A past that doesn’t really fit his repeated claims. On X, the social network he bought and renamed in 2022, Elon Musk periodically criticizes immigration to the United States. However, the head of SpaceX and Tesla himself would have worked clandestinely on the other side of the Atlantic when he began his career, according to a lengthy investigation by the Washington Post published this Saturday, October 26.
Although he often recounts coming to the United States from his native South Africa to pursue a graduate program at Stanford University in 1995, he would never have actually attended a single class in California. The reason? He preferred to work on the launch of his first startup.
However, foreign students did not have the right to abandon their studies for this reason. Therefore, Elon Musk was left without legal reason in the United States, according to the American newspaper.
“The race didn’t interest me much”
“I wasn’t really interested in the race, but I had no money and I wasn’t allowed to stay in the country legally, so it seemed like a good way to solve both problems,” Elon Musk explained to The Washington Post, in response to his investigation.
In 1996, the company Mohr Davidow Ventures invested three million dollars in the now famous entrepreneur’s thriving business: Zip2, launched a year earlier and intended to contribute to the development of media on the web. The agreement, however, stipulated that he had 45 days to obtain a work visa, otherwise the agreement would be void.
In an email sent in 2005, Elon Musk admitted that he did not have authorization when he founded Zip2. Despite this, the company was sold for approximately $300 million in 1999.
“A gray area”
The truth is that, according to the American newspaper, the 53-year-old businessman did not enroll at Stanford, according to a statement from May 2009. He explained that he called his director of studies shortly after the start of the semester to announce his non-arrival. A decision that legally should have meant his departure from the country.
At the time, American immigration was more tolerant of foreign students, only to tighten regulations after 9/11. Overstaying your student visa is also common in the United States.
Elon Musk never admitted to having worked illegally, although he declared in 2013 that he was “in a gray area” for a time. “I was there legally when I was a student,” he said, however, in a 2020 podcast.
An irony for the richest man in the world (277 billion dollars according to Bloomberg), who spent more than 75 million euros on Donald Trump’s campaign two weeks before the presidential elections. The Republican candidate often criticizes the “open borders” of the United States in his speeches.
Elon Musk could also play a role in his administration in the event of the latter’s victory on November 5 against Kamala Harris.
Source: BFM TV