The meteoric rise of Elon Musk — from South Africa to US White House, we profile world’s richest man

United States President-elect Donald Trump last week appointed billionaire CEO Elon Musk and Indian-American pharma executive Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, dubbed 'DOGE'

"Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies — essential to the 'Save America' movement," Trump said in a statement.

Musk to Head ‘DOGE’

Known for his groundbreaking work in space exploration, Musk has backed Trump, donating millions to his campaign and making public appearances with the former president. Trump had previously stated that he would offer Musk a prominent role in his administration to help drive efforts aimed at improving government efficiency.

The acronym of the new department, DOGE, is strikingly similar to the name of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin that Musk promotes.

"This will send shockwaves through the system and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!" Musk said, according to Trump's statement, which called the new government initiative “potentially 'The Manhattan Project' of our time,” referring to the US plan to build the atomic bomb that helped end World War Two.

The Meteoric Rise of Elon Musk — Who is he?

Thus, we take a look at Musk's meteoric rise from his birthplace in South Africa to immigrating to the US, starting his companies, becoming the world's richest man, and now nabbing a key role in the US government and his place in Donald Trump's White House.

Musk has made a name for himself as CEO of electric vehicle company Tesla, space exploration company SpaceX and social media platform X. He also owns the Boring Company, satellite internet provider Starlink and chip tech company Neuralink.

Besides this, Musk was an early investor in ChatGPT maker OpenAI and several other Silicon Valley tech companies, such as Zip2 and X.com (which went on to form PayPal).

He is the world's richest man, worth over $313 billion, largely due to his stock value in Tesla, as per the Bloomberg Billionaire Index (BBI) on November 16, 2024. He has held the position ahead of Amazon owner Jeff Bezos since 2021.

Early Years in South Africa

Born in Pretoria, South Africa, on June 28, 1971, Elon Reeve Musk was the oldest of three children, according to an Investopedia report. His father, Errol Musk, is a retired engineer, politician, and businessman in South Africa. His mother, Maye Musk, is a Canadian model and nutritionist, the report added.

Musk lived in South Africa with his father after his parents' divorce in 1980, but in later interviews, he called him a "terrible human being." He attended the Waterkloof House Preparatory School and graduated from the Pretoria Boys High School. Musk has said in interviews that he was a bookworm with few friends and was bullied.

Move to North America

A little-known fact about Musk is that before moving to the US, he spent some time studying in Canada, as per the report. Later, he joined the University of Pennsylvania in the US, where he studied physics and business, it added.

He moved to Canada at 17 and obtained citizenship through his mother. He enrolled at Queen’s University, Ontario, where he met his wife, Justine Wilson. The couple had six children together, including an eldest son, who died after birth, before divorcing in 2008. Musk and Wilson's surviving five children include twins and triplets.

Musk was later also married and divorced twice to Talulah Riley from 2018-22, and has been in a relationship with Canadian singer Grimes (real name Claire Elise Boucher), with whom he has three children. He also has twins with Neuralink employee Shivon Zilis.

Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania two years after joining the Ontario school and graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics. He also holds a second bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School.

At 24 years of age, Musk moved to California to pursue a PhD in applied physics at Stanford University but instead headed towards Silicon Valley after two days amid a booming internet space, the report added.

Timeline of Companies

• 1995 - Started web software company Zip2 with younger brother Kimbal with $15,000.
• 1999 - Zip2 was acquired by Compaq Computer Corporation for $307 million in cash and $34 million worth of stock options. Musk used his share to create fintech company X.com. The startup merged with money transfer platform Confinity to create what became PayPal.

Musk said in a 2018 interview that he made $180 million from his 11.7 per cent stake in PayPal when eBay bought it. He added that he reinvested $100 million from the PayPal proceeds into SpaceX, $70 million into Tesla, and $10 million into SolarCity.

• 2002 - Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX. The company now has several contracts with the US government.
• 2004 - Musk was an early investor in Tesla, contributing $6.3 million when he joined the team in 2004. SolarCity is now a subsidiary of Tesla and produces rechargeable solar batteries and other solar power equipment.
• 2022 - Musk acquired the microblogging site Twitter for $46 billion and rebranded it to X. Even before buying the social media platform Musk disclosed a 9.2 per cent stake in March 2022.
• 2024/25 - Co-Head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the second Donald Trump administration (Trump 2.0).