FLIGHT LOG · CHRONOLOGICAL
Timeline
Every major event in the record, earliest to latest. Dates from documented sources.
Born in Pretoria, South Africa
Elon Reeve Musk is born to Errol and Maye Musk.
Blastar
At age 12, sells the video game he wrote, Blastar, to PC and Office Technology for a reported $500.
Moves to Canada
Emigrates to Canada on his mother's citizenship; enrolls at Queen's University, Ontario.
University of Pennsylvania
Transfers to UPenn; graduates with degrees in physics and economics.
Zip2 founded
Co-founds Zip2 with brother Kimbal. Two-day Stanford PhD stint ends as the internet boom pulls him in.
Zip2 sold to Compaq — $307M
Musk receives a reported $22 million for his stake.
X.com founded
Founds the online bank X.com.
X.com merges with Confinity
The merged company becomes PayPal; Musk is ousted as CEO later that year.
Mars Oasis and the Russia trips
Joins the Mars Society; travels to Russia to buy ICBMs for a Mars greenhouse project. No deal.
SpaceX founded
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is incorporated.
PayPal sold to eBay — $1.5B
Musk, largest shareholder, receives a reported ~$180 million.
Invests in Tesla Motors
Leads the $6.5M Series A; joins as chairman.
"The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan"
Publishes the famous blog post: build sports car → affordable car → even more affordable car.
SolarCity funded
Cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive found SolarCity with Musk's backing.
Tesla CEO; both companies nearly die
Musk becomes Tesla CEO in October. Roadster deliveries begin. Both companies run near-broke through the financial crisis.
NASA awards SpaceX $1.6B
The Commercial Resupply Services contract — plus a successful fourth Falcon 1 launch the day before — saves SpaceX.
Tesla IPO
Raises $226 million; the first U.S. auto IPO since Ford in 1956.
Dragon reaches the ISS
First commercial spacecraft to berth with the International Space Station.
Hyperloop Alpha published
Releases the open-source Hyperloop concept paper; declines to build it himself.
"We should be very careful about artificial intelligence"
The MIT AeroAstro Centennial Symposium talk that made his AI warnings famous. See [AI Views](/ai-views).
OpenAI co-founded; Falcon 9 lands
Co-founds OpenAI (nonprofit at launch). On December 21, a Falcon 9 first stage lands at LZ-1 — the first orbital-class booster landing.
Neuralink founded
The brain-computer interface company (kept quiet until 2017).
Tesla acquires SolarCity — $2.6B
The solar company is folded into Tesla.
The Boring Company founded
Born from a traffic-jam tweet: "Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…"
Model 3 deliveries begin
The mass-market push starts; "production hell" follows.
Falcon Heavy test flight
A Tesla Roadster (Musk's own) is launched toward a heliocentric orbit; the two side boosters land in formation.
Leaves the OpenAI board
Citing a conflict of interest as Tesla's AI work grows.
"Funding secured"
The infamous tweet. SEC charges follow; September 29, 2018 settlement: $20M fine for Musk, $20M for Tesla, and Musk steps down as chairman for three years.
Neuralink revealed
The first public Neuralink presentation.
Cybertruck unveiled
The armored-glass demo goes wrong on stage.
Crew Dragon Demo-2
First crewed commercial orbital spaceflight — NASA astronauts to the ISS.
Hosts Saturday Night Live
Publicly discloses his Asperger's diagnosis on air.
World's richest person (briefly, repeatedly)
Forbes and Bloomberg rankings fluctuate with Tesla and SpaceX valuations.
Buys Twitter for $44B
"The bird is freed." Closes the deal after months of litigation threats.
Neuralink wins FDA approval for human trials
After a reported earlier rejection, the FDA clears first-in-human studies.
Twitter becomes X; xAI launches
The bird logo is retired. xAI is announced on July 12.
Grok announced
xAI's AI model is revealed to X Premium+ subscribers.
First Neuralink human implant
Patient Noland Arbaugh receives the implant; later demos include chess played by thought.
Endorses Trump for president
Public endorsement after the assassination attempt; he becomes a major campaign donor and surrogate.
Booster catch at Starbase
Starship Flight Test 5: the Super Heavy booster is caught by the launch tower's "chopsticks."
Leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
Heads the Trump administration's cost-cutting initiative as a "special government employee"; departs in May 2025.
xAI acquires X
All-stock deal valuing xAI at $80B and X at $33B (reported figures).
Source notes
Dates from company filings and press releases (Tesla, SpaceX, NASA), SEC filings, published interviews and presentations, and the bibliography on sources. Where dates differ between accounts, the most-documented date is used and the dispute flagged.