Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, Transvaal,
South Africa, the son of Maye Musk (née Haldeman), a model and dietician from Regina, Saskatchewan,
Canada, and Errol Musk, a
South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. His paternal grandmother was
British, and he also has
Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His maternal grandfather was
American, from
Minnesota.
Musk was initially educated at private schools, attending the English-speaking Waterkloof House Preparatory School. Musk later graduated from Pretoria Boys High School and moved to
Canada in June 1989, just before his 18th birthday, after obtaining
Canadian citizenship through his Canadian-born mother.
At the age of 17, Musk was accepted into Queen's University in Kingston,
Ontario, for undergraduate study. In 1992, after spending two years at Queen's University, Musk transferred to the University of
Pennsylvania, where in May 1997 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from its College of Arts and Sciences, and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from its Wharton School of Business. Musk extended his studies for one year to finish the second bachelor's degree.
In 1995, at age 24, Musk moved to
California to begin a PhD in applied physics and materials science at
Stanford University, but left the program after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations in the areas of the internet, renewable energy and outer space. In 2002, he became a
U.S. citizen.