Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, reportedly worked illegally in the United States for a brief period in the 1990s while trying to establish a startup, according to a recent report by The Washington Post.
Musk’s Arrival in the U.S.
Musk arrived in Palo Alto, California, in 1995 with intentions of attending Stanford University. However, he never officially enrolled in the graduate program. Instead, he focused on launching Zip2, a software company he sold for approximately $300 million in 1999.
Legal Concerns
Two immigration law experts quoted by the Post noted that Musk needed to be enrolled in a full course of study to maintain valid work authorization as a student.
Musk did not respond to inquiries sent to his companies—SpaceX, Tesla, social media platform X, and The Boring Company—nor did his lawyer, Alex Spiro.
In a podcast from 2020 mentioned by the Post, Musk stated, “I was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work. I was allowed to do work sort of supporting whatever.”
Work Authorization Timeline
The Post also referenced two former colleagues who remembered Musk obtaining his U.S. work authorization around 1997.
Political Endorsement
Additionally, Musk has publicly endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for the upcoming election on November 5. Trump has long characterized immigrants as threats and took significant measures to limit both legal and illegal immigration during his presidency from 2017 to 2021. He has pledged to enact the largest deportation initiative in U.S. history if re-elected.
