Elon Musk accepts offer for giant California mansion

The world’s richest man appears to be making good on his promise to sell all of his land as he builds capital for a Mars exodus.

Elon Musk looks to have found a buyer for his $32 million (A$43.7 million) California mansion, according to US real estate listing website Zillow.

The world’s richest man, who has previously stated his goal to sell every last house he owns, has reportedly accepted an initial offer but is still negotiating conditions for the sale.

The 47-acre property in Hillsborough, California was purchased by the Tesla CEO in 2017. The giant homestead features has 4,876m of interior space, seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and a library with leather walls. The house, built in 1912, also features an extensive kitchen equipped for a private chef.

Musk, who now claims he lives in a small house in Texas rented from his company SpaceX, has been selling up property left right and centre, claiming to be pooling cash for his long-anticipated exodus to Mars.

“I think it is important for humanity to become a spacefaring civilisation and a multiplanet species. And it’s going to take a lot of resources to build a city on Mars,” Musk said in January.

“I want to be able to contribute as much as possible to the city on Mars. That means just a lot of capital.”

“I’m also just trying to make clear that I’m serious about this. And it’s not about personal consumption. Because people will attack me and say, ‘oh, he’s got all these possessions’.

“Ok, now I don’t have them anymore. In fact, I’ll have basically almost no possessions with a monetary value, apart from the stock in the companies.

“If things are intense at work, I like just sleeping in the factory or the office. And I obviously need a place if my kids are there. So, I’ll just rent a place or something,” he said.

Elon Musk looks to have founded a buyer for his $32 million (A$43.7 million) California mansion, according to US real estate listing website Zillow.

The billionaire, who has a reported net worth of about $US300 billion ($A407 billion), has made it his goal to colonise Mars in his lifetime, however recent bumps in the road for Tesla have been putting the 50-year-old in a pickle.

The Tesla boss recently posted a poll asking his 64 million followers whether he should sell off 10 per cent of his stock, as the US’s “billionaire tax” targeting the top 1 per cent’s growing wealth pool gained traction.

The world’s richest man, who has previously stated his goal to sell every last house he owns, has reportedly accepted an initial offer but is still negotiating conditions for the sale. Source: Zillow.

The post, now being dubbed online as “the most expensive tweet in history”, sparked a chain reaction, sending the electric car company’s stock into free-fall.

According to Bloomberg, Mr Musk’s $50 billion hit marked the biggest two-day decline in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It was also the biggest one-day fall after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s $US36 billion ($A49 bn) hit following his 2019 divorce from MacKenzie Scott.

Musk has now offloaded company shares worth US$5.7 billion, days after a controversial Twitter poll. The Tesla CEO is taking advantage of a meteoric Tesla share price rally that drove the company’s market capitalisation past $1 trillion in late October.

On Saturday, Mr Musk posted a poll on Twitter, asking if he should sell 10 per cent of his stock.

There were 3,519,252 votes and 57.9 per cent voted in favour of him selling the shares.

A batch of shares worth $US1.1 billion ($A1.5 billion) were sold on Monday in a bid to settle tax obligations after Mr Musk exercised stock options.

The billionaire, who has a net worth of about $US300 billion ($A407 billion), has made it his goal to colonise Mars in his lifetime, however recent bumps in the road for Tesla have been placing the 50-year-old in a pickle.

Tesla’s share price plunged on Monday after the weekend poll, hitting his net worth by $50 billion, but the carmaker bounced back on Wednesday, rising more than four per cent to close at US$1067.95.

Mr Musk’s tweets on Saturday followed a proposal by US Congressional Democrats to tax the super wealthy more heavily by targeting stocks, which are usually only taxed when sold.

The spectacle prompted by Mr Musk’s intervention on a very serious issue — income equality in the United States and who should pay for social safety net programs — was not well received by critics.

“Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll,” tweeted US Senator Ron Wyden.

“It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax,” he added, drawing a personal insult in a reply from Mr Musk.