Billionaire Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and one of the single largest shareholders of social media giants, Twitter, Elon Musk, may be the richest man in the world presently with a net worth of $269.5 billion according to Forbes, but he claims to be homeless as he doesn’t own his personal house and sleeps in his friends’ spare bedrooms.
Musk made the revelation on Monday in a video interview with the non-profit organization TED, famously known for its popular “TED Talks” and conference, where he discussed his life and challenges as a billionaire.
“I don’t even own a place right now. I’m literally staying at friends’ places,” the money man said.
“If I travel to the Bay Area, which is where most of Tesla’s engineering is, I basically rotate through friends’ spare bedrooms,” the Tesla CEO added.
When asked about wealth disparity across the world and the amount of money spent by billionaires on luxury goods and properties, Musk said he does not believe in such luxuries as he doesn’t have a yacht nor take vacations.
“I don’t have a yacht, I don’t take vacations. I think there’s axiomatic flaws that are leading to that conclusion. It would be very problematic if I would be consuming billions of dollars a year in personal consumption, but that is not the case,” he said.
The Twitter shareholder, however, admitted to having an exception in his private plane which he sees as a necessity.
“It’s not as though my personal consumption is high, with the one exception being the plane. If I don’t use the plane, then I have less hours to work,” he added.
Last year, the billionaire had tweeted that his primary residence is a rental from SpaceX, worth $50,000, and in the same tweet, he had also admitted to owning an “events house” in the Bay.
According to a statement released by Swiss commodities trader, Mercuria, on Thursday, it has established a metals trading arm with Zambia, the second-largest producer of copper in Africa.
The trading unit is jointly owned by Mercuria and an arm of Zambia’s Industrial Development Company (IDC), and its purpose is to allow Zambia to engage directly in the minerals trading market.
The joint venture “envisages the establishment of a vehicle to market and trade Zambian copper by mutual leverage,” according to a statement from Cornwell Muleya, the CEO of IDC.
The southern African nation wants to increase copper output to roughly 3 million metric tonnes within the next ten years, and in 2023, it produced roughly 698,000 tonnes of copper, down from 763,000 metric tonnes the year before.
In June, the Zambian government announced that it would establish a minerals trading unit.
Investors including First Quantum Minerals and Barrick Gold are ramping up production, with output set to receive a further boost once Vedanta Resources’ Konkola Copper Mines restart activity.
“Our joint venture with IDC marks a significant milestone for Zambia as it positions itself more strategically in the global minerals market,” Kostas Bintas