Elon Isn't the Only Entrepreneurial Musk — Brother Kimbal Is a Success in His Own Right

So what if Elon Musk is the wealthiest man in the world? That doesn't make him any better than his brother, Kimbal, in the eyes of their dear old dad, Errol Musk. Kimbal Musk may not have the net worth his older brother does, but he is Errol's "pride and joy," the elder Musk recently told an Australian radio show.

Forbes estimates that Kimbal Musk has a net worth of about $700 million, which pales compared to Elon’s over $271 billion. Much of Kimbal's wealth is thanks to his big brother. Kimbal was an early investor of Tesla, Elon's electric car company, Forbes reports.

However, Kimbal isn't one to ride his brother's coattails. He is an established entrepreneur in his own right. The Musk brothers have worked together on several business ventures. They founded Zip2, an online city guide company that Compaq bought in 1999 for $307 million. Kimbal also invested in X.com, Elon's online financial services company that eventually merged with PayPal.

Kimbal still serves on the board of directors for both Tesla and Elon's space exploration company, SpaceX.

Kimbal told the World Economic Forum in 2017 that his direction in life changed in 2010 when he broke his neck and was temporarily paralyzed during a skiing trip.

"I remember being wheeled into surgery and thinking, 'If I recover from this, I will give myself permission to do what I love. I won't care about the money, I will focus entirely on the things I believe in and the things the world needs.' When I woke up, I could walk, and I've never looked back since," Musk told WEF.

Kimbal followed his passion for food and nutrition. He studied at the French Culinary Institute in New York City. In 2021, he opened his first restaurant, The Kitchen in Boulder, Colorado, with Jen Lewin and Hugo Matheson. Eventually, other locations opened in Denver, Chicago, and Indianapolis. The KItchen has been named one of the top restaurants in the U.S. by several publications such as Food & Wine and Gourmet.

Kimbal Musk is also co-founder and chairman of two food-related companies: Big Green, a nonprofit that builds "Learning Gardens" in schoolyards across the U.S., and Square Roots, an urban farming company that grows produce in climate-controlled shipping containers.

In 2018, the World Economic Forum named Kimbal Musk the Global Social Entrepreneur of the Year. The Forum praised Kimbal for sourcing food for his restaurants from local farmers and empowering millennials to become farmers through Square Roots' indoor vertical farming accelerator.

In June, Kimbal announced his latest business venture, Nova Sky Stories. The company makes art in the sky using over 9,000 light drones. The idea came to him when he attended Burning Man in the Nevada Desert and watched a drone art show by Ralph Nauta, Kimbal Musk wrote in a Medium post.

"It was then I knew I had to help bring this art to the skies of every city and town in the world," Kimbal wrote.

Kimbal Musk married Jen Lewin, one of his previous business partners in The Kitchen Restaurant Group. The couple has since divorced, and Kimbal is now married to environmental activist Christiana Wyly, the daughter of billionaire Sam Wyly.