The Fabulous Real Estate of Billion-Dollar CEO Elon Musk
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is one of the greatest innovative minds in history. Even though he says he doesn't know what a business is, Elon's co-founded four billion dollar companies in PayPal (which he sold for $1.5B), SpaceX, Tesla Motors and SolarCity, building a $12B fortune along the way.
But how innovative is he with his real estate? Here's a look at his sweet crib, state-of-the-art headquarters and groundbreaking factories.
Elon lives in a ritzy Bel Air mansion atop a 72.3k SF hilltop, which he purchased in 2013 for $17M. We imagine it has great views, one being the Bel Air Country Club. The house itself is broken into different wings but totals 20.2k SF.
Not only is this pool gorgeous, but it's heated for, you know, those freezing Los Angeles winters.
Elon's brick-covered kitchen is huge.
Elon had rented the mansion for three years before finally purchasing it. The house has multiple sitting rooms in which he could've contemplated that decision.
There are seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, but the master bedroom—ahem—suite, also has a lounge area.
Forget his-and-her closets. The house features his-and-her baths.
Founded in 2003, Tesla Motors designs and manufactures electric cars and battery products. In 2010, Tesla became the first American car company to have gone public since Ford did in 1956.
With a market cap of about $28B, Tesla's corporate headquarters is located in the sunny tech hub Fremont, CA. Known as Nuumi, the former GM and Toyota factory consists of 5.5M SF, featuring a plastics molding factory and two paint facilities to total 1.5 miles of assembly lines.
The assembly section of the Tesla assembly line is big and bright.
The manufacturing process of the Tesla Model S uses more than 160 specialist robots, 10 of them being the largest in the world.
Located right outside of Sparks, NV is the under-construction Gigafactory 1, which will begin cell production for Tesla by 2017. By 2020, the factory is expected to produce more lithium ion batteries annually than were done worldwide in 2013.
The name for the factory comes from its planned annual battery production capacity of 35 gigawatt-hours.
The factory will be powered by renewable energy sources.
Although not yet completed, it'll be a massive 5.5M SF, with a price tag of $5B.
Officially known as Space Exploration Technologies, SpaceX is the first private space company to attempt to send its own cargo on a roundtrip to the International Space Station.
The main goal, however, is to "make it possible for people to live on other planets." So think FedEx and American Airlines, but in space. Its headquarters—aka home base—isin Hawthorne, CA.
The huge factory spans 550k SF.
Here are parts of one of the Falcon 9 rockets, which is a family of launch vehicles used to transport NASA cargo.
Part of Iron Man 2 was filmed on the SpaceX factory floor. Elon even had a cameo.
Launch Complex 40 is SpaceX's first launch site, rented from NASA and located in Cape Canaveral, FL.
But SpaceX's new commercial satellite launch site will be located in Brownsville, TX, and set to be operational by 2016.
Over the 50 acres of private land, the complex hopes to achieve up to 12 launches a year, making it the first spaceport to be built entirely by a private company.
But for now, SpaceX currently tests its rockets on a tripod standing in McGregor, TX. To residents, it sounds like an unsettling earthquake.
Elon is also chairman of SolarCity, a company operated by two of his cousins. With a market cap of $5.7B, SolarCity wants to make solar power mass adopted.
Elon's second gigafactory in Buffalo, NY is dedicated to the SolarCity mission. When complete, the 1.2M SF factory will manufacture up to 10,000 solar panels daily.
New York Governor Cuomo participated in the "topping off" ceremony this past August for new factory, signing a steel beam. The project will create a total of 5,000 jobs within the state.
The solar panels (shown above) will be built in the new gigafactory; but SolarCity's HQ will remain in Fremont, CA in the former factory to Solyndra, an (ironically) now-closed solar panel company.
