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Elon Musk: International student, world’s richest person, and special government employee
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06 Feb 2025
The biggest success story of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship started with a South African student.
On June 28, 1971, Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa. A prodigious child — he’d read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica by age eight and finished a six-month BASIC course in three days — he knew the US was where “all the cool stuff” and biggest developments were taking place.
By 1988, he left for Canada (leveraging on his South African-Canadian mother’s lineage here) and enrolled in Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.
He would later transfer to the University of Pennsylvania to complete not one but two bachelor’s degrees — a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and a Bachelor of Science in Economics. Later, he was accepted into a PhD programme in materials science at Stanford University but chose not to attend to pursue other upcoming endeavours.
The rest, many would say, is history.
The story of America’s “serial entrepreneur” doesn’t stop. His companies have played a significant role in the world — from helping to democratise financial services with PayPal to cutting down over 20 million metric tons of CO2e in 2023 with Tesla. SpaceX, Musk’s space technology company, is even beating NASA in the space race with its powerful system by slashing the cost of missions.
Now, in 2025, Musk has gained yet another unprecedented achievement: serving as the top confidante and advisor in the second Trump administration.
Despite their past differences, Musk and Trump have reached a common consensus on what the future of the US is going to look like. Source: AFP
What is Musk doing in the US government?
On July 14, 2024, amidst the presidential election, Musk began his full endorsement of Trump’s campaign. After that, Trump described Musk as a “once-in-a-generation industry leader, and our broken federal bureaucracy could certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency.”
This partnership has raised alarms.
“Trump’s platform of reducing government oversight appears to align with Musk’s vision,” writes Newsweek, and it’s looking to be true thus far, given the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
DOGE was a department proposed by Musk, whereby it would audit federal agencies to identify and eliminate redundant regulations.
It didn’t stay a dream of Musk for long — Trump created it via an executive order on his first day back in office and appointed Musk as a “special government employee.” This (very real) role is a designation that allows Musk to work in an official capacity for up to 130 days per year without being classified as a full-time employee.
People hold up signs as they protest against US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) outside the US Department of Labour near the US Capitol in Washington, DC, February 5, 2025. Source: AFP
Now, Musk, with DOGE at his back, is at the forefront of radical change in the US.
In just the first 80 hours alone, DOGE reported having cancelled approximately US$420 million worth of current or impending government contracts, as well as two leases. More recently, in early February 2025, DOGE set its eyes on shutting down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the US government’s main humanitarian and development aid agency.
In international education news, it’s starting to look grim too.
As part of its work, DOGE has been helping the Trump administration explore drastic cuts to the Department of Education, including the option of trying to close the entire department. This shouldn’t be too surprising, given that it was one of Trump’s campaign promises to shut down the federal department, stating that the agency’s power should be turned over to states and schools.
Now, what does this mean for international students — people who, like Musk, had headed to America in hopes of a better life and opportunities in the Land of the American Dream?
As the US faces wave after wave of change, international students brace for ambiguity and uncertainty for their future. Source: AFP
The international students caught between the plans
Let’s be clear: Trump has always been clear on his opinions on immigrants. While his primary target lies with undocumented migrants in the US, even those legally on US soil are wary.
Prior to Trump’s inauguration, colleges and universities across the US were advising their international students to return early from winter break amid promises of another travel ban like the one that stranded students abroad at the start of Trump’s last term.
It’s something many have to take to heart, given that Trump has included an expansion of his previous travel ban.
Still, the bright side is that Trump has also promised to “automatically” give green cards to foreign nationals who graduate from US colleges during his campaign. This was later clarified by a campaign spokesperson that this group would only be limited to the “most skilled graduates” and screened to “exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters and public charges.”
In the 2023–2024 academic year, the US had over 1.1 million international students in the country — a new all-time high and an increase of 7% from the previous year.
But for those who have yet to officially set foot in the US, it’s a path lined and double-lined with red tape.
However, the picture for international students isn’t too grim.
No one is more aware of the need to foster and absorb young talent into their ranks than Musk himself. Source: AFP
A 2021 report by the federal agency the National Science Board revealed that one in five people employed in STEM occupations during that year were foreigners, as the US does not produce enough graduates in STEM fields.
Better yet, Musk is in favour of the H1-B visa — the visa that allows US employers to hire foreign workers in so-called specialty occupations. It’s the most common pathway for international students wishing to remain in the country after their studies too.
Given how Musk’s companies are neck-deep in the fields of science and technology, this might even be good news.
According to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis, international students account for 71% of the full-time graduate students in computer and information sciences and 73% of the full-time graduate students in electrical and computer engineering at US universities.
In the same report, it is revealed that in the 2024 financial year, Musk’s Tesla approved 742 H-1B petitions for initial employment, more than double its total of 328 in 2023 and 337 in 2022. This places Tesla 16th among employers for approvals of H-1B petitions for initial employment in 2024 after never cracking the top 25.
And if that isn’t clear of Musk’s acknowledgement of young talent, then the six engineers playing key roles in DOGE should be enough.
Aged between 19 and 24 and almost always linked to Musk’s companies, these barely out-of-college talent have been “tasked by executive order with “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” reports WIRED.
From October 2021 to March 2022, Musk’s Tesla was a trillion-dollar company, the seventh US company to be so. Source: AFP
The international student setting the tone for the future
Letting foreign talent in — instead of keeping them out — is what increases competitiveness, creates jobs and supports US economic growth.
“This link between American competitiveness and immigration is a persistent theme for the tech industry,” writes William R Kerr, author of “The Gift of Global Talent.” “In contrast to the coal mines and seaports that anchored past industrial centres, talent in the knowledge economy can go anywhere — excepting, of course, where nations impose limits on people flows.”
Musk’s history, from South Africa to university student to founder of some of America’s most cutting-edge businesses, is a clear example of why the US should continue welcoming international students to its campuses.
The key milestones in Musk’s journey reveal how an open-door immigration policy that allowed him to live and work in the US was a crucial enabler in making Musk one of the most ambitious entrepreneur success stories to date — and now, the world’s richest person and what appears to be the right-hand man of the US president.
Disclaimer: This article was last updated on February 6, 2025.
