Elon Musk says 'came to US with no money, graduated with debt'

Billionaire Elon Musk has revealed that he came to the US without money and that he graduated with over $100k in debt. He disclosed his humble beginnings while replying to a post on Twitter. Musk had arrived penniless in the United States at the age of 17. The Tesla and SpaceX founder has traveled a long way from where he started. He was also titled the 'Person of the Year' by Time magazine this year. He also beat Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and became the world's richest person this year.

Key Points

1. “I came to the US with no money and graduated with over $100k in debt, despite scholarships & working 2 jobs while at school,” Musk wrote on Twitter while replying to the post which said he had arrived in America when he was 17 years old.

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2. “When he was 17, @elonmusk came to America. He has generated wealth for this country. He has generated tax revenue for our government. He has increased American exports. He has, in my opinion, advanced our national security. He’s created jobs and minted millionaires,” Whole Mars Catalog wrote on Twitter

3. Musk had learned programming and sold a game called ‘Blastar’ for $500 when he was just 12 years old. He was born to a Canadian mother and a South African father. Musk grew up in South Africa where he was bullied at school and was parented by a father who he says was capable of “evil”.

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4. He came to US in his late teens and got two Bachelor's degrees to march towards his idea of success. He had also enrolled for Ph.D. at Stanford but he dropped out after two days and started a company called Zip2 with his brother Kimbal.

5. Earlier in October, Musk owned Tesla's market valuation rose above $1 trillion dollars and SpaceX has teamed up with US space agency NASA to launch multiple missions. NASA also awarded Boeing and SpaceX six flights each to carry crew to and from the station after their respective vehicles gain certification, Bloomberg reported. The billionaire has also been on a selling spree ever since and has sold nearly $14 billion of Tesla stock since November 8.