xAI, and xAI was reported to be launching a $300m share sale that would value the startup at $113bn. Musk's investment in Tesla makes up less than half of his paper wealth; he also holds large stakes in SpaceX, xAI and various other enterprises. The boundaries between these businesses are blurring, with resources—including Nvidia chips ordered by Tesla—being diverted between them.
On February 2nd 2026 Musk announced the merger of SpaceX with xAI, valuing the combined entity at $1.25trn. The stated rationale is to launch a fleet of data centres into space. SpaceX filed a request to the FCC to put a 1m-strong constellation of satellite-based data centres into orbit. Musk argued that within two to three years, the cheapest place to provide computing capacity would be in space, by harnessing solar power undiminished by the atmosphere. By bringing the two together, however, Musk is saddling a money-spinning space champion with a loss-making AI laggard. Tesla is simultaneously being reshaped into a "physical-AI company" focused on self-driving taxis and humanoid robots.
SpaceX's Starship is a two-stage launch system designed to carry 150 tonnes into orbit. The upper stage sits atop a "super heavy" booster. The first six test flights used a "Block 1" design; the last of these, in late 2024, achieved a controlled splashdown. A redesigned "Block 2" with higher thrust then failed on three consecutive flights (the 7th, 8th and 9th tests). Starlink satellites, which provide SpaceX with the bulk of its revenue, currently launch on Falcon 9 rockets; Starship is intended to take over that job. NASA's Artemis programme depends on Starship to land astronauts on the Moon.
In this world, truth can wait; she's used to it.