A 17-year-old who earns A+ scores in programming and operating systems might have a pretty good idea of where his talents lie. For one future technology mogul, those skills would eventually help fuel rockets, electric cars, and some of the biggest bets in modern technology.
SpaceX (SPCX) and Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, a model and dietitian, dug up a decades-old test while sorting through photos and shared it on X in May 2025.
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“While sorting through photos, I came across computer aptitude test results of [Elon] at 17. My genius boy. Proud mom,” she wrote.
A+ Scores at 17
The document, dated May 17, 1989, came from the University of Pretoria in South Africa. It shows A+ results in both Operating and Programming on aptitude tests conducted by ISM South Africa.
A letter signed by the university’s director of information management summed up the results in one word: “Outstanding.”
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The test wasn’t just another old school report card. It offered a snapshot of a teenager whose interest in computers was already becoming unusually advanced.
Musk responded to his mother’s post with a detail that wasn’t contained in the document itself.
“They said I scored the highest for engineering aptitude that they had ever seen,” he wrote.
He added, “Or, in other words, not bad for a human, as a future AI might say.”
That claim comes from Musk’s own recollection. The surviving document confirms the A+ scores and the university’s assessment that the results were outstanding.
The Coding Started Even Earlier
The aptitude test came several years after another early sign of Elon Musk's interest in computers.
At 12, Musk created Blastar, a simple space-themed video game, and sold the code for about $500. The game was later published in PC and Office Technology.
The teenager who was programming games would eventually move into increasingly ambitious projects.
Musk co-founded Zip2, later co-founded X.com, and became a major shareholder in PayPal (PYPL) before its sale to eBay (EBAY) in 2002. That same year, he founded SpaceX.
Tesla came with a different history. The company had already been founded when Musk joined as an early investor and board member in 2004. He became CEO in 2008 and has led the company since then.
A Teenage Test With a Much Bigger Legacy
The 1989 test results don’t explain everything that came later, but they do provide an early piece of the story.
Long before electric vehicles (EVs), reusable rockets, and artificial intelligence (AI) became major technology themes, a teenager in South Africa was already showing strong aptitude in programming and computing.
Today, the companies associated with Musk span EVs, spaceflight, AI, brain-computer interfaces, and infrastructure. The old test offers investors and technology watchers a glimpse at the technical interests that appeared remarkably early in that journey.
Maye Musk’s “My genius boy. Proud mom” line hits a little differently with hindsight. Her son went on to become the richest person in the world and, briefly, the world’s first trillionaire.
That makes the old aptitude test more than a family keepsake. It’s Exhibit A in one mother’s very well-earned bragging rights.
On the date of publication, Caleb Naysmith did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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