Before the trillions: Why Elon Musk walked away from South Africa

Before Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire and built an empire spanning rockets, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, and satellite technology, he was a teenager growing up in apartheid era South Africa with his eyes fixed on a future thousands of kilometres away.

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For years, a widely repeated claim suggested that Musk left South Africa in 1989 to avoid compulsory military service under the apartheid government. But his father, Errol Musk, has rejected that explanation, arguing that his son’s departure was driven by a different ambition, a desire to build his future in the United States and concerns about where South Africa was heading.

“He could have used that story, or somebody else may have used that story for Elon leaving South Africa,” Errol Musk said during an interview with Conversations with Lelethu.

“However, it is nonsense. It had nothing to do with that. It had nothing whatsoever to do with it.”

Elon Musk was born in Pretoria in June 1971 to Errol Musk, an electromechanical engineer, and Maye Musk, a model and dietitian. He attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School and Bryanston High School, where he experienced severe bullying.

In one incident, he was badly beaten and spent two weeks recovering in a hospital in Sandton. His father later recalled that his injuries were so serious that he did not recognise his son.

Following the incident, Musk transferred to Pretoria Boys High School, where he excelled academically and graduated with distinctions in physical science and computer science.

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At the age of 17, he took a computer aptitude test at the University of Pretoria. According to JLM Wiechers, the university’s former director of information management, Musk achieved exceptional results, scoring A-plus grades in computer programming and computer operations.

Musk briefly attended the University of Pretoria for about five months in 1989 while waiting for his Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother.

At the time, South Africa required young white men to complete military service, and many reports later suggested that this was the reason behind his departure. Errol Musk, however, insisted that politics and uncertainty about South Africa’s future played a greater role.

“People were frightened about the future of South Africa at that time, especially around the state of emergencies in the 1980s,” he said.

“They were very afraid of a black government. It is no use pretending. People were terrified of what a black government would mean.”

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He added that Elon’s decision was also shaped by his lifelong fascination with America, particularly Silicon Valley, where he believed the greatest opportunities for technology entrepreneurs existed.

After arriving in Canada, Musk studied at Queen’s University in Ontario before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned degrees in physics and economics.

He later moved to California to pursue a doctorate at Stanford University but left after only two days to enter the booming internet industry.

In 1995, he co-founded Zip2, a software company that was sold four years later for more than $300 million. He used the proceeds to establish X.com, which eventually became part of PayPal. The online payments company was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion, making Musk a multimillionaire.

That success became the foundation for an even bigger vision. Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 and became the leading force behind Tesla, transforming it into one of the world’s most valuable car manufacturers. He also expanded his portfolio with ventures including Neuralink, The Boring Company and the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

In June 2026, Musk crossed a historic financial milestone after SpaceX completed the largest initial public offering in history, pushing the company’s valuation above $2 trillion and lifting his personal fortune beyond $1 trillion.

The achievement made Musk the first person in history to reach trillionaire status. Yet the journey that led him there began decades earlier in Pretoria, when a young South African teenager decided that his ambitions were bigger than the country he was leaving behind.