On September 13, 2025, Kimbal Musk’s company Nova Sky Stories produced a drone-light display at the Vatican’s “Grace for the World” concert. It was a new setting for an entrepreneur whose work had long centered on restaurants, school gardens, and growing food.
More than two decades earlier, Musk had opened The Kitchen in Boulder, Colorado, with chef Hugo Matheson and designer Jen Lewin. The restaurant’s shared tables, the school gardens he later championed, and Nova’s aerial performances share an interest in bringing people together. Their business models and results, however, have been very different.
Between those chapters came an early internet-company sale, a serious injury, ambitious expansion plans, and setbacks affecting businesses and organizations he helped build. His career is not simply a departure from technology for food, but a succession of ventures with changing aims and consequences.
A Quick Look at the Life of Kimbal Musk
Biography Summary
Kimbal Musk is a South African-born American entrepreneur, restaurateur, and investor. He co-founded the internet company Zip2 with his brother Elon Musk, helped establish The Kitchen restaurant business, led the school-garden nonprofit Big Green, and co-founded Square Roots, an indoor-farming venture. He later founded the drone-performance company Nova Sky Stories and continued serving on Tesla’s board.
Profile
Full Name: Kimbal Musk
Born: Approximately 1972
Birthplace: Pretoria, South Africa
Education: Bachelor of Commerce, Queen’s University, 1995; graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York City
Best Known For: Co-founding Zip2 and The Kitchen; school-garden advocacy; co-founding Square Roots; founding Nova Sky Stories
Major Roles: Tesla director; Nova Sky Stories chief executive; previously Big Green executive director (2010–2025)
Other Corporate Roles: Tesla’s October 2026 filing described him as chairman of Square Roots and executive chairman of The Kitchen Restaurant Group.
Recognition: Named among the Schwab Foundation’s 2017 Social Entrepreneurs of the Year
From Pretoria to a Business Education in Canada
Kimbal Musk grew up in South Africa. His family includes his mother, Maye Musk, his older brother Elon, and his sister Tosca. Kimbal pursued his business education in Canada, years before restaurants became central to his career.
He attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, earning a Bachelor of Commerce in 1995. While a student, he operated a College Pro Painters house-painting franchise. He has subsequently described that experience as a practical introduction to running a business, including the work of dealing with customers and operating a small venture.
Zip2: An Internet Business and a Major Sale
In 1995, Kimbal and Elon Musk co-founded Zip2, which developed online maps, directories, and city guides for newspapers and other media customers. Kimbal recalls concentrating on sales, marketing, and fund-raising while Elon focused on engineering.
Compaq acquired Zip2 in March 1999 for approximately $307 million, the purchase price for the company rather than Kimbal’s personal share. The sale closed his first major technology venture and preceded a markedly different professional direction.
He also invested in X.com, Elon’s online-finance venture that became part of the business known as PayPal. Kimbal’s role was as an investor in X.com, not a PayPal founder. His next major move was toward the professional kitchen.
Learning to Cook and Opening The Kitchen
Musk studied at the French Culinary Institute in New York City. He also recalls that the September 11, 2001 attacks deeply influenced the direction of his work. According to his own account, he was living near the World Trade Center and spent roughly six weeks volunteering to cook for firefighters. He later said the experience made the community-building possibilities of preparing and sharing food especially important to him.
Looking back in a 2015 interview, he put his decision plainly: “I determined right there and then to open a restaurant.” His subsequent path depended on partnerships as well as that stated ambition.
Kimbal and his then-wife, artist and designer Jen Lewin, moved to Boulder, Colorado. There he met chef Hugo Matheson. Musk has recalled that a meal Matheson prepared challenged his emphasis on culinary technique and brought him toward ingredient-led cooking. Kimbal subsequently worked as a line cook for Matheson, and the two developed a professional partnership.
The Kitchen opened in Boulder in 2004 with three founding partners: Kimbal Musk, Hugo Matheson, and Jen Lewin. Matheson helped shape the culinary direction; Lewin designed the restaurant’s interiors, decorative elements, and custom lighting. The business drew on local farmers and producers and incorporated community-oriented dining spaces. Presenting the original restaurant as a solo Musk creation would omit two essential partners.
