Did you know that Elon Musk makes approximately
$656 per second? That's according to Coin Codex,
and it can add up to over
$54,000,000 in just one day.
His net worth is around $200 billion.
That honestly seems unfathomable. It surpasses the economic output of
more than
150 countries. So where did this tech prodigy turned right
wing darling get all of his money?
And how does he burn his billions?
I'm Joy Marie McKenzie, business insiders editor in chief of
our lifestyle division.
Elon Musk's road to riches began in
1995 when he and his brother launched a website that
provided City Guides to newspapers.
It was called Zip 2 and in
1999 they sold it for over
300 million dollars. So at just 27 years old Musk
made over $20 million
from that one deal alone.
He then Co founded an online banking site called
x.com which later became PayPal.
EBay bought PayPal for 1 1/2 billion dollars in
2002 and musks fortune just skyrocketed.
In the same year he Co founded SpaceX.
What is it with the sky and the letter X?
But his plans for SpaceX were to colonize Mars by
2050.
His biggest venture was still ahead though.
In 2004 must took six and a half million dollars
and invested it into a company you might know called
Tesla.
He eventually became the CEO,
and the company's mission, as you probably already know,
is making electric cars a new way of life.
That move cemented his fate as one of the world's
richest people.
A significant amount of Musk's net worth today is tied
to Tesla,
but he doesn't get his paychecks from the company.
Instead, he gets shares in stock options.
So far, he has a Tesla stake worth just a
cool
$127 billion. His net worth is around $200 billion.
That includes includes his stakes in SpaceX X and his
Tesla holdings and Musks.
Enormous wealth is still growing,
even though his investments are not always profitable.
The big one is SpaceX.
Musk invested $100 million to create the company back in
2002, and soon it was his second most profitable venture.
It eventually amounted to about
20% of his wealth, but the company has had its
ups and downs.
After multiple rocket launch failures,
SpaceX nearly folded in 2008.
That was until NASA save the day,
or at least the company with a
$1.6 billion contract to help deliver cargo to the International
Space Station.
These days, SpaceX is worth with
$180 billion, with AB making him $70 billion richer.
And I have to mention that absolutely named Boring Company
because
it really hasn't done anything.
The goal is to build underground tunnels where people can
travel in their own autonomous vehicles at speeds of up
to
150 mph. Honestly, it sounds like a normal Texas freeway.
Still mustarded it in 2016 with over $100 million.
So far, though, no one is blasting through tunnels like
the subterranean Speed Racer.
But this is Elon Musk we're talking about,
so I wouldn't count him out just yet.
Next up is Neuralink. Musk dropped $100 million
on this idea back in 2016.
The ultimate goal is implanting a brain chip in a
human being that can interact with external devices,
and a 29 year old quadriplegic has tried it out.
He says The brain chip is not perfect,
but it has changed his life.
Rounding out Elon Musk's big business ventures with what really
feels like a truly impulsive purchase that he may regret
later is X.
You and I still know it is Twitter,
though. The tech mogul snapped up Twitter for mere $44
billion
in 2022 and of course quickly changed the name to
X.
Now, was this a good investment
by pure number standards? No,
absolutely not. Since it's purchased and the name change,
the company has lost about half of its value.
But Musk has got so much money he can afford
to buy the platform and defeat what he calls the
Woke Mind virus.
So what has Musk actually purchased with all of his
riches?
Despite this 2020 tweet declaring to rid himself of all
possessions,
Musk still has a place to rest his head.
Over the years he's owned 7 properties just in California
alone,
spending more than $100 million
on his home sweet homes.
This one in Bellaire, California is a 20,000 square foot
home complete with A2 story library.
That honestly sounds like a dream.
Since that tweet, Musk has sold seven of his California
homes for nearly
$130 million. But his current residence is a bit of
a mystery.
Musk said he left California in 2020 to protest against
the state's high taxes and regulatory practices.
His current residence is in Boca Chica,
Texas. The price tag, though?
A lovely
$50,000. So maybe he is on a path to becoming
possession free.
A very, very slow path.
Musk has spent his millions on jets and cars.
He spent nearly $1,000,000 on the Lotus Esprit submarine car
used by the one and only James Bond and The
Spy Who Loved Me.
And he recently purchased this Gulfstream valued at
$78 million jet setting. At this level,
it's not cheap. Operating expenses alone can rack up to
$3.5 million. But it's not all luxury homes and fancy
vehicles running up his bills.
Musk once said that he likes to drink 8 cans
of Diet Coke a day off his poor stomach.
That would add up to over
$4000 a year, if true,
the very last thing that Musk spends his fortune on?
His charity. So far, he's given away less than 1%
of his net worth. If you have that much money,
people often point out that there are many places and
causes that could easily benefit.
But Musk seemingly doesn't care.
He recently made headlines for mocking Jeff Bezos
ex-wife Mackenzie Scott for her philanthropy.
She pledged to give $640 million
to hundreds of causes in 2012.
Musk promised to give away half of his wealth.
But there's a catch. His pledge says that he will
donate a majority of his wealth in his lifetime,
or in his will, when he definitely won't need it.
On Forbes philanthropy scale of one to five,
the magazine gives Musk's a mere one.
Compare that to billionaires like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates,
who both donated more than 40%
of their wealth. The Musk Foundation,
operated entirely by Elon Musk and his brother Kimball,
was even scrutinized for reportedly shady practices.
Musk's charity has fallen short of the minimum wired donations
set by tax laws to get the tax breaks that
it took.
In 2022, it gave away
$160 million, but it's also
$234 million short. And the money Musk has given away,
it's raised some eyebrows. The New York Times recently reported
that half of Musk charity donations between
2021 and 2022 had links right back to Musk and
his businesses,
like a $55 million donation to help out a SpaceX
customer.
Or, for example, the millions he gave to Cameron County
hours after a SpaceX rocket blew up in the area.
So maybe the best way to get a donation from
Elon Musk is by,
you know, being Elon Musk.