What does Elon Musk do with all his cash?

Tesla boss Elon Musk has been one of many world’s richest individuals for a number of years now, and that wealth not too long ago went stratospheric when he turned the primary half-trillionaire.

Regardless of this, Musk has insisted he leads a largely unglamorous way of life. He mentioned in 2021 that he lived in a Texas house valued at $50,000 (£38,000).

His former associate Grimes, with whom he has two kids, instructed Self-importance Truthful in 2022 that he doesn’t stay the extravagant lifetime of extra luxurious many assume.

“Bro doesn’t stay like a billionaire. Bro lives at occasions under the poverty line,” she instructed the journal. As soon as, she mentioned, he refused to purchase a brand new mattress, regardless of her aspect having a gap in it.

Whereas his day-to-day dwelling quarters will not be as lavish as one would possibly anticipate, he’s recognized to have a love of distinctive automobiles, together with one that may morph right into a submarine. He additionally has a non-public jet assortment, value many thousands and thousands of {dollars}.

After which there was that small splurge again in 2022, when he purchased Twitter for an off-the-cuff $44bn.

Musk as soon as had a powerful real-estate portfolio. The Wall Road Journal reported in 2019 that he had spent $100m on seven homes in about seven years – most of them a stone’s throw from one another within the prestigious neighbourhood of Bel-Air, California.

Collectively, the properties boasted swimming swimming pools, a tennis court docket, wine cellar, personal library and a ballroom. One was a ranch home as soon as owned by legendary Willy Wonka actor Gene Wilder.

However in 2020, Musk had a change of coronary heart – tweeting that he can be “promoting virtually all bodily possessions” and “will personal no home”.

“Do not want the money. Devoting myself to Mars and Earth. Possession [sic] simply weigh you down,” he wrote.

There was one stipulation – that Gene Wilder’s home, “can’t be torn down or lose any [of] its soul”.

He did certainly promote the three-bedroom property – to Wilder’s nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman, after giving him a multi-million greenback mortgage to purchase it. However in June 2025, Musk reclaimed possession, after Mr Walker-Pearlman reportedly fell behind on the repayments.

In 2021, Musk tweeted that his “major house” was a modest prefabricated home that price him about $50,000 on the southern tip of Texas, the place his aerospace firm SpaceX operates – an space that has formally turn into a metropolis known as Starbase.

“It is kinda superior,” Musk mentioned in regards to the humble dwelling.

The next yr, Musk mentioned he didn’t personal a house in any respect, utilizing it for example of how low his consumption is, regardless of his monumental wealth.

“I am actually staying at buddies’ locations,” he instructed head of media organisation TED, Chris Anderson. “If I journey to the Bay Space, which is the place most of Tesla engineering is, I principally rotate by means of buddies’ spare bedrooms.”

That is nothing new – in 2015, then-Google CEO Larry Web page instructed writer Ashlee Vance that Musk was “form of homeless”.

“He’ll e-mail and say, ‘I do not know the place to remain tonight. Can I come over?'”

There was numerous hypothesis over time that Musk is shopping for up properties across the US, nevertheless the house in Texas seems to be the one official home he personally owns.

Whereas Musk doesn’t spend huge on property, automobiles are a unique matter.

Because the proprietor of Tesla, it isn’t shocking that he has a big assortment of surprising, and in some instances extraordinary, autos.

They’ve included a Ford Mannequin T, the twentieth Century automobile credited with being the primary reasonably priced car, revolutionising the motor business.

Others had been a 1967 Jaguar E-Kind Roadster, which Musk is claimed to have coveted since he was a baby; a 1997 McLaren F1, which he crashed and spent some huge cash repairing earlier than promoting; and a Tesla Roadster, which was the primary Tesla mannequin to go on sale and was famously fired into area by Musk in 2018.

Probably the most uncommon, nevertheless, is the 1976 Lotus Esprit pushed by James Bond within the 1977 movie The Spy Who Liked Me.

Within the movie, the automobile, nicknamed Moist Nellie, might remodel right into a submarine. Musk purchased the automobile in an public sale in 2013 for nearly $1m with the purpose of constructing its submarine transformation capabilities a actuality as soon as extra.

Musk has admitted that planes are one other factor he’s joyful to splurge on, however insists it’s to do along with his dedication to his work.

“If I do not use the airplane, then I’ve much less hours to work,” he mentioned within the 2022 TED interview.

Among the many personal jets in his assortment are quite a few Gulfstream fashions, which price tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} every.

He makes use of them to journey between SpaceX and Tesla websites within the US, in addition to for worldwide journey.

Musk has donated billions of {dollars} in shares to charities, in response to US regulatory paperwork, and has pledged many thousands and thousands to varied causes. However his philanthropy has been criticised.

The New York Occasions final yr known as it “haphazard and largely self-serving – making him eligible for big tax breaks and serving to his companies”.

His charitable organisation, the Musk Basis, says on its web site that it’s “devoted to advancing humanity’s progress by means of ground-breaking scientific analysis, technological innovation, and impressive endeavours that push the boundaries of what’s potential”.

However the New York Occasions reported that the inspiration fell wanting the quantity it was required to provide away for 3 years in a row. The paper, which noticed the inspiration’s tax filings, additionally discovered that lots of its donations went to organisations with hyperlinks to Musk.

Elon Musk, and the Musk Basis have been contacted for remark.

When requested about philanthropy and charitable causes prior to now, Musk seemed to be sceptical of conventional charitable items.

“I believe in the event you care in regards to the actuality of goodness as an alternative of the notion of it, philanthropy is extraordinarily troublesome,” he instructed Chris Anderson in 2022.

To Musk, the very existence of his enterprise ventures is philanthropic: “In case you say philanthropy is love of humanity, they’re philanthropy,” he insisted.

Tesla is “accelerating sustainable vitality”, he mentioned, whereas SpaceX “is attempting to make sure the long-term survival of humanity” and Neuralink “is attempting to assist resolve mind accidents and existential threat with AI”.