The world's richest man once spent a million dollars on a car that couldn't drive, but
that's just the tip of the iceberg for the insane ways Elon Musk spends his billions.
One major expenditure for Musk was $100 million in residential property in California.
Most of these homes were in the LA area, and at one time he owned seven separate homes.
His first piece of property was a Bel Air home that he'd been renting for two years,
which he ended up buying for $17 million in 2012.
It's a modest 20,248 square feet and has seven bedrooms and a two-story library, with a pool
and tennis court in the backyard.
The property also includes an on-site gym and expansive wine cellar.
The property ended up being sold off in 2020 for $29 million, earning Musk a small profit.
On the same street as his massive mansion, Musk also bought a more humble home for $6.75
million in October of 2013.
Famed actor Gene Wilder lived in the 2,756 square foot home for over 30 years, until
leaving it in 2007.
Musk didn't actually live at the home though, instead using the three bedroom home as a
private school house for his children, which he described as “like a little schoolhouse
on the prairie, except in Bel Air on a golf course”.
After pledging to get rid of his properties though, Musk put the home on the market for
$9.5 million in May 2020, but any buyers had to promise not to tear the home down or make
any major modifications- it would end up going for $7 million to Elizabeth Hunter, who is
married to Gene Wilder's nephew, and it's rumored that Musk himself lent the couple
most of the money to buy it.
Then in 2015 and 2016 Musk bought three more Bel Air mansions, a ranch home for $20 million,
an unfinished mansion for $24.25 million and another mansion for $4.3 million, but apparently
he didn't spend any time there as neighbors told reporters that nobody was ever present
on the property.
On top of those three costly properties, Musk also bought another two story home for an
estimated $4.2 million...also in Bel Air!
He must have really loved the Fresh Prince.
In 2020 all of these properties, worth about $62.2 million, ended up being sold, yet again
cutting Musk a tidy little profit.
Hopping over to Brentwood, California, Musk bought a home with his ex-wife for $3.7 million
in 2014, but sold it for $4 million in 2019.
Musk's final home though is in San Francisco, and is a 100 year old 16,000 square foot mansion
with 10 bedrooms, its own hiking trails, and a full-blown ballroom.
Musk bought it for $23.4 million in 2017 and listed it for $35 million in 2020 as part
of his pledge to dump all of his properties and live more simply.
Real estate may have once been a passion of Musk's, but anyone who's ever driven a Tesla
knows that the man absolutely loves cars.
In 2013 Musk bought one of the Lotus Esprit cars used by James Bond in 'The Spy Who Loved
Me'.
He paid almost $1 million dollars for the car, though the car apparently cannot be physically
driven.
That's because this was the vehicle specially modified for filming the underwater scenes.
Instead it has a bank of four propellers in the rear of the vehicle and a water-tight
compartment with an electric motor to power them.
It even has fins on the side which can be used to steer it while underwater.
During filming, a former Navy SEAL actually drove the vehicle while wearing full scuba
gear, as the car's interior was not water-tight.
Incredibly, the car that Musk paid $1 million for was accidentally discovered by a building
contractor who bought a storage unit for just $100, and found the dilapidated vehicle within.
After discovering what it used to be, they carefully restored it, earning themselves
an almost million dollar payday.
Oh, and if the car looks familiar to you it should, because Musk admitted that it serve
to inspire his famous cybertruck.
Musk has also acquired a Porsche 911, an original Ford Model T, a Jaguar E-type Series 1 Roadster,
an Audi Q7, a Hamann BMW M5, and a McLaren F1.
Famously, Musk ended up completely totaling his F1, as he lost control of the 627 horsepower
monster while driving a friend to a meeting.
According to Musk, as the duo was driving, his friend asked him to really show him what
the car could do, to which Musk replied: “Watch this.”
What his friend ended up witnessing was Musk punching the accelerator, completely losing
control of the massively powerful vehicle, spinning out of control and smashing into
an embankment.
Miraculously nobody was injured, but the car was totaled (use photo https://twitter.com/TheNamesTipo/status/1226587484005584896/photo/1).
Prophetically, Musk said that he had often heard about individuals becoming rich, buying
fancy sports cars, and immediately wrecking them- but he was sure he'd never be that guy
so he didn't even bother to get the car insured.
Ultimately, Musk took a million dollar wash as the F1 got junked.
But if you're looking for outlandish expenses on rich-people hobbies, prepare to be disappointed,
because by Musk's on admission, he doesn't have many hobbies.
Instead he prefers to read, play video games, and spend his time on Twitter- admittedly,
probably too much time.
As far as lavish vacations, Musk doesn't seem to take many, famously doing an annual camping
vacation with his children and barely taking a day off from work otherwise.
Where Musk has spent most of his money has been in his two babies, SpaceX and Tesla.
Musk's stated goal is to build a Mars City, a second home for humanity that can eventually
be self-sustaining and an insurance policy for life back here on earth.
In a bid to do that, Musk has spent undisclosed millions of his own private wealth on keeping
SpaceX funded and alive during its troubling first few years.
