Elon Musk’s academic journey took him from South Africa to Canada and eventually to the US, where he studied subjects that later became closely connected to his career in technology and business. Before building companies such as SpaceX and Tesla, Musk completed his university education in physics and business.
Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and later moved to Canada. He enrolled at Queen’s University in Ontario before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania in the US. According to Penn’s Knowledge at Wharton, he left Queen’s and moved to Penn on an academic scholarship.
At the University of Pennsylvania, Musk studied physics at the School of Arts and Sciences and business at the Wharton School. He completed his undergraduate studies in 1997. Penn’s Knowledge at Wharton describes his qualifications as a physics degree and an undergraduate business degree from Wharton.
His combination of science and business education was notable, particularly given the industries he later entered. Musk went on to build businesses around electric vehicles, space technology, artificial intelligence and other technologies.
Musk did not complete a doctoral degree. After leaving Penn, he moved to California in 1995 with plans to enter a PhD programme at Stanford University. His intended area of study was materials science, with a focus on high-energy-density capacitors for energy storage.
However, the emerging internet industry attracted his attention. Instead of continuing with the programme, Musk chose to pursue a business opportunity and began Zip2 in 1995.
So, while Musk is often described as a Stanford dropout, he did not earn a Stanford degree.
Musk’s decision to leave his planned doctoral path did not stop his rise in the business world. He later became a major figure through companies including SpaceX and Tesla, while also becoming one of the world’s wealthiest people.
According to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires list, Musk was ranked No. 1 in the world on August 10, 2026, with an estimated fortune of $823.6 billion. Forbes’ ranking is updated regularly, so his wealth and position can change with market movements and changes in the value of his private holdings.
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