Early Life

Musk was born and raised in South Africa, the son of a South African engineer and a Canadian mother who worked as a nutritionist and model. Musk bought his first computer at age 10 and taught himself how to program;^[2] by the age of 12 he sold his first commercial software for about $500, a space game called Blastar.^[2]

After matriculating at Pretoria Boys High School he left home in 1988 at the age of 17, without his parents' support and in part because of the prospect of compulsory service in the South African military: "I don't have an issue with serving in the military per se, but serving in the South African army suppressing black people just didn't seem like a really good way to spend time."^[2] He wanted to move to the US, saying: "It is where great things are possible."^[3]

His mother was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and many of his relatives reside in western Canada, so Musk immigrated there in June 1989.^[4]

He left Canada in 1992 after getting a scholarship to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. From the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, he received an undergraduate degree, and stayed on another year to finish a second bachelor's degree in physics.^[5] His undergraduate degrees behind him, and drawing inspiration from innovators such as Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla;^[6] Musk then considered three areas he wanted to get into that were "important problems", as he said later, "One was the Internet, one was clean energy, and one was space.".^[2] Musk's fortune was estimated at US$328 million in 2005.