The Boulder restaurant became the foundation of a wider hospitality business. The more casual Next Door concept began in 2011, a Denver bistro opened in 2012, and The Kitchen expanded into other markets including Chicago. Musk spoke of wanting to reach more diners than one restaurant could serve. That ambition to expand access would reappear in his school-garden and farming ventures.
Technology and Board Work Never Fully Disappeared
The turn to cooking did not end Musk’s involvement in technology businesses. In 2006 he became chief executive of OneRiot, a company that worked with real-time search and social information and later shifted toward social and mobile advertising. Walmart acquired OneRiot in 2011, bringing its operations into Walmart Labs. The acquisition terms were not publicly disclosed.
His board positions also developed alongside the restaurants. Musk has served as a Tesla director since April 2004. He was a director of SpaceX from its founding in 2002 until January 2022, and he served on Chipotle Mexican Grill’s board from 2013 to 2019.
These board seats kept Musk connected to technology while his restaurant work grew. They were governance positions, distinct from running Tesla or SpaceX.
A 2010 Accident and a Change in Priorities
On February 14, 2010, Musk suffered a severe neck injury in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, while snow tubing during a family trip. He was hospitalized, underwent surgery, and experienced temporary paralysis or neurological impairment. Although the accident occurred on a winter vacation, he was riding an inner tube when injured, not skiing.
Musk has called the injury a near-death experience. He says it changed his priorities, recalling in a later World Economic Forum interview: “I will focus entirely on the things I believe in and the things the world needs.” Food and community work, which he had already begun, assumed a larger place in his account of his career.
He had been working in restaurants for years before the accident. What followed was a broader effort to bring food education and growing spaces into schools, beyond the dining rooms of The Kitchen.
Taking Food Education Beyond Restaurants
Musk’s school-garden efforts developed into the nonprofit first known as The Kitchen Community and later as Big Green. He began serving in an executive-director capacity in 2010; public accounts describe the nonprofit and its program as established around 2011. These dates refer to related stages of its emergence rather than an exact verified incorporation date.
Through its Learning Gardens, the nonprofit worked with schools to create outdoor places where children could grow plants and learn about food. More than 225 gardens had been reported by 2015. The count shows the program’s reach at that time, not a measured effect on children’s nutrition or academic performance.
The Schwab Foundation named Musk among its 2017 Social Entrepreneurs of the Year.
He also pursued expansion through restaurants. The more casual Next Door concept was intended to bring the food philosophy to a wider customer base. In 2017, Musk outlined a plan for 50 Next Door locations by 2020. It was a business target, not an achieved milestone. The brand’s earlier locations had closed by the time of reporting in 2026.
In November 2021, he announced Big Green DAO, an experiment in using blockchain tools to share decisions about charitable grants. It was an attempt to change the grantmaking process, rather than an established measure of improved outcomes.
Square Roots: The Promise and Limits of Indoor Farming
In 2016, Musk co-founded Square Roots with technology executive Tobias Peggs. The company began in Brooklyn with controlled-environment growing systems installed in shipping containers. Its first model used ten containers and combined local food production with an effort to train or support newer growers.
The project joined startup methods with food production in a city setting. Peggs served as its operating chief executive, while Musk was co-founder and chair. As at The Kitchen, the plan depended on partners with distinct responsibilities.
Expansion later brought growing facilities to distribution-center partnerships beyond New York. Then the model met serious difficulties. In July 2023, reporting documented suspended production at facilities in Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Ohio, as well as job losses. Square Roots described a shift toward a “farming as a service” approach, while some employees described the shutdowns as abrupt.
The retrenchment was a substantial change from the original growing model, but it was not a documented legal dissolution of Square Roots. Tesla still described Musk as the company’s chairman in October 2026; the operating status of individual farms was not established.
