Elon Reeve Musk (/ˈiːlɒn mʌsk/; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and

conservative political figure known for his key roles in the automotive company
Tesla, Inc. and the space company SpaceX. He is also known for his ownership of X
Corp. (the company that operates the social media platform X, formerly Twitter),
and his role in the founding of the Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink, and OpenAI.
Musk is the wealthiest individual in the world; as of January 2025, Forbes
estimates his net worth to be US$426 billion.

A member of the wealthy South African Musk family, Musk was born in Pretoria and
briefly attended the University of Pretoria. At the age of 18 he immigrated to
Canada, acquiring its citizenship through his Canadian-born mother, Maye. Two years
later, he matriculated at Queen's University in Canada. Musk later transferred to
the University of Pennsylvania and received bachelor's degrees in economics and
physics. He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University but never
enrolled in classes, and with his brother Kimbal co-founded the online city guide
software company Zip2. The startup was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999.
That same year, Musk co-founded X.com, a direct bank. X.com merged with Confinity
in 2000 to form PayPal. In 2002, Musk acquired United States citizenship, and that
October eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion. Using $100 million of the money he
made from the sale of PayPal, Musk founded SpaceX, a spaceflight services company,
in 2002.

In 2004, Musk was an early investor in electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors,
Inc. (later Tesla, Inc.), providing most of the initial financing and assuming the
position of the company's chairman. He later became the product architect and, in
2008, the CEO. In 2006, Musk helped create SolarCity, a solar energy company that
was acquired by Tesla in 2016 and became Tesla Energy. In 2013, he proposed a
hyperloop high-speed vactrain transportation system. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI,
a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company. The following year Musk co-
founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company developing brain–computer interfaces,
and the Boring Company, a tunnel construction company. In 2018, the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Musk, alleging he falsely announced that he had
secured funding for a private takeover of Tesla. To settle the case, Musk stepped
down as the chairman of Tesla and paid a $20 million fine. In 2022, he acquired
Twitter for $44 billion, merged the company into his newly-created X Corp., and
rebranded the service as X the following year. In 2023, Musk founded xAI, an
artificial intelligence company.

Musk's actions and expressed views have made him a polarizing figure. He has been
criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including: COVID-19
misinformation; affirming antisemitic, homophobic and transphobic comments; and
promoting conspiracy theories. His ownership of Twitter has been controversial
because of: large employee layoffs; an increase in posts containing hate speech,
misinformation and disinformation on the service; and changes to service features,
including verification. Musk has engaged in political activities in several
countries, including as a vocal and financial supporter of U.S. president Donald
Trump, becoming the largest donor in the 2024 United States presidential election
and an informal advisor during his second presidency. In January 2025, he was
appointed by Trump as administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency
(DOGE).[citation needed]

Early life and education

Childhood and family
See also: Family of Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa's
administrative capital.[2][3] He is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.[4]
[5] His mother, Maye (née Haldeman), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan,
Canada, and raised in South Africa.[6][7][8][a] His father, Errol Musk, is a South
African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and
property developer, who partly owned a rental lodge at Timbavati Private Nature
Reserve.[14][15][16][17] Elon has a younger brother, Kimbal, a younger sister,
Tosca, as well as four paternal half-siblings.[18][19][8][20]

The Musk family was wealthy during Elon's youth.[17] Despite both Elon and Errol
previously stating that Errol was a part owner of a Zambian emerald mine,[17] in
2023, Errol recounted that the deal he made was to receive "a portion of the
emeralds produced at three small mines".[21][22] Errol was elected to the Pretoria
City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party and has
said that his children shared their father's dislike of apartheid.[2]

After his parents divorced in 1980, Elon chose to live primarily with his father.
[4][14] Elon later regretted his decision and became estranged from his father.[23]
Elon has recounted trips to a wilderness school that he described as a
"paramilitary Lord of the Flies" where "bullying was a virtue" and children were
encouraged to fight over rations.[24] In one incident, after an altercation with a
fellow pupil, Elon was thrown down concrete steps and beaten severely by the boy
and his friends, leading to him being hospitalized for his injuries.[25] Elon
described his father berating him after he was discharged from the hospital,
saying, "I had to stand for an hour as he yelled at me and called me an idiot and
told me that I was just worthless."[25] Errol denied berating Elon and claimed,
"The boy had just lost his father to suicide and Elon had called him stupid. Elon
had a tendency to call people stupid. How could I possibly blame that child?".[26]

