Despite being the mother of one of the richest men on the planet, Maye Musk has never lived a life of indulgence. Raised with modest means, she learned early on how to do without — and that resilient mindset hasn’t faded, even as her son Elon’s fortune soars past $400 billion. When visiting him, she doesn’t expect a mansion suite or special treatment — instead, she sleeps wherever there’s room, even if that means the garage.
Maye Musk has spoken openly about sleeping in the garage during visits to her son — not as a complaint, but as a matter-of-fact detail that’s striking given Elon’s extraordinary wealth. In truth, it aligns with his well-known minimalist lifestyle and unconventional choices about where — and how — he lives.
The Immense Scale of Elon Musk’s Wealth
Elon Musk is universally regarded as one of the wealthiest people on the planet. His fortune spans a portfolio of groundbreaking ventures, including Tesla (electric vehicles), SpaceX (space exploration), and xAI (artificial intelligence).
By late 2024, Musk owned roughly 12% of Tesla — not including stock options — though more than half of those shares had been pledged as collateral for personal loans totaling up to $3.5 billion. In a major financial development earlier that year, a Delaware judge invalidated Musk’s 2018 compensation package, which had included options representing an additional 9% stake in Tesla.
Forbes, anticipating the uncertainty of Elon’s appeal, discounted his voided Tesla stock options by 50%. Still, Elon holds significant stakes in multiple companies. SpaceX, the private space exploration company he founded in 2002, was valued at $350 billion in a private share sale in December 2024, with Musk estimated to own 42% of it.
In 2022, he made headlines by acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, later rebranding it as X. However, by August 2024, Forbes reported a nearly 70% drop in the platform’s value. Meanwhile, his latest venture, xAI, launched in 2023, quickly garnered attention — reaching a $50 billion valuation by November 2024. Musk owns approximately 54% of the company.
Despite these massive holdings and his estimated net worth hovering in the hundreds of billions, Elon Musk has often stated that he doesn’t define his life by material wealth.
Elon’s Unconventional Views on Possessions
In May 2020, Musk surprised the world by announcing a dramatic shift in his personal philosophy. He tweeted:
“I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house.”
In a follow-up, he added:
“Don’t need the cash. Devoting myself to Mars and Earth. Possession just weigh you down.”
True to his word, he sold off several of his homes and, according to reports, has at times lived in a modest prefab home near SpaceX headquarters in Texas — a lifestyle choice that perhaps explains why his mother ends up sleeping in the garage during her visits.
n June 2021, Elon Musk offered more detail about his unconventional living situation. He revealed that his main residence was a modest house in Boca Chica, Texas, just steps from the SpaceX launch facility. Describing it as “literally a ~$50k house” rented from SpaceX, he added, “It’s kinda awesome though.”
At the time, the only property he still owned outright was a large Bay Area home used for events. He noted that if he ever sold it, it would likely be useful only to a “big family.”
Why Elon Musk’s Mother Slept in the Garage
In a 2022 appearance on the Full Send podcast, Elon gave a rare glimpse into the details of his Texas home. The house, originally a two-bedroom structure near SpaceX headquarters, had been modified — with the garage converted into a third room to accommodate extra guests.
“It’s very small,” Elon admitted, but for him, its value was in proximity, not luxury:
“I can just literally walk to the rocket factory.”
He also mentioned a Boxabl unit on the property, a compact, prefab guesthouse designed for efficient living. “If a friend comes and stays or something, then they can stay in the Boxabl if they want,” he said.
This context helps explain why Maye Musk sometimes sleeps in the garage when visiting her son. Far from an oversight, it reflects Elon’s deliberate departure from material extravagance — even when it comes to family. To both of them, it seems, comfort is not measured in square footage or luxury finishes, but in purpose and presence.
Elon has often shared how visitors react to his modest home. “Friends of mine come, can stay, and they’re like — they can’t believe I’m staying in this house,” he admitted. That same year, Maye Musk offered a candid glimpse into her visits. “I have to sleep in the garage,” she told The Times.
Her explanation was simple and practical:
“You can’t have a fancy house near a rocket site.”
