Elon Musk is one of the most famous people on the planet. Known for being a founder of companies, an explorer of space, and head of social media, Musk has proven himself both influential and controversial.
The entrepreneur has made a name for himself on the world stage as an investor in disruptive tech, and in recent years, has waded into the political sphere by becoming part of US President Donald Trump’s top team.
But, beyond the business decisions and the political shenanigans, how much do you really know about him? Here are some facts about Elon Musk to consider.
1. He almost sold Tesla.
Believe it or not, Elon Musk nearly sold his famous car company, Tesla! He reportedly reached out to Google CEO Larry Page about buying the, at the time failing, car company! It is believed that the two agreed in 2013 to a sale price of about $6 billion. However, the sale never went through, and Tesla still belongs to Elon Musk at the time of writing.
Tesla has become one of Musk’s landmark brands, with the love-it-or-hate-it Cybertruck becoming something of a viral sensation in its own right.
2. Musk dropped out of school.
Musk only stayed at Stanford University for two days before dropping out. He was meant to follow a doctorate in physics. However, he left school to start his first company, Zip2, with his brother Kimbal. Zip2 was a city guide software platform.
However, this move out of education certainly didn’t stop the businessman from acquiring disruptive technologies – he’d eventually become the richest man in the world.
3. He sold his first company for millions of dollars.
Leaving Stanford proved to be a wise choice for Elon Musk. His first company, Zip2, was sold four years later for more than $300 million! It was just the first step on his route toward becoming the wealthiest person on the planet.
Zip2 was eventually purchased by computing giant Compaq, a brand that itself since dropped away by 2013, after having been adopted by Hewlett Packard.
4. He bought one of James Bond’s cars.
One of Elon Musk’s most famous possessions is a car, but not a Tesla! In fact, it is a vehicle that’s been driven by 007. In 2013, he bought a Lotus Esprit for almost $1 million. It was a 1976 version that had been modified as an underwater car for Bond in the movie “The Spy Who Loved Me.”
5. Musk has 12 children with three different partners.
Elon Musk reportedly has 12 children with three different women, including Justine Wilson, Claire “Grimes” Boucher, and Shivron Zilis, a Neuralink executive.
Musk’s relationship with Zilis is fairly low-key, with very few public appearances made by the couple and their children.
6. He’s appeared multiple times on small and big screens.
Believe it or not, you will find Elon Musk on IMDb for acting! He has made cameos in blockbusters such as “Iron Man 2” and TV series such as “The Big Bang Theory,” “South Park,” and “Rick and Morty.”
And, of course, more recently, he’s appeared at rallies for the likes of Donald Trump, heavily publicised in the press.
7. He actually helped inspire Iron Man.
Elon Musk was even an inspiration for Iron Man! That is to say that Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. used Elon Musk and some of his mannerisms in his portrayal of the billionaire superhero. That’s got to be pretty flattering, right?
The original character in the Marvel comics was, appropriately, also inspired by a wealthy entrepreneur – aviation enthusiast Howard Hughes.
8. He is South African-born.
Elon Musk was born in South Africa. He lived there until he was 17 when his family moved to Canada, and he now does much of his business from the US.
9. He’s been the richest person in the world several times now.
Elon Musk’s battle to become the wealthiest person on the planet took him to a net worth as high as $340 billion – and while net worths change his status as wealthiest person might change by the time you read this, he’s been at the top of the rich list for some time. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos often competes for the title.
At the time of writing, for example, he’s reportedly worth around $314 billion. He’s spent a few here and there on acquisitions such as Twitter!
10. He did not create Tesla.
Although Elon Musk is primarily known as the leader of the Tesla company, he’s not actually responsible for building the brand up. The firm was dreamt up by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003.
They then brought Elon Musk and his money into the company a year later, where he’s remained for over two decades.
11. He was a co-founder of one of the world’s most important financial apps.
Musk was, for some time, known for his co-founding of PayPal, which quickly became one of the most widely used online finance apps worldwide. It was tied to online marketplace eBay for some time, before the two brands broke apart.
Musk eventually sold his stake in PayPal and would continue to invest in space exploration and electric cars instead.