Elon was an enthusiastic reader of books, and had attributed his success in part to
having read The Lord of the Rings, the Foundation series, and The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy.[16][27] At age ten, he developed an interest in computing and
video games, teaching himself how to program from the VIC-20 user manual.[28] At
age twelve, Elon sold his BASIC-based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology
magazine for approximately $500.[29][30]

Education
An ornate school building
Musk graduated from Pretoria Boys High School in South Africa.
Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, Bryanston High School, and then
Pretoria Boys High School, where he graduated.[31] Musk was a good but
unexceptional student, earning a 61 in Afrikaans and a B on his senior math
certification.[32] Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born
mother to avoid South Africa's mandatory military service,[33][34] which would have
forced him to participate in the apartheid regime,[2] as well as to ease his path
to immigration to the United States.[35] While waiting for his application to be
processed, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months.[36]

Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989, connected with a second cousin in

Saskatchewan,[37] and worked odd jobs including at a farm and a lumber mill.[38] In
1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.[39][40] Two years later,
he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied until 1995.[41]
Although Musk has said that he earned his degrees in 1995, the University of
Pennsylvania did not award them until 1997 – a Bachelor of Arts in physics and a
Bachelor of Science in economics from the university's Wharton School.[42][43][44]
[45][46] He reportedly hosted large, ticketed house parties to help pay for
tuition, and wrote a business plan for an electronic book-scanning service similar
to Google Books.[47]

In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley: one at energy storage startup
Pinnacle Research Institute, which investigated electrolytic supercapacitors for
energy storage, and another at Palo Alto–based startup Rocket Science Games.[48]
[49] In 1995, he was accepted to a graduate program in materials science at
Stanford University, but did not enroll.[44][42][50] Musk decided to join the
Internet boom, applying for a job at Netscape, to which he reportedly never
received a response.[51][33] The Washington Post reported that Musk lacked legal
authorization to remain and work in the United States after failing to enroll at
Stanford.[50] In response, Musk claimed he was allowed to work at that time and
that his student visa transitioned to an H1-B. According to numerous former
business associates and shareholders, Musk claimed he was on a student visa at the
time.[52]

Business career
Main article: Business career of Elon Musk

Clockwise from top:

Musk next to a Tesla Model S in 2011Musk examining F9R Dev1 debris in 2014Musk
discussing a Neuralink device in 2020Musk promoting the SpaceX Mars colonization
program with Donald Trump and other political leaders in 2024Musk during the
inauguration of the Boring test tunnel in California in 2018Musk explains Starship
capabilities to leaders of North American Aerospace Defense Command, in Colorado,
2019.Musk speaking to SpaceX employees in 2012
In 1995, Elon, co-founded what would later become known as Zip2,[53][54] later
selling the company to Compaq for $307 million in 1999.[55][56] Receiving $22
million in the process,[57] Musk used $12 million of the proceedings to co-found
the e-payment company X.com that same year.[58] In 2000, X.com merged with the
online bank Confinity.[59][60][61] In 2002, Musk received $176 million after PayPal
acquired eBay as the companies largest shareholder,[62][63] and would much later
purchase the X.com domain from Payal,[64][65] with the intention of creating an
"everything app".[66] In 2004, with an investment of $6.3 million, Musk then became
the chairman and majority shareholder of Tesla.[67][68] In 2016, Musk co-founded
the neurotechnology startup company Neuralink, with an investment of $100 million,
[69][70] followed by founding the Boring Company to construct tunnels.[58][71] In
2022, Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter, becoming the CEO of Twitter, prior
to it's rebranding to X the following year.[72]

Beginning with his involved with space exploration companies in early 2001,[73] he
founded SpaceX in 2002,[74][75] with the company attempting the first rocket launch
in 2006.[76] Since 2019,[77] SpaceX been developing Starship, a reusable, super
heavy-lift launch vehicle,[78] and in 2015, they began development of the Starlink
for satellite Internet access.[54] Having sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine in
2022,[79] Musk refused to block Russian state media on Starlink, declaring himself
"a free speech absolutist",[55][80] and later faced criticism over denying access
over Crimea.[81][82][83]