Workers had also organized at Square Roots, and employees interviewed in 2022 raised concerns about their treatment and the company’s responsiveness. Those accounts are allegations about workplace experiences; they do not establish that Musk personally ordered retaliation.
Pandemic Closures and Questions About Employee Support
Square Roots was not the only food venture to encounter difficult operating conditions. During the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, The Kitchen’s restaurant group closed locations and laid off or furloughed workers. Those losses quickly turned attention to an emergency assistance arrangement called the Kitchen Family Fund.
Former employees questioned the fund’s eligibility rules, saying some laid-off workers had been excluded. In April 2020, Musk said the restaurant group would revise the program to cover approximately 100 previously excluded former employees. Contemporary reporting described grants of up to $400 at that stage. Musk disputed suggestions arising from earlier criticism and maintained that the change was unrelated to it.
The dispute put the restaurant group’s community-oriented message alongside questions about how it supported employees during closures. The documented disagreement concerned eligibility and administration of the relief fund.
Big Green’s Labor Case and Its Resolution
Big Green faced a separate, more formal labor dispute. In September 2021, ten program employees lost their jobs after an effort to organize. An unfair-labor-practice case followed at the National Labor Relations Board, along with court and administrative proceedings. These proceedings concerned the nonprofit’s conduct; they do not establish that Musk personally directed each disputed employment decision.
In September 2024, Big Green agreed to pay the ten workers $449,999 in backpay, benefits, and wages, along with posting notices and conducting employee-rights training. The nonprofit had represented during the case that it offered reinstatement. The proceedings closed with a settlement, not a criminal conviction or personal penalty against Musk.
His formal leadership also changed. Although older descriptions of Big Green continued to call him executive director, Tesla’s October 2026 filing dates his service in that position from 2010 through 2025. It does not establish who succeeded him or whether he holds another current position at the nonprofit.
Scrutiny Surrounding Tesla’s Board
Musk’s long service on Tesla’s board has brought him into legal matters distinct from his restaurant and nonprofit work. A shareholder derivative action challenged compensation granted to Tesla’s nonemployee directors for 2017 through 2020. In January 2025, a Delaware judge approved a settlement valued at up to approximately $919 million through combined returns of cash and stock options and the surrender of future option awards.
Kimbal was among the director defendants, but the collective settlement amount was not a fine or personal payment imposed on him. The directors did not admit wrongdoing. This dispute was also separate from litigation over Elon Musk’s compensation as Tesla chief executive.
Separately, Bloomberg reported in February 2022, citing a person familiar with the matter, that the SEC was investigating Kimbal’s November 2021 sale of Tesla shares shortly before Elon Musk’s public stock-sale poll. Elon denied that Kimbal knew about the poll in advance. The report concerned an inquiry, not a finding of insider trading; its eventual outcome was not established.
Nova Sky Stories: A New Kind of Public Performance
In 2022, Musk founded Nova Sky Stories, moving into aerial entertainment made with coordinated fleets of illuminated drones. Nova acquired certain assets of Intel’s drone-light-show operation, as Intel confirmed at the time. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Musk traces part of his interest in drone art to performances he encountered at an unofficial gathering connected with Burning Man in 2021. This is his account of what inspired him. As chief executive of Nova, he has worked with entertainment and artistic partners to explore the medium’s possibilities.
In an October 2025 conversation with entertainment executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, Musk discussed developing drone shows as a storytelling form and exploring potential partnerships involving studio intellectual property. He summed up Nova’s ambition by saying, “We really want this to be a storytelling medium.” The discussion described a direction the company wanted to pursue; it did not establish that every proposed studio arrangement had been completed.
Nova’s September 2025 Vatican concert display brought that approach to a major public event. Looking back in a 2026 interview, Musk said, “It was one of the most emotionally powerful moments of my life.” His description conveys what the performance meant to him; Nova’s documented contribution was the drone display itself.
The Kitchen’s New Owners and Musk’s Position in 2026
Musk published The Kitchen Cookbook: Cooking for Your Community in March 2024. That November, The Kitchen opened a new bistro in downtown Austin with culinary partner Michael Bertozzi. Lewin designed lighting for the Austin location, extending her association with the brand.
