The Elon Musk Story: From Student Entrepreneur to the World's First Trillionaire

featured image

The Elon Musk Story: From Student Entrepreneur to the World's First Trillionaire

Elon Musk's journey from university student to one of the world's most influential entrepreneurs spans decades of innovation, business ventures and technological advancement.

After moving to Canada in 1988 at the age of 17, shortly after graduating from high school, Musk attended Queen's University in Ontario before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned degrees in physics and economics.

Following graduation, Musk enrolled at Stanford University in California but left shortly afterwards to pursue business opportunities during the early days of the internet.

Building His First Businesses

In 1995, Musk co-founded Zip2, an online publishing platform. Four years later, the company was sold for more than $300 million. He reinvested the proceeds to launch X.com, an online payment company that later became part of PayPal.

PayPal grew into one of the world's leading online payment platforms before being acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. The sale significantly increased Musk's wealth and provided the capital for his future ventures.

SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity

In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX. He also became an early investor in Tesla in 2003 before later taking over as Chief Executive Officer. Tesla became a publicly listed company in 2010.

Musk was also involved with SolarCity, a provider of solar power systems that listed publicly in 2012 before being acquired by Tesla in 2016.

Becoming the World's Richest Person

In January 2021, Musk became the world's richest person, a year after Tesla became the world's most valuable car manufacturer in July 2020.

In 2022, Musk completed the acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion after initially attempting to withdraw from the transaction. The purchase was finalised in October 2022.

The World's First Trillionaire

According to the article, SpaceX completed the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history in June 2026. Before the IPO, Musk's net worth was estimated at approximately $800 billion. Following the public listing, the market valuation of SpaceX pushed his personal wealth beyond one trillion dollars, making him the world's first trillionaire.