Elon Musk, a man whose net worth is more than a quarter of a trillion dollars , sits comfortably in first place as the richest person in the world.
Despite his massive fortune, Musk says he isn’t so different from the rest of us, particularly when it comes to his sleeping habits.
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Musk gave an interview with TED recently.
Speaking with Chris Anderson, who leads the TED organization, Musk said that he does a lot of couch surfing. In fact, he went a step further and claimed he doesn’t even own a home.
…Elon Musk is homeless?
Taken at face value, Musk is a person without a home.
“I don’t even own a place right now,” Musk explained. “I’m literally staying at friends’ places. If I travel to the Bay Area, which is where most of Tesla’s engineering is, I basically rotate through friends’ spare bedrooms.”
There’s nothing wrong with couch surfing, but still…
Most of us have crashed on a few couches in our time, but there’s a difference between someone who makes five figures doing it to save a few bucks, and the person who’s literally the world’s richest man doing it.
Musk was responding to a question about wealth disparity.
With the gulf between rich and poor continuing to grow, income inequality is a very real issue.
“For sure, it would be very problematic if I was spending billions of dollars a year in personal consumption, but that is not the case.”
He went on to explain that, just like you or me, he doesn’t own a yacht. For what it’s worth, he does own a jet .
He says his personal consumption isn’t that high.
“I mean, the one exception is the plane,” he acknowledged. Musk also went on to admit that his wealth is ‘bonkers.’
While Musk is fabulously wealthy, it does seem like he has a weird habit of living cheap.
Two years ago, he said he’d sell all his stuff.
This tweet from 2020 shows Musk’s intention to not own a house, which might explain why he’s couch-surfing in 2022. Notably, this tweet refers only to ‘physical possessions’, though, so it isn’t like Musk was promising to shed his overall wealth.
He’s a man who draws attention to himself.
While Musk bristled at the question about income inequality, he quickly turned it into an opportunity to discuss his unconventional habits. It’s just the latest in a long line of attention-grabbing stunts, from flame wars with Russia to straight-up buying Twitter .
About that Twitter thing…
Musk’s efforts to buy Twitter may be in vain, because while he can technically afford the company, he may be blocked from doing so. If this happens, it’ll be interesting to see if he continues using what’s been his preferred social media platform.
He’s a unique billionaire.
Love him or hate him, Elon Musk has a real knack for getting into the headlines. Do you really think he has no home and just couch surfs rather than getting a hotel room? Check out his TED interview above, and then let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