The brand’s original Colorado restaurants changed hands in 2026. On October 6, 5280 reported that Bryan Dayton’s Half Eaten Cookie Hospitality had bought The Kitchen American Bistro locations in Boulder and Denver from the founding team. The deal closed in late September or early October. Dayton said Austin was not part of the purchase, and no transaction price was reported.
The sale transferred ownership of the Colorado bistros but did not settle Musk’s involvement with the wider restaurant business. Tesla’s October 2026 filing still called him executive chairman of The Kitchen Restaurant Group. His ownership interests after the sale, including any stake in Austin, were not established.
A Career Still in Motion
As of October 24, 2026, Musk’s latest documented roles included Tesla director and Nova Sky Stories chief executive. Tesla also described him as chairman of Square Roots and executive chairman of The Kitchen Restaurant Group, while recording that his Big Green executive-director tenure had ended in 2025.
Across his ventures, Musk has repeatedly tried to organize shared experiences, from meals and gardens to urban farms and drone performances. Some projects expanded; others contracted, faced labor disputes, or changed owners. His move into aerial entertainment and the 2026 sale of the Colorado Kitchen restaurants show a career still changing direction, with neither its ambitions nor its results reducible to a single story.
Timeline
These milestones trace major developments in Kimbal Musk’s education, businesses, nonprofit work, governance roles, and later projects.
Approximately 1972
Born in Pretoria, South Africa.
1995
Graduates from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Commerce and co-founds Zip2 with Elon Musk.
March 1999
Compaq acquires Zip2 for approximately $307 million.
2001
According to Musk’s later recollection, he volunteers to cook for firefighters following the September 11 attacks in New York.
2002–2004
Begins SpaceX board service in 2002; joins Tesla’s board in April 2004. The Kitchen opens in Boulder in 2004 with Hugo Matheson and Jen Lewin.
2006
Becomes chief executive of OneRiot.
February 14, 2010
Suffers a serious neck injury in a snow-tubing accident in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
2010–2012
Begins leading the garden initiative that develops into Big Green; the Next Door restaurant concept begins in 2011, Walmart acquires OneRiot in 2011, and The Kitchen opens a Denver bistro in 2012.
2013–2019
Serves on the board of Chipotle Mexican Grill.
2016–2017
Co-founds Square Roots with Tobias Peggs in 2016 and is named among the Schwab Foundation’s 2017 Social Entrepreneurs of the Year.
2020–2021
Restaurant shutdowns and the Kitchen Family Fund dispute occur in 2020. Big Green’s labor dispute begins in 2021, and Musk announces the Big Green DAO experiment that November.
2022
Ends SpaceX board service in January. Founds Nova Sky Stories, which acquires certain Intel drone-show assets.
July 2023
Square Roots halts or pauses production at multiple farms and describes a shift toward “farming as a service.”
2024
Publishes The Kitchen Cookbook in March; Big Green reaches a labor settlement in September; a new Kitchen bistro opens in Austin in November.
2025
A court approves the collective Tesla director-compensation settlement in January. Musk’s Big Green executive-director tenure ends during the year. Nova produces a drone-light show for the Vatican’s September 13 concert.
October 2026
The sale of The Kitchen’s Boulder and Denver bistros is reported; Tesla’s October filing lists Musk as a director and Nova Sky Stories chief executive.
FAQs
Did Kimbal Musk found PayPal?
No. Kimbal Musk co-founded Zip2 with Elon Musk and later invested in X.com, an online-finance venture that became part of the business known as PayPal. Those roles do not make him a PayPal founder.
Who founded The Kitchen with Kimbal Musk?
Chef Hugo Matheson and artist and designer Jen Lewin were founding partners with Kimbal Musk when The Kitchen opened in Boulder in 2004. Matheson helped guide the food, while Lewin designed important parts of the restaurant’s interior and lighting.
Was Kimbal Musk injured while skiing in 2010?
