20 Surprising Facts About Elon Musk

Elon Musk is an outspoken and charismatic CEO, a role that is rarely seen as flashy at most companies. Then again, most companies aren’t electric car pioneers like Tesla or space exploration companies like SpaceX. 

Despite Musk’s fame, there are things you likely do not know about the (sometimes) world’s richest person. Here are 20 of them.

At a dire time in Tesla’s history, Musk reached out to Google CEO Larry Page about buying the failing car company, according to Ashlee Vance's book "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future."

The two allegedly initially agreed in 2013 to a sale price of $6 billion, but it never came to be.

Musk lasted two days at Stanford before dropping out of school. He was there initially to pursue a doctorate in physics.

Instead, he left the school to start up his first company, Zip2, which he sold four years later for more than $300 million.

In 2013, Musk bought a Lotus Esprit for almost $1 million. Why so much? Because it was a 1976 version that had been fixed up to become an underwater car for James Bond in the movie “The Spy Who Loved Me.”

Musk later admitted that he used the car for inspiration when designing his Tesla Cybertruck.

Musk has ten living children — five with his ex-wife Justine, three with the musician Grimes, and two with Neuralink director of operations and special projects Shivon Zilis. He also had a son, Nevada, who died of SIDS in 2002.

In an interview with "The Wall Street Journal" in 2021, he said civilization is going to crumble if people don’t have more children. “I'm trying to set a good example. Yeah. Got to practice what I preach,” he said.

Yes, Musk has an IMDb page. His first cameo was in the 2010 movie “Iron Man 2” and he played himself on TV’s “The Big Bang Theory.”

And if live-action isn’t your thing, Musk has also become a cartoon version of himself in “The Simpsons,” “South Park,” and “Rick and Morty.”

When Robert Downey Jr. was preparing for his role as Tony Stark in “Iron Man,” he turned to Musk for some inspiration.

The two men met and Musk helped Downey add some mannerisms to his version of Stark that made the movies extra exciting.

Musk was born in South Africa and lived there until he was 17. His family then moved to Canada, and he started his collegiate career at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Musk co-founded X.com, an online bank that merged with another company to form PayPal. The ecommerce company eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion. Musk, who was one of PayPal’s largest shareholders, made at least $175 million on the deal.

There's no doubt that Musk’s ventures have made him very, very rich. But whether he's the richest person in the world is up for debate. 

While he has sat at the top of such lists, he's prone to falling out of the top spot when Tesla's stock dips. He currently has an estimated wealth of more than $248 billion. Yes, billion.

Musk’s most successful venture may be Tesla, but the company wasn’t his idea. Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning founded the company in 2003 and brought Musk and his money aboard a year later.

Musk invested $6.35 million in Tesla’s first round of venture funding in 2004. He’s now CEO of the company.

Musk created SpaceX in 2002 and the aerospace company now launches spacecraft to the International Space Station with both supplies and astronauts.

Musk was able to start the company with $100 million he earned when eBay acquired PayPal.

SolarCity was founded in 2006 by two of Musk’s cousins, Peter and Lyndon Rive, and Musk invested $10 million into the company early on. He also held a seat on the company’s board.

Tesla eventually acquired the solar company in 2016 for $2.6 billion and rebranded it as Tesla Energy.

Musk’s son Xavier has a special inspiration for his name: Comic book character Professor Xavier of Marvel’s X-Men. “One of my sons is named Xavier, after Professor X!” he confirmed in a 2017 tweet.

The tech mogul has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a milder form of autism with characteristics such as a detailed focus on topics of interest and difficulty with social interactions.

In 2022, he described growing up with the syndrome: “I think everyone's experience is going to be somewhat different, but I guess for me, the social cues were not intuitive. I was just very bookish and I didn't understand these.”

Maye Musk is currently a model and has the distinction of being the oldest "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit cover model. She was 74 years old when she made this year’s cover.

She’s also a model for the Covergirl makeup brand.

Musk made headlines when he made an offer to buy Twitter in 2022, tried to back out, and then ended up with it (and then renaming it "X"), but the social networking site isn’t a recent interest of his.

He actually joined Twitter in June 2009, and there have been many of Musk’s infamous tweets to review in the years since.

No, The Boring Company isn’t some dull venture. It’s actually a company that’s finding a way to bore tunnels underground that can transport people and goods more quickly than surface roads with traffic.

Musk’s wealth is based on stocks and his ownership of companies. But how much does he actually make as CEO of Tesla? According to a company statement, he takes no salary.

In 2018, SpaceX launched one of its Falcon Heavy rockets into space with a very unusual cargo: a Tesla Roadster. The car was purchased by Musk and is currently still floating in space.

When Musk was 12 years old, he created the video game Blastar. He ended up selling it to a computer magazine in 1984 for $500.

Elon Musk is an interesting character and entrepreneur. Investors and non-investors alike have to be ready for everything from Musk’s comments about politics, how to prepare for the next recession, and his musings on anything else.