He is worth SEK 4,600 billion.
But what does Elon Musk actually do with his money?
On the one hand, the Tesla founder has an extensive collection of insanely expensive cars and jets and once made an “impulse purchase” for 482 billion kroner.
On the other hand, he has been described by friends and ex-partners as “a bit homeless” and “living below the poverty line”.
Elon Musk.
Photo: SUSAN WALSH / AP TT NEWS AGENCY
Musk has a private jet collection that includes several Gulfstream models.
Photo: REX / TT NEWS AGENCY
Tesla’s shareholders this week approved a compensation package worth SEK 10,000 billion for the company’s CEO Elon Musk.
– Thank you, everyone, said a dancing Musk at the general meeting in Texas.
Musk is the world’s richest man with a fortune of SEK 4,600 billion according to Forbes. For that he could buy a quarter of a trillion cheeseburgers, two billion bottles of Dom Pérignon or 383 billion bags of Jungle Roar.
But that’s not what he puts his money on.
Musk bought Twitter at the time for SEK 482 billion and renamed it X.
Photo: MATT ROURKE / AP TT NEWS AGENCY
Described as “a bit homeless”
In 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had spent close to a billion kroner on seven houses over as many years. The properties had swimming pools, tennis courts, wine cellars, private libraries and ballrooms.
But in 2020, Musk tweeted that he would “sell almost all physical assets” and “own no house.”
“Possessions just weigh you down,” Musk wrote.
He stated four years ago that he lived in a house in Texas worth less than half a million kroner, which he called “pretty cool”. The following year, Musk said he owned no home at all and “literally lives with friends.”
In 2015, then-Google CEO Larry Page said Musk was “a little homeless.”
– He emails and says: “I don’t know where I’m going to stay tonight, can I come over?”, said Page.
Grimes and Elon Musk in 2018.
Photo: CHARLES SYKES / AP TT NEWS AGENCY
Bought the Bond car
Ex-partner Grimes told Vanity Fair in 2022 that Musk once refused to buy a new mattress even though her side had a hole.
– He does not live like a billionaire. Sometimes he lives below the poverty line, Grimes said.
By way of comparison, three years ago he bought Twitter at the time for SEK 482 billion in what was described as an “impulse purchase” by SVT’s economic commentator Alexander Norén.
In addition to an extensive collection of private jets, which includes several Gulfstream models, Musk loves unusual cars. The large car collection has included an early 20th century Ford Model T, a 1967 Jaguar E-Type Roadster and a 1997 McLaren F1, which he crashed.
The most unusual car is a Lotus Esprit from 1976 that was driven by James Bond in the movie “Alskade spion” from 1977. In the movie, the car could be transformed into a submarine. Musk bought the car at auction in 2013 for close to ten million kroner with the goal of realizing the submarine function.
Musk bought the car that James Bond drove in the movie “Spy in love”. It could transform into a submarine.
Photo: Imdb
“Philanthropy is extremely difficult”
Musk has donated tens of billions of kroner in stock to charity, but The New York Times last year called his philanthropy “random and largely self-serving — entitling him to huge tax breaks and benefiting his company.”
“I think if you care about actual goodness rather than the perception of it, philanthropy is extremely difficult,” Musk said in 2022.
He himself regards the very existence of his companies as philanthropy.
– If you say that philanthropy is love for humanity, then they are philanthropy, Musk said.
