Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire when his rocket company SpaceX went public in the biggest stock-market debut ever seen. His net worth soared past one trillion dollars, achieving what no one had done before.
To his admirers, Musk is a once-in-a-generation builder chasing impossible dreams. To his critics, he is simply another ultra-rich man sitting on unimaginable wealth. But somewhere between these views lies the question of what has driven him all these years.
Mother's Perspective
Few people are better placed to answer that than the woman who raised him. Maye Musk, a model, dietitian, author, and Elon's mother, has watched his journey from an awkward, bullied boy in South Africa to the richest person alive. In a previous interview on Fox News, when asked "How do you raise a billionaire?" she gave an unexpected reply.
"Being a billionaire was never Elon's goal," she began. "His goal was to save the planet and then explore another planet so that civilization can be saved; for that, he would need the billions." In other words, the fortune was a by-product of the mission, not the mission itself.
Alignment with Musk's Vision
This idea aligns with how Musk describes his own companies. Tesla exists to push the world toward sustainable energy and away from fossil fuels. SpaceX is built around an even bigger ambition: making humanity a multi-planetary species so that life has a backup if something goes wrong on Earth.
Shivon Zilis, a senior Neuralink executive and mother of several of his children, made a similar point. According to a post she shared on X, when she first met Musk, she was surprised that "he never did anything for money" and always asked whether his work mattered for humanity.
Musk announced in 2020 that he would sell most of his possessions and own no house. He has described himself as essentially homeless, staying in modest homes or with friends. Maye herself has said that when she visits, she sleeps on mattresses, couches, or even a bed in the garage.