With Tesla, he assumed leadership as CEO and product architect in 2008.[84] In

2018, Musk was sued by the SEC for a tweet stating that funding had been secured
for potentially taking Tesla private,[85][b] later settling with the SEC, with Musk
steping down as Tesla chairman while remaining it's CEO.[89] In 2023, shareholders
filed a lawsuit,[56] and a jury subsequently found Musk and Tesla not liable.[90]
As of 2019, Musk was the longest-tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer
globally,[91] and under the CEO, Tesla has also constructed multiple lithium-ion
battery and electric vehicle factories, named Gigafactories.[92] By 2020, Tesla
stock has risen significantly, becoming the most valuable carmaker.[93] The
following year, Tesla became the sixth company in US to reach a valuation of $1
trillion.[94]
Twitter
Main articles: Acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk and Twitter under Elon Musk
Avatar of Elon Musk
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Twitter logo, a stylized blue bird
I made an offer
https://sec.gov/Archives/edgar...

April 14, 2022[95]

In early 2017, Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter and had questioned the
platform's commitment to freedom of speech.[96][97][98] By 2022, Musk had reached
9.2% stake in the company,[99] making him the largest shareholder.[100][c] Musk
later agreed to a deal that would appoint him to Twitter's board of directors and
prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company.[102][103] Days later,
Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter,.[100][104] By the end of April Musk
had successfully concluded his bid for approximately $44 billion.[105] This
included approximately $12.5 billion in loans and $21 billion in equity financing.
[106][107] Have back tracked on his initial decision,[108] Musk bought the company
on October 27, 2022.[109]

Avatar of Elon Musk

Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Twitter logo, a stylized blue bird
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
Yes

57.5%
No

42.5%
17,502,391 votes · Final results
December 18, 2022[110][111]
Immediately after the acquisition, Musk fired several top Twitter executives
including CEO Parag Agrawal;[109][112] Musk became the CEO instead.[113] Under Elon
Musk, Twitter instituted monthly subscription for a "blue check",[114][115][116]
and laid off a significant portion of the company's staff.[117][118] Musk lessened
content moderation and hate speech also increased on the platform after his
takeover.[119][120][121][122] In late 2022, Musk released internal documents
relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in the lead-
up to the 2020 presidential election.[123] Musk also promised to step down as CEO
after a Twitter poll,[124][125] and five months later, Musk stepped down from chief
executive officer (CEO) and transitioned his role to executive chairman and chief
technology officer (CTO).[126] Despite Musk stepping down as CEO, X continues to
struggle with challenges such as viral misinformation,[127] hate speech, and
antisemitism controversies.[128][129]

Other activities
Main article: Other activities of Elon Musk
Musk seated on a stage
Musk at a tech conference hosted at the Yellowstone Club in March 2024
Musk is president of the Musk Foundation he founded in 2001,[130][131] whose stated
purpose is to provide solar-power energy systems in disaster areas, with an
interest in human space exploration, pediatrics, renewable energy, and "safe
artificial intelligence".[132] From 2002 to 2018, the foundation donated nearly
half of it's $25 million directly to Musk's Opan AI.[133][134] Musk is committed to
the Giving Pledge, intended to give the majority of his wealth to charitable causes
either during his lifetime or in his will,[135] and as of 2020, has given away less
than 1% of his net worth.[136] The foundations assets reached $9.4 billion by the
end of 2021.[137]

In August 2013, Musk announced plans for a version of a vactrain and assigned
engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to design a transport system between to be built
between Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of
$6 billion.[138] [139] Later that year, Musk unveiled the concept, dubbed the
Hyperloop,[140] intended to make travel cheaper than any other mode of transport
for such long distances.[141]

In December 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence

(AI) research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence , intended
to be safe and beneficial to humanity,[142] Musk pledged $1 billion of funding to
the company.[143] and as of 2023, he has donated approximately $50 million.[144] In
2018, Musk left the OpenAI board,[145] and since then, OpenAI has made significant
advances in machine learning by producing neural networks.[146] In July 2023, Musk
launched the artificial intelligence company xAI, which aims to develop a
generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like ChatGPT. The
company hired engineers from Google and OpenAI.[147] and Musk obtained funding from
investors in SpaceX and Tesla.[148]

In July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a mini-submarine to assist
the rescue of children trapped in a flooded cavern in Thailand,[149] built by
engineers from SpaceX and the Boring Company,[150][151] however it was not
practical for the rescue mission.[149][152] In March 2019, Musk was one of the 187
people who received various honors conferred by the King of Thailand for
involvement in the rescue effort.[153] In September, Unsworth filed a defamation
suit seeking $190 million in damages.[154][155][156] Musk apologized and in
December the jury ruled that Musk was not liable for the claim.[157][158]

