Elon Musk

1971 – present · age 55^[1][2]

Business & Industry

Fun Facts About Elon Musk

• Elon Musk started SpaceX after two unsuccessful trips to Moscow trying to buy intercontinental ballistic missiles to launch plant-growing payloads to Mars.^[1]
• At age 12, Musk sold a video game he had programmed, Blastar, to a computer magazine for about $500.^[1]
• Tesla was incorporated in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk was designated a co-founder by a 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard.^[1]
• To impress investors in his first company, Zip2, Musk built a large plastic structure around a standard computer so it looked like a small supercomputer.^[1]
• After moving to Canada in 1989, Musk worked odd jobs on a farm and at a lumber mill, and in college he reportedly hosted ticketed house parties to pay tuition.^[1]
• Musk has partly credited his success to reading The Lord of the Rings, the Foundation series and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.^[1][3][4]
• Elon Musk was alive at the same time as Pablo Picasso — their lives overlapped for 2 years (1971–1973).^[1][2][5][6]
• Elon Musk shares a birthday with Jean-Jacques Rousseau: both were born on June 28.^[1][2][7][8]

Elon Reeve Musk is a businessman and entrepreneur known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and xAI. Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025; as of February 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth to be around US$852 billion.^[1]

Contemporaries

Noam Chomsky

55 yr overlap

Wole Soyinka

55 yr overlap

Dalai Lama

55 yr overlap

Woody Allen

55 yr overlap

Francis Ford Coppola

55 yr overlap

Bob Dylan

55 yr overlap

Billie Jean King

55 yr overlap

Aung San Suu Kyi

55 yr overlap

Steven Spielberg

55 yr overlap

Oprah Winfrey

55 yr overlap

Rigoberta Menchú

55 yr overlap

Ai Weiwei

55 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Elon Musk

When was Elon Musk born?

Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971, and is alive today.

How old is Elon Musk?

Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971, and turned 55 on June 28, 2026.

What is Elon Musk known for?

Elon Musk is known for: Tesla, SpaceX, tech entrepreneur. Elon Reeve Musk is a businessman and entrepreneur known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and xAI. Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025; as of February 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth to be around US$852 billion.

Who was alive at the same time as Elon Musk?

Elon Musk's closest contemporary was Noam Chomsky. Their lives overlapped for 55 years.