Photograph of Elon Musk speaking at the U.S. Air Force Academy — Musk at the U.S. Air Force Academy, photograph by Justin Pacheco (public domain, U.S. federal work, via Wikimedia Commons).

CREW MANIFEST

People

The record is never one person. Eighteen people who shaped it.

Maye Musk

Mother — model and dietitian; raised Elon and his siblings in South Africa and later Canada. Public figure in her own right (cover model, author of A Woman Makes a Plan, 2019).

Errol Musk

Father — South African engineer and businessman. His accounts of the family’s wealth and of his own business interests conflict with his son’s; both are examined on Mythology vs. Record.

Kimbal Musk

Younger brother — co-founded Zip2 with Elon in 1995; later a restaurateur and philanthropist. Sits on the Tesla and SpaceX boards.

Tosca Musk

Younger sister — filmmaker and founder of the streaming service Passionflix.

Justine Wilson (Justine Musk)

First wife (2000–2008); Canadian author. Mother of six of Musk’s children, including twins and triplets.

Talulah Riley

British actress; married to Musk twice (2010–2012, 2013–2016).

Grimes (Claire Boucher)

Canadian musician; partner of Musk 2018–2022. Mother of three of his children. Public custody proceedings have been reported.

Shivon Zilis

Neuralink executive; mother of several of Musk’s children (twins reported 2021, a third child 2024). Her role bridges his family and company records.

Peter Thiel

Co-founder of Confinity; PayPal’s CEO after Musk’s 2000 ouster. Later a prominent Musk ally and investor; the two are routinely paired in the “PayPal Mafia” narrative.

Max Levchin

Confinity co-founder and PayPal’s chief technology officer; part of the early PayPal leadership alongside Musk.

Gwynne Shotwell

President and COO of SpaceX (joined 2002). Widely credited with running SpaceX’s business operations while Musk leads engineering — the partnership at the center of the company’s execution record.

Tom Mueller

SpaceX’s founding propulsion CTO; designed the Merlin and Kestrel engines that powered Falcon 1 and Falcon 9.

JB Straubel

Tesla co-founder (2004) and longtime CTO; architect of Tesla’s battery and powertrain technology. Left in 2019; founded the battery-recycling company Redwood Materials.

Martin Eberhard

Tesla Motors co-founder (2003) and first CEO; departed in 2007 after conflict with Musk. Party to the 2009 settlement over the “co-founder” title.

Franz von Holzhausen

Tesla’s chief designer since 2008; designed the Model S, 3, X, Y, Cybertruck, and Semi.

Steve Jurvetson

Venture capitalist (Draper Fisher Jurvetson); early Tesla and SpaceX board member and investor. Photographer of several widely used Musk portraits (including this site’s 2015 hero image).

Jared Birchall

Musk’s longtime wealth manager and head of his family office; CEO of Neuralink and chairman of the Musk Foundation’s operations.

Noland Arbaugh

The first Neuralink human-implant recipient (January 2024). A quadriplegic since a 2016 diving accident, he has publicly demonstrated controlling computers by thought — the public face of Neuralink’s human trials.

Source notes

Profiles summarize the public record (corporate filings, company announcements, published interviews, court records). Private matters are limited to what is documented. For wealth and family disputes, see Controversies and Mythology vs. Record.