12. Musk has been greatly motivated by humanity’s need to explore the stars.
Specifically, it’s thought that Musk’s desire for the human race to explore and settle on different planets has helped to inspire many of his business pursuits. Specifically, I refer of course to his work with SpaceX, with which he aims to reach Mars and eventually help to colonise the red planet.
SpaceX was founded in 2002 in response to the high costs of rocket technology. Certainly, heavy-duty exploration equipment produced by SpaceX has continued to compete well with rockets produced by the Boeing Company at a comparably smaller cost.
13. Musk took over Twitter partly due to its policies regarding free speech.
Elon Musk famously took over social networking and microblogging app Twitter in 2022, eventually renaming it X. It’s thought that the businessman’s opposition to many of the site’s content moderation policies inspired him to put in a bid for the company.
Since Musk’s acquisition of the social network, there has been widespread concern over its use for the spreading of conspiracy theories and hard-right political rhetoric. This led to the increasing popularity of rival services such as Mastodon and BlueSky, the latter of which saw a major surge in popularity in late 2024.
14. He was forced into buying Twitter after backing out.
Musk’s acquisition of Twitter was something of a back-and-forth affair. He had initially bid for the company at a total of $44 billion, or around $54.20 per share, having initially joined the board (and subsequently deciding to buy instead).
Twitter’s board had accepted Musk’s offer, but by the middle of 2022, he’d withdrawn his offer because he felt the company had offered little information about content bots (which he claimed he would help eradicate).
However, Twitter would then sue Musk to buy the company, with the deal completed in October.
15. Musk has connections with OpenAI.
Elon Musk helped to found OpenAI, one of the most prominent developers and engineers of artificial intelligence – you might know them as the company behind ChatGPT, the leading generative AI chatbot.
However, Musk grew disappointed with the direction the company headed in – and, in the years since, has even sued the company for a breach of agreement, claiming that OpenAI has “radically departed from its original mission”.
16. He helped to found SolarCity.
Ever the pioneer, Musk was also involved heavily in bringing SolarCity, an energy provider, to life. The company – as the name suggests – specifically offered solar power solutions. Musk was a co-founder with Lyndon and Peter Rive, two of his cousins.
SolarCity, however, has since become part of the Tesla family. In 2016, after a Tesla buyout, the company was renamed Tesla Energy – with an acquisition worth $2.6 billion.
17. Musk got to work changing Twitter, fast.
After buying Twitter, Musk was keen to start making some of the big changes he’d suggested. For example, he introduced new changes to the blue tick feature, which typically showed people that celebrities and official accounts were legitimate. Under Musk, this became a premium service anyone could invest in.
Twitter was eventually changed to X.com in July 2023, though at the time of writing, heading to twitter.com still takes you to X.
18. His politics have changed over the years.
In recent times, Elon Musk has joined US President Donald Trump’s top team from 2025. This comes after the entrepreneur increasingly endorsed Republican principles online, and donated to the Trump campaign through the America Political Action Committee.
These political shifts are in stark difference to previous claims the businessman had made with regard to being a moderate Democrat.
19. His favourite books are rooted in sci-fi.
Elon Musk is something of a science fiction connoisseur! He’s previously claimed that Foundation by Isaac Asimov and The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, by Douglas Adams, are some of his favourite books.
He also has something of a connection with the letter X, hence X.com – which may or may not be related to his enjoyment of the X-Men comics. This is further backed up by the fact there are assembly machines at Tesla called Wolverine and Xavier!
20. Seriously, the letter X follows him everywhere.
You won’t just see X marking the spot at the site formerly known as Twitter! Many of Musk’s landmark projects and services involve the letter in some way – such as SpaceX, the Tesla Model X, his own AI project xAI, and even his son, X Æ A-12. And yes, that is legitimately his name!
21. He’s in charge of a project that could see people controlling programs with their minds.
Yes – believe it or not, Elon Musk has even started getting into mind control – that is, by launching Neuralink, a pioneering project that connects brains to computers.
It’s thought that some Neuralink technology is already operational – could this be the future of work and entertainment? We will have to wait and see.
