Country of origin: South Africa
Year came to U.S.: 1992
Education: BS, Business and BS Physics, University of Pennsylvania
Businesses: PayPal (1999); SpaceX (2002); Tesla Motors (2003); OpenAI (2015); Neuralink (2016)
Headquarters: San Jose, CA (PayPal); Hawthorne, CA (SpaceX); Palo Alto, CA (Tesla Motors); San Francisco, CA (OpenAI and Neuralink)
2021 revenue: $25.4 billion (PayPal); $53.8 billion (Tesla Motors); $2.5 billion (SpaceX, estimated)
2019 revenue: $31.9 million (OpenAI)
Worldwide Employment: 30,900 (PayPal); 7,000 (SpaceX); 99,290 (Tesla Motors)
Ranked 142 (PayPal) and 65 (Tesla) in the 2022 Fortune 500
Elon Musk is a cutting-edge, serial entrepreneur born and raised in South Africa. A lifelong technologist and entrepreneur, he bought his first computer at age 10 and taught himself how to program it. He sold his first software program, a space game called Blastar, for about $500 when he was 12 years old.
Musk left South Africa at the age of 17 to avoid compulsory military service. In the book Rocketeers, Musk explained, “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.” After living near relatives in Canada, he came to the University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship where he received two degrees in business and physics. He chose to settle in the United States because, “It is where great things are possible. I am nauseatingly pro-American.”
He enrolled to pursue a PhD in energy physics at Stanford but dropped out after just two days to start his first company, called Zip2, with his brother in 1995. The company produced online content publishing software and was sold in 1999 to AltaVista for $341 million. Building on that success, Musk co-founded an online financial services company, X.com. After merging with Confinity (co-founded by immigrant entrepreneur Max Rafael Levchin), the name was changed to PayPal. In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion and spun back out as an independent public company in 2015.
Musk did not waste any time founding his third company. Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) was launched in 2002 with $100 million of his own money to develop and manufacture space launch vehicles. After becoming the first commercial company in history to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, SpaceX was awarded a $440 million contract with NASA to develop the successor to the Space Shuttle and transport American astronauts into space. Musk views space exploration as important for ensuring the long-term viability of human life, and he continues to serve as the company’s CEO and CTO.
He also is deeply concerned about climate change. That concern led him to create the electric car company, Tesla Motors, invest in and serve as chairman of photovoltaics company, SolarCity, and become a trustee of the X Prize Foundation, which promotes renewable energy technologies. He provided almost all the capital for the first two rounds of funding of Tesla Motors where he remains the CEO and product architect. He has been compared to Henry Ford for his potential impact on the auto industry. In 2019, Forbes named him America’s Most Innovative Leader. Musk is outspoken in his opinions on politics as well as tech, which has sometimes stirred controversy and raised his profile as a public figure.
In addition to climate change, Musk considers Artificial Intelligence (AI) a potential existential challenge. In 2015, he co-created OpenAI to promote and develop “friendly AI” to benefit humanity as a whole. In 2016, he launched Neuralink to develop brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers. Among other benefits, the technology could alleviate the symptoms of chronic medical conditions, like depression, epilepsy and Parkinson’s.
Musk is one of many immigrant entrepreneurs who have founded “unicorn” startups, worth over one billion dollars. Read the report Immigrants and Billion Dollar Startups to learn about more of these extraordinary foreign-born founders.
Updated July 2022
FAQs
The 10.7 million U.S. residents born in Mexico represented by far the largest immigrant group in the United States in 2022, although their number is down by about 1 million since 2010. Mexican immigrants made up 23 percent of the U.S. immigrant population in 2022, down from 29 percent in 2010.
How many legal immigrants are in the US? ›
Census estimates show 45.3 million foreign born residents in the United States as of March 2018 and 45.4 million in September 2021, the lowest three-year increase in decades.