He's since directed much of his efforts towards two major, world-changing projects within
Space X: Starship One and Starlink.
Musk's reusable rockets have revolutionized space flight, and made SpaceX the most successful
private space company in the world.
They've dramatically cut down the launch costs and sped up launch schedules- but if humanity
is going to move to the stars, even Musk's Falcon rockets aren't enough.
Enter Starship, a rocket that is not just massive, but truly reusable.
This huge rocket, reminiscent of something from 1950s science fiction, is even bigger
than the Saturn V that took man to the moon.
At the very top is the spaceship itself, capable of carrying up to 110 tons into orbit.
The bottom is a superheavy rocket that will launch the vehicle.
Unlike other SpaceX rockets though, the entire system is meant to be reusable, with the actual
vehicle also capable of returning to earth and landing like a jet liner.
The scope of Starship is incredibly ambitious, and to date prototypes have successfully landed-
but only after flying as high as 500 feet.
The next major project Musk has personally spent millions funding is Starlink.
A constellation network made up of hundreds of satellites, Starlink is meant to bring
global internet access to the entire world.
Currently, Starlink will cost you $500 to pre-order the hardware needed, and has a monthly
charge of $99 once service goes live.
While this may cost more than standard internet providers, Starlink differs in that in just
a few years time Musk vows that you'll be able to use your Starlink service literally
anywhere on the globe, providing a low latency high-speed internet connection across every
square inch of planet earth.
Tesla is another cash cow for Musk, but for a long time it was a cash black hole.
It's well known that in the early days Musk was pouring much of his own money into the
company, relying on friends for loans just to live day to day.
How much he's poured into the company is unknown, but we can say for certain that he’s made
a lot of profit on his initial investments.
Musk has also redirected much of his personal wealth to The Boring Company and Neuralink.
The Boring Company is committed to creating underground infrastructure that seeks to solve
the problems of traffic congestion and connect cities with very high speed railways.
It's yet another moonshot from the person who may be the most ambitious man in the modern
age, but it's also very likely to have a profound payoff in time- right now the company is still
privately owned and largely working on developing its technology, but it has already successfully
built the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop, cutting down a walking trip from one end of
the convention center campus that used to take 25 minutes to a 2 minute ride.
Neuralink is focused on creating high bandwidth connections between computers and the human
brain, a technology that will absolutely revolutionize the world if successful.
Musk has sunk $100 million into the company, and it's known that the Department of Defense
is a major supporter and very interested in the technology the company is attempting to
develop.
One a more selfless note, some of Musk’s biggest expenditures have actually been in
the field of charity.
In 2018 he'd already given just under $100 million to various charities, and when he
became the world's wealthiest man, he immediately began a big philanthropic spending spree.
In the fall of 2020 he took Feeding Texas, a charity committed to ending hunger in Texas,
completely by surprise after responding to one of their tweets asking for Covid relief
aid and giving them $100,000.
Then, when winter storms hit Texas and took out its power infrastructure, the organization
reached out and this time Musk gave them an additional $1 million.
According to the head of Feeding Texas, Celia Cole, it was “a quick ask and a quick yes”.
Musk also pledged to give the city of Brownsville, Texas, $30 million after choosing it as a
site for a Space X facility.
The pledge came as a surprise to the mayor of the city, and while the donation hasn't
been given yet, the mayor has put together a team on how to spend the money per Musk's
request.
That $30 million dollar figure includes $20 million for education, and $10 million for
revitalizing the city's downtown area, which will hopefully bring in more visitors and
business for locals.
Musk has also given $5 million to Khan Academy, a platform for online courses, and another
$5 million to two Boston researchers studying the coronavirus.
He's also given an undisclosed amount to a fund meant to help bring internet access to
the developing world.
His biggest charitable expense though is a $100 million prize, known as the Xprize, for
a competition meant to discover solutions to capture and permanently lock away carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere.
The competition is expected to last four years, with the best, most feasible technology presented
awarding its inventors a tenth of a billion to kickstart their operation.
Critics point out that so far Musk has given less than 1% of his wealth, but Musk has promised
that will change and that the world shouldn't expect his biggest charitable contributions
until later in his life.
That's because his businesses are relatively new, and if he were to sell off Tesla or SpaceX
stock to fund charitable giving in huge amounts right now, it would end up bankrupting both
companies and losing many people their jobs.
He has signed on to the Giving Pledge, an international agreement amongst the world's
wealthiest individuals to give away most of their wealth before their deaths.
When it comes to spending money Musk is kind of a boring guy, preferring instead to invest
money into creating more revolutionary technologies and companies than taking typical rich people
vacations to faraway islands where hunting man is legal.
Musk's continued reinvestment of his money into companies that could reshape human society
may ensure his continued reign atop the throne of the world's richest man, and one day given
his pledge to give most of his wealth to charity, he could also take the crown of the most charitable
man in history.
Now go watch Elon Musk vs Average American- How do they compare?
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