After 2020, thousands of acres of land just outside Austin, Texas, were acquired by
Musk and his companies with a total value of $2.5 billion.[159][160] The project to
build the company town named Snailbrook in Bastrop County, Texas began in 2021,
[161] and There are plans to establish a school and a university there.[159]

Private jet
Main articles: ElonJet and 2022 Twitter suspensions
Avatar of Elon Musk
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Twitter logo, a stylized blue bird
Same doxxing rules apply to "journalists" as to everyone else

December 16, 2022[162]

Musk uses a private jet owned by Falcon Landing LLC, a SpaceX-linked company, and
acquired a second jet in August 2020.[163][164] His heavy use of the jets and the
consequent fossil fuel usage have received criticism.[163][165] Musk's flight usage
is tracked on social media through ElonJet.[166][167][168] In December 2022, Musk
banned the ElonJet account on Twitter, as well as temporary bans on the accounts of
journalists that posted stories regarding the incident, including Donie O'Sullivan,
Keith Olbermann, and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN,
and The Intercept.[169]

Wealth
This paragraph is an excerpt from Wealth of Elon Musk.[edit]
Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of
US$436 billion as of January 22, 2025, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires
Index,[170] and $426 billion according to Forbes,[171] primarily from his ownership
stakes in Tesla, Inc. and SpaceX.[172] In November 2021, he became the first person
in the world to have a net worth above $300 billion, and in December 2024, he
became the first person to reach a net worth of $400 billion.[173]
Views
Main article: Views of Elon Musk
Avatar of Elon Musk
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Twitter logo, a stylized blue bird
My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my
plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk

November 6, 2022[174]
Musk has often been described as libertarian,[175] but described himself as
"politically moderate" until 2022.[176] Following the COVID-19 pandemic, his views
have also been described as becoming more right-wing and conservative over time,
sometimes being described as far-right.[177] Within the context of American
politics, Musk supported Barack Obama in 2008[178] and 2012, Hillary Clinton in
2016, Joe Biden in 2020, and Donald Trump in 2024.[179] In 2022, Musk said he would
start voting for Republican Party candidates,[180] with him showing support for
Vivek Ramaswamy in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.[181] He has stated
support for universal basic income,[182] gun rights,[183] freedom of speech,[184]
and a tax on carbon emissions, and he opposes government subsidies.[185][186] He is
also a critic of illegal immigration[187][188] and short-selling.[189]

Musk has expressed concern about issues such as artificial intelligence (AI),
climate change and population decline. He has also criticized COVID-19 lockdowns,
public transportation, and labor unions.[190] He has promoted conspiracy theories,
and made controversial statements that have led to accusations of sexism,
antisemitism,[191][192] support of white pride and transphobia.[193][194] His views
on international relations, including on the China-Taiwan and Russia-Ukraine
conflicts, have received mixed reactions.

Politics
Main article: Political activities of Elon Musk

This article may benefit from being shortened by the use of summary style. Summary
style may involve the splitting of sections of text to one or more sub-topic
articles which are then summarized in the main article.

Musk with then-president-elect Donald Trump in November 2024

Musk is an outlier among executives who typically avoid partisan political
advocacy.[195][196][197] By early 2024, Musk had become a vocal and financial
supporter of Donald Trump.[198] He was his largest individual 2024 presidential
campaign donor and largest individual donor of the 2024 election.[199]

While previously considered relatively apolitical and moderate, Musk has shifted to
the right and become more vocal about his views, notably since acquiring Twitter in
2022,[200] and his views are now generally described as right-wing and
conservative.[201][202][203][204][205] He has shared far-right misinformation[206]
[207][208] and numerous conspiracy theories.[209][210] Despite this, he still
describes himself as politically moderate, rejecting the conservative label.[211]

Musk was a registered independent voter when he lived in California.[212]

Historically, he has donated to both Democrats and Republicans,[213] many of whom
serve in states in which he has a vested interest.[214] Beginning in the late
2010s, his political contributions have shifted almost entirely to supporting
Republicans.[215]
Musk voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election.[216] In the
2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Musk endorsed candidate Andrew Yang
and expressed support for his proposed universal basic income.[217] He also
endorsed Kanye West's 2020 presidential campaign.[218] He voted for Joe Biden in
the 2020 US presidential election.[219]