He was injured while snow tubing, not while skiing. On February 14, 2010, he suffered a severe neck injury on a family trip in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and later said the experience prompted him to give food and community work greater priority.
Is Kimbal Musk still Big Green’s executive director?
Tesla’s October 2026 filing states that his tenure as executive director ran from 2010 through 2025. It does not identify a successor or establish another current operational role for him at Big Green.
Did Square Roots shut down completely in 2023?
Reports in July 2023 documented production suspensions and job losses at several Square Roots farming locations. The company described a pivot toward “farming as a service,” but those developments do not establish that the entire company ceased legal existence.
What happened to the original Kitchen restaurants?
In 2026, Half Eaten Cookie Hospitality acquired The Kitchen bistros in Boulder and Denver. The buyer said the Austin restaurant was not included, so the Colorado sale should not be taken to mean that every Kitchen location or company interest changed hands.
Interviews
WIRED: The Move from Technology to Food
Steven Levy’s 2015 profile draws on Musk’s first-person recollections of his early technology years, restaurants, and serious 2010 injury. It provides a useful view of how he described the connection between business-building and his growing commitment to food-related projects.
Read the WIRED profile and interview
The Guardian: Cooking, Community, and School Gardens
This 2015 interview concentrates on Musk’s move into food and his account of volunteering after September 11. It also discusses school gardens and the thinking behind his effort to bring food experiences beyond individual restaurant dining rooms.
CBS News: The Food Mission in His Own Words
In this 2018 interview, Musk discusses his experience around September 11 and his ambitions for how Americans encounter food. It offers a direct statement of his personal perspective alongside the reporting about his work.
WIRED: Inside the Square Roots Farming Experiment
Steven Levy’s 2017 reporting explores Square Roots’ initial shipping-container farm. Interviews and on-site details clarify the different roles of Musk and Tobias Peggs and the practical workings of the project.
Read the WIRED Square Roots feature
WIRED: Drone Storytelling at the Vatican
This 2026 feature documents Nova Sky Stories’ role in the 2025 Vatican concert and includes Musk’s reflections on the performance. It gives readers a close look at his later shift into public aerial storytelling.
Read the WIRED drone-show interview and feature
Further Reading
- The Kitchen Cookbook: Cooking for Your Community (2024) — Musk’s published cookbook, a firsthand companion to the food-and-community ideas discussed in this biography.
Sources
- Tesla / U.S. SEC EDGAR: 2026 Tesla proxy statement, 2017 Tesla proxy statement
- Reuters: Kimbal Musk and his roles at Tesla, Tesla directors’ compensation settlement
- Queen’s University: Queen’s University alumni profile
- WIRED: The Musk Who Wants to Change the Way We Eat, Kimbal Musk’s Square Roots farming project, Drone show at the Vatican concert
- The Guardian: Kimbal Musk on restaurants and food
- 5280: Kimbal Musk and the 2020 restaurant crisis, Kitchen Family Fund policy changes, New owners of Boulder and Denver Kitchen restaurants
- CBS News: Kimbal Musk on food and community
- Denver Westword: The Kitchen’s founding and early years
- Jen Lewin Studio: The Kitchen design portfolio
- World Economic Forum / Schwab Foundation: 2017 Social Entrepreneurs of the Year, Kimbal Musk interview on food-system priorities
- WDRB: Square Roots’ 2023 facility closures
- Civil Eats: Square Roots workers’ union effort
- The Colorado Sun: Big Green labor settlement
- National Labor Relations Board: Big Green case 27-CA-280760
- Bloomberg News via Los Angeles Times: Reported SEC inquiry into Tesla share sales
- The Register: Nova’s acquisition of Intel drone-show assets
- TheWrap: Nova Sky Stories and drone storytelling
- Eater Austin: The Kitchen opens in Austin
- Bookshop.org / Melcher Media: The Kitchen Cookbook publication record
- TechCrunch: Walmart acquires OneRiot
- Nation’s Restaurant News: Next Door expansion plans
- CoinDesk: Big Green DAO announcement