Maye also emphasized Elon’s lack of interest in luxury or material possessions.
“He’s not interested in possessions,” she said. “No, not at all in that sense.”
For Maye, the living arrangements aren’t a hardship — after all, she’s lived with much less and values what truly matters: family and presence over comfort or extravagance.
Flying Over the Kalahari with Just Maps and a Motto
Born in Canada but raised in South Africa, Maye Musk’s childhood was anything but ordinary. Her father, a daring single-propeller pilot, often took the family on flights across remote wilderness in search of the legendary “lost city of the Kalahari.”
Maye vividly recalled nights spent sleeping under the stars — sometimes with lions or hyenas prowling nearby. Amid these wild adventures, her father would often repeat a phrase that shaped her outlook on life:
“Live dangerously, carefully.”
That motto, she says, resonates just as deeply today — especially when she thinks about her eldest son, Elon. Those early lessons of resilience and boldness became the foundation for how she faced life’s challenges and how Elon boldly charts his own extraordinary path.
Abusive Marriage and Becoming a Single Mother
Maye Musk’s journey wasn’t without profound hardship. She married Errol Musk, a South African engineer, but the relationship soon became deeply troubled. In a candid interview with The Times, Maye opened up about the emotional and physical abuse she endured.
“Every day, he would scream at me and say, ‘You’re ugly. You’re stupid. You’re boring,’” she recalled.
“I would think, ‘I can’t be that ugly. I am modelling.’ But then he would beat me up, so you don’t argue back.”
The abuse wasn’t just occasional — it was relentless, and as she put it, “the situation kept on getting worse.”Raising three young children on her own, Maye confronted the many challenges of single parenthood head-on. Her unwavering priority was their well-being and stability — even when that meant uprooting their lives multiple times to find better opportunities and a safer environment.
Instability and Sacrifice After Divorce
After her marriage ended, Maye moved with Elon, Kimbal, and Tosca across continents — from South Africa to Canada, then to the United States. Those years were marked by financial hardship and uncertainty. On one occasion during a move to Canada, the family’s luggage was lost and didn’t arrive for five long months.
“I had to wear Elon’s and Tosca’s clothes because I couldn’t afford to buy new ones,” she recalled. Looking back, Maye described the experience as deeply unsettling.
“It’s horrifying when you look back.”
Yet through all the instability, Maye remained steadfast in her goal to raise her children with independence and practical wisdom.
“When the kids were young, I always taught them to ask for what they wanted,” she said. “When they wanted my advice, I gave it.”
Rather than imposing her own plans, she nurtured their curiosity and encouraged them to follow their passions — a guiding principle that would prove crucial as Elon’s extraordinary talents in technology began to emerge.
Recognizing Elon’s Genius and Early Breakthroughs
Maye first recognized Elon’s extraordinary abilities when he was just three years old. By age 12, he had already developed his own computer game — a feat that caught the attention of university students studying computer science.
“They were surprised that he knew all the coding shortcuts,” she recalled.
“These guys were in their second and third year in computer science, and they were very impressed.”
Maye affectionately called him her “Genius Boy,” noting how he seemed to “remember everything he read.”
Long before the internet became a household staple, Elon was the family’s walking encyclopedia.
“This was before the internet. I guess now we would call him the internet,” Maye said with a smile.
Elon’s brother, Kimbal, also played an important role, helping translate Elon’s skills into real-world business ventures, setting the stage for the extraordinary career that lay ahead.
According to Maye, Kimbal played a crucial part in their very first company — a web software business called Zip2. He helped bridge the gap between Elon’s technical vision and everyday users by explaining basic concepts like what a cursor or mouse was, and why the software mattered to people unfamiliar with computers.
The company’s success culminated in a sale that earned Elon $22 million. While Maye didn’t always agree with some of Elon’s bold ideas — like starting an electric car company or launching rockets into space — she stood firmly behind him:
“He should do whatever he wants,” she said.
Though she sometimes offered advice, Maye respected Elon’s independence and supported his decisions, even when they diverged from her own perspective.
As Elon and his siblings carved out their own paths, Maye was also reinventing herself — embracing new challenges and writing her own remarkable story.