In May 2022, Musk said that he could "no longer support" the Democrats, arguing
they are the "party of division & hate",[220][221] and wrote a tweet encouraging
"independent-minded voters" to vote Republican in the 2022 US elections.[222][223]
That fall he gave over $50 million to Citizens for Sanity, a conservative political
action committee that ran advertisements in swing states attacking Democrats on
issues such as transgender care and illegal immigration.[224] He supported
Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 US presidential election, giving $10 million
to the campaign in 2023,[224] and hosted DeSantis's campaign announcement on a
Twitter Spaces event.[225][226][227] In August 2023, Musk suggested Republican
presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy should be the vice presidential candidate on
the Republican ticket.[228]

After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Musk wished Trump a speedy
recovery and endorsed him for president.[229][230] In a July 2024 post on X, Musk
shared a deepfake video of Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's opponent in the
2024 presidential election, which appeared to show Harris saying she was the
"ultimate diversity hire" and did not know how to manage the United States.[231]
Musk wrote that the video was "amazing" and did not reveal that it was edited,
despite X prohibiting "synthetic, manipulated" content "that may deceive".[231]

In August 2024, Musk and Trump spoke for over two hours on a livestream on X, in
which Musk suggested that Trump create a government efficiency commission which he
offered to serve on.[232] Trump said he would "love" to have Musk involved and
later said he needed Musk's help to eliminate the Department of Education.[232] On
September 15, 2024, after the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Musk
wrote on X that it was odd that nobody had tried to kill Biden or Harris.[233]
After widespread condemnation, he deleted the post,[233] but the United States
Secret Service said it was opening a probe.[234]

In October 2024, Musk joined Trump on stage at a campaign rally.[235] In November

2024, news media described how Musk was "sharing and posting demonstrably false
anti-Harris disinformation to his 200 million followers"[236] on X and promoting
conspiracy theories and falsehoods about Democrats, election fraud[236] and
immigration in support of Trump.[237][238]

After becoming president-elect, Trump announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would
run a new Department of Government Efficiency, and advisory commission to the
President.[239] Musk was described as derailing a December 2024 continuing
resolution bill to fund the government by posting numerous false and misleading
claims about the bill's content on his X account, including false claims of it
funding bioweapons labs and requiring vaccine mandates.[240]

Musk opposes a "billionaire tax",[241] and has argued on Twitter with more left-
leaning Democratic politicians such as Bernie Sanders,[242][243] Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez,[244] and Elizabeth Warren.[245] He has criticized the Black Lives Matter
protests, particularly regarding the authenticity of the phrase "Hands up, don't
shoot".[246][247] Musk promoted a baseless theory relating to the attack of Speaker
Nancy Pelosi's husband, but later deleted the tweet.[248] He also used X to spread
disinformation and election conspiracy theories about the Federal Emergency
Management Agency's relief efforts for Hurricane Helene.[249] Georgia Secretary of
State Brad Raffensperger requested that X remove a fabricated video purporting to
show a Haitian immigrant who had voted multiple times. Musk complied, but the video
had already gone viral.[250]
In December 2024, Musk expressed support for the H-1B visa program, which allows
the hiring of highly-skilled foreign workers, especially by the technology
companies in the United States, while some far-right activists such as Laura Loomer
opposed it on X.[251][252][253]

Department of Government Efficiency

Main article: Department of Government Efficiency
Then, US president-elect Donald Trump announced on November 12, 2024, that Musk
would become an inaugural leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),
a governmental advisory body that will "slash excess regulations [and] cut wasteful
expenditures".[254][255] During the Trump campaign, Musk said he would reduce
federal outlays by $2 trillion. After the election, he stated $2 trillion would be
a best-case scenario, but he had a "good shot" at cutting $1 trillion.[256] He has
not specified the timeframe over which the cuts might occur; budget experts
generally assess fiscal matters over a 10-year budget window.[257]

Vivek Ramaswamy was initially named as a coleader.[254][255] Musk advocated for the
DOGE to operate as a small team within the federal government, while Ramaswamy
envisioned it as an outside nongovernmental organization. Musk also differed from
Ramaswamy in wanting a technology and data-driven approach to cut spending, whereas
Ramaswamy pushed for regulatory reforms in statute.[258]

