The founder of SpaceX, one of the largest entrepreneurs in the United States and the wealthiest person on the planet, Elon Musk, began his career in the United States without legal status.
As Day.Az reports with reference to TASS, The Washington Post (WP) newspaper reported this.
According to the publication, the founder of Tesla, who opposes illegal migration, was illegally in the United States on a student visa, although he dropped out of school. The South African native came to the United States to study at Stanford University, but shortly after the start of the semester in the fall of 1995, he called the head of his department and said that he would not be attending classes. The law required the future businessman to leave the United States, WP explains.
But instead, he overstayed his visa while he started his first company, Zip2 (the original name of Global Link Information Network). In 1996, the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures invested $3 million in Zip2. After learning that Musk and his brother Kimbal did not have legal status in the United States, a clause was included in the financing agreement that allowed Mohr to withdraw its investment if both did not receive work visas within 45 days.
Since immigration data in the United States is not published, it is difficult to determine when Musk’s immigration status changed, the newspaper notes. However, the article emphasizes, the company hired a lawyer to obtain visas for the brothers in 1996. This means that both he and his brother were in the country illegally for most of the year, the publication emphasizes.
Colleagues of the SpaceX founder confirmed that Musk drove a car while he was in the United States illegally and needed a driver’s license and car insurance. The entrepreneur often criticizes the situation with illegal migration in the country. “[Нелегалы] in America they can get bank loans, mortgages, insurance, driver’s licenses, free healthcare (in California and New York) and college education . What’s the point of being a citizen if an illegal migrant gets all the benefits but doesn’t pay taxes? ?” Musk wrote in February on X (formerly Twitter).