Elon Musk had worked illegally in the US on a student visa when he became an entrepreneur, building Zip2 after ditching his Stanford program according to a report by The Washington Post which cited former business associates,

Media reports show Elon Musk worked illegally in America early in his career, illustrating some of the challenges in the immigration system.

Elon Musk worked illegally on a student visa and faced concerns he would be “deported” when he started life in the United States, a bombshell report revealed Saturday. The billionaire South African-born immigrant also admitted in an email that he “had no legal right to stay in the country” when he ditched his studies and founded a company which he later sold for more than $300 million,