On January 20, 2025, a Trump executive order established the U.S. DOGE Service
Temporary Organization, set to expire on July 4, 2026, under the jurisdiction of
the United States DOGE Service, in the Executive Office of the President.[259] Musk
was appointed as sole administrator of the organization after Ramaswamy departed
the Trump administration. Musk said that his role as the head of the DOGE would be
unpaid.[260][261][262] The executive order tasked the DOGE with modernizing
governmental information technology to "maximize governmental efficiency and
productivity".[259]

Musk was given office space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, with about
20 people working for the DOGE in the main office. The DOGE will also have teams of
at least 4 people in each federal agency to implement the DOGE agenda. The DOGE
agency teams would have "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records,
software systems, and IT systems", allowing Musk to use expertise from his business
ventures to achieve his aims. Musk was authorized to recruit outside volunteer
experts to staff the DOGE.[258][256][260] Prior to the setup of government offices,
Musk initially staffed the DOGE effort by scouting his businesses for talent, with
SpaceX's Washington, D.C. offices being used to house dozens of employees working
on DOGE initiatives.[258]

Conservative PAC activities

In 2022, Musk provided over $50 million to fund Citizens for Sanity, a conservative
political action committee (PAC) created by former Trump senior advisor Steven
Miller to finance $93 million in advertisements related to culture war issues. The
New York Times and OpenSecrets reported in October 2024 that some of Musk's
donations were routed through Building America's Future, a non-profit organization
and the hub of a dark money network supporting Trump. The organization created
"Progress 2028", which promoted misinformation about the agenda of Democratic
presidential candidate Harris, and was presented as the left's response to Project
2025, Musk has also promoted the Fair Election Fund, which is heavily funded by
Building America's Future, and offers rewards for evidence of election fraud. That
organization is heavily involved in America PAC, which is founded and funded
exclusively by Musk.[263][264][265][266][267] In October 2024, a Federal Election
Commission filing showed that Musk contributed almost $75 million to his America
PAC during the previous three months, and during that time, the PAC spent
approximately $72 million to support Trump's campaign.[268][269]
In October 2024, Musk promoted a sweepstakes conducted by his America PAC, offering
to pay $1 million per day to randomly selected registered voters in battleground
states who signed a petition pledging support of the First and Second Amendments.
Within days the U.S. Justice Department wrote America PAC warning that the
sweepstakes might be illegal. Compensating people to register to vote violates
federal law, and although registering to vote was not a condition to signing the
petition, some legal analysts said the sweepstakes might induce people to register
in order to participate. Musk's defenders said signing the petition did not
specifically induce people to register, although he had previously said registering
voters was one of his goals in Pennsylvania and had begun describing prize winners
as America PAC "spokespeople".[270][271] After receiving the Justice Department's
warning, Musk awarded two people $1 million each.[272] On October 28, Philadelphia
District Attorney Larry Krasner, sued Musk and America PAC.[273] Although Musk had
originally said that the prize would be "randomly" awarded, his lawyer argued that
recipients "earn" the money after being "selected based on their suitability to
serve as spokesperson for America PAC". After an all-day hearing on November 4, the
day before Election Day, the judge ruled that Musk could continue his daily
giveaway.[274] On Election Day, Arizona resident Jacqueline McAferty filed a $5
million class action lawsuit against Musk and his PAC, arguing that she and others
would not have signed the petition and provided her personal information had they
known they had no chance of winning the prize.[275]

On October 16, 2024, Musk created and contributed $20.5 million as the sole donor
to an "RBG PAC" that used the initials and name of former Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg to try to convince voters that Trump would not sign a national
abortion ban.[276] The PAC was formed the day after it would be required to
disclose its donors before the election.[277]

On December 6, 2024, The Washington Post reported that Musk had donated $277
million to Trump and allied Republicans, making him the single largest individual
political donor in the 2024 election and the largest donor since at least 2010, not
counting candidates who funded their own campaigns, according to data from
OpenSecrets. The Post described Musk as being referred to by some Republicans as
"the Soros of the right".[199]

International politics
Alongside his direct involvement in US politics, Musk frequently comments and is
active within the politics of various countries and international bodies, where he
has frequently shared support for right-wing to far-fight political ideas,[278]
[279] and has been sometimes accused internationally of spreading conspiracy
theories and misinformation.[280][281][282][283] He frequently shares his political
views on international po