How many immigrants came to the US by year? ›
The United States admitted an average 250,000 immigrants a year in the 1950s, 330,000 in the 1960s, 450,000 in the 1970s, 735,000 in the 1980s, and over 1 million a year since the 1990s.
What is the current state of immigration in the US? ›
About 13.9% of people in the US were foreign-born in 2022. Immigrants are more likely to be in the labor force and a married-couple family than people born in the US.
Who are the top 5 immigrants in the US? ›
The top six countries of origin among adult immigrants in the U.S. are Mexico (24%), India (6%), China (5%), the Philippines (5%), El Salvador (3%), and Vietnam (3%) although immigrants hail from countries across the world.
What city in the US has the most immigrants? ›
Top 10 U.S. Metros with the Largest and Smallest Foreign-Born Populations
| Top Ten | Largest Share |
|---|
| New York | 28.5% |
| San Diego | 23.4% |
| Houston | 22.3% |
| Washington D.C. | 21.9% |
17 more rowsSep 22, 2015
Table 39. Aliens Removed or Returned: Fiscal Years 1892 to 2019
| Year | Removals1 | Returns2 |
|---|
| 2019 | 359,885 | 171,445 |
| 2018 | 328,716 | 159,940 |
| 2017 | 287,093 | 100,695 |
| 20164 | 331,717 | 106,458 |
124 more rowsNov 27, 2023
California. California is the largest state in terms of population and has the highest percentage of immigrants.
How many immigrants get denied citizenship each year? ›
Of the applications submitted each year, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approves about 23%, denies about 2–3%, and leaves about 70% pending. This article covers the U.S. citizenship by naturalization process and statistics on that process.
What nationality are most immigrants to the US? ›
In 2021, over 60% of immigrant workers who came to the US arrived from North America. Of those immigrants, nearly 90.4% came from Mexico. Asia was the continent with the next highest number of workers immigrating to the US, accounting for about 22%, followed by Europe (9%), Africa (4%), and South America (3%).
Projected US population growth, 2022-2100
By the year 2100, the population would be 435 million in the high immigration scenario; 366 million in the main scenario; 319 million in the low scenario; and a mere 226 million in the zero immigration scenario.
What is the difference between immigrant and migrant? ›
The word migrant refers to someone who moves to other places in search of work or better living conditions. The word immigrant refers to those who have moved to foreign countries permanently for work or for better living conditions. It can be used both as a Noun and an Adjective. It is used as a Noun.
Why do migrants want to come to the US? ›
Home / Population and society / Articles / Why do immigrants come to the US? People immigrate to the US to work, reunite with family, study, or seek personal safety.
Which states are accepting immigrants? ›
10 States With the Highest Shares of Foreign-Born Residents:
- California.
- New Jersey.
- New York.
- Florida.
- Nevada.
- Massachusetts.
- Texas.
- Hawaii.
According to the United Nations, in 2019, the United States, Germany, and Saudi Arabia had the largest number of immigrants of any country, while Tuvalu, Saint Helena, and Tokelau had the lowest.
What are the 3 largest immigrant groups to the US? ›
The United States was home to 22.0 million women, 20.4 million men, and 2.5 million children who were immigrants. The top countries of origin for immigrants were Mexico (24 percent of immigrants), India (6 percent), China (5 percent), the Philippines (4.5 percent), and El Salvador (3 percent).
What nationality are the most immigrants to the US? ›
Mexico is the top origin country of the U.S. immigrant population. In 2018, roughly 11.2 million immigrants living in the U.S. were from there, accounting for 25% of all U.S. immigrants.
Who has the highest percentage of immigrants? ›
data and the Migration Policy Institute. At more than 50.6 million, the United States was home to the most international migrants by far in 2020, the most recent year for which U.N. statistics are available.
Who has the biggest immigrant populations? ›
According to the United Nations, in 2019, the United States, Germany, and Saudi Arabia had the largest number of immigrants of any country, while Tuvalu, Saint Helena, and Tokelau had the lowest.
Country of origin: South Africa