Not all that surprising. In some ways, this election has become as much about the influence of tech bros, whether Musk weaponizing Twitter etc or Bezos not permitting an editorial by the Washington Post:
Billionaire Elon Musk, who has become a staunch opponent of illegal immigration as a top surrogate for Donald Trump, and boosted misleadingclaims about the issue throughout the 2024 election cycle, launched his career in Silicon Valley working illegally, according to The Washington Post.
The Post, citing business associates, court records and company documents, found Musk did not have the legal right to work in the U.S. while creating Zip2—a business directory software company that sold for about $300 million 25 years ago.
Musk, who was born in Pretoria, South Africa, dropped out of a Stanford University graduate program in 1995 as a foreign student to instead work on his start-up.
Musk’s immigration status put the company at risk of not receiving funding, according to the Post, which cited a funding agreement between Zip2 and Mohr Davidow Ventures that Musk, his brother Kimbal and an associate, had 45 days to secure legal work status or face losing out on the $3 million investment.
Derek Proudian, a Zip2 board member who later became the company’s chief executive, told the Post that Zip2 investors did not want its founder deported, and that the Musk brothers’ “immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S.”
Musk acknowledged his immigration status when he founded Zip2 in a 2005 email to Tesla co-founders Martin Eberhard and JB Straubel revealed in a lawsuit, where he explained he applied to Stanford to stay in the U.S. legally, according to the Post.
Representatives at X and Alex Spiro, one of Musk’s attorneys, did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment, and Musk has yet to respond to the story on X.
About Andrew Andrew blogs and tweets public policy issues, particularly the relationship between the political and bureaucratic levels, citizenship and multiculturalism. His latest book, Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias, recounts his experience as a senior public servant in this area.
About Andrew
Multicultural Meanderings 