22 Musk even made money from fragrances.
Perhaps taking a leaf out of Donald Trump’s book, Elon Musk has certainly diversified his investments and creations over the years, even daring to step beyond science and technology occasionally. For example, back in 2022, he developed what he called the “finest fragrance on Earth”.
The fragrance? Burnt Hair, which supposedly smells much like it sounds! It originally retailed for $100 a bottle, and within hours of being launched, it sold out! Quite why he didn’t call it something like “The Musk of Musk” remains to be explained…
23. He’s a keen gamer.
Alongside being a big fan of science fiction, Elon Musk takes the proud geek label even further by regularly playing tabletop games and online RPGs.
Specifically, Musk is said to be a keen Diablo 4 fan, once claiming to Joe Rogan on his podcast that he was one of the world’s best players. This is yet to be fully verified – but you can’t fault his enthusiasm, at least!
As a child, Musk would reportedly thrive when playing Dungeons and Dragons – and he’s also said to be a big fan of games such as Mass Effect and Fallout.
24. The Boring Company might not be as boring as it sounds.
Another Musk business, The Boring Company, isn’t as dull as you think it might be. It’s not about selling boredom, rather, it’s about boring projects – as in, making tunnels.
Ultimately, TBC aims to relieve traffic congestion by introducing underground tunnels to road infrastructure. In particular, the firm worked on projects based in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
25. He was an entrepreneur from a young age.
While Zip2 was Musk’s first company launched, he actually created a saleable project long before then – having programmed a game called Blastar, where you fight against evil aliens with hydrogen bombs.
It netted a then 12-year old Musk a sweet $500 when offering the game over to PC and Office Technology – and the rest, as they say, is certainly history. We all have humble beginnings in one way or another!
26. X.com has been around for a long time.
X.com wasn’t always the Twitter follow-up – the domain and company was once known as the forerunner to PayPal, meaning it’s been in Musk’s portfolio for decades.
It was in 2000 when Musk oversaw a merger between Confinity and X.com, leading to the development of PayPal the year after. It was only in 2002 that PayPal would become part of the eBay family, with the auction site handing over $1.5 billion to tie the e-wallet to its services.
Neither Musk or eBay have had much to do with PayPal for quite some time. In fact, the e-wallet hasn’t even been associated with eBay since 2015.
27. Musk’s decisions regarding certain Twitter accounts was controversial.
After taking over Twitter in 2022, Musk decided to oversee layoffs and hire his own team members – and, in the name of free speech, to reinstate several banned accounts.
This, of course, included Donald Trump. Trump had used Twitter regularly to share his opinions on the running of America and, more often not, his rivals! However, following the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol Building, Twitter banned Trump outright from the platform.
Even though Musk reinstated the then-ex President, Trump would continue to prefer blogging through TRUTH Social, his own social network. That said, his account remains active on Twitter/X to this date.
28. He was faced with lawsuits during the run-up to the 2024 election.
During the 2024 US election campaign, Elon Musk, through his America PAC, offered a sweepstakes prize of $1 million each day to a single voter in each swing state. This has been met with outrage, with lawsuits mounted claiming he effectively tried to pay people to vote.
Following Trump’s successful election campaign, he revealed that Musk would be in charge of a government efficiency program. Musk advised that he would seek to remove $2 trillion from spending – at the time of writing, no one’s certain where this will come from!
FAQs about Elon Musk
Does Elon Musk own PayPal?
No – Musk held stakes in PayPal, the leading e-wallet service, but eventually sold his stake to help fund Tesla and his space exploration firm, SpaceX.
What is Elon Musk’s famous quote?
Elon Musk has made many famous quotes, many of which you've probably read on social media. His most famous quote is generally considered to be, “When something is important enough to you, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour.”
How many companies does Elon Musk own?
At the time of writing, Elon Musk owns six companies. These include Space X, X (formerly Twitter), Neuralink, Tesla, xAI, and The Boring Company.
Further reading
https://www.tesla.com/elon-musk
https://www.spacex.com/
Do you know any interesting facts about Elon Musk? Share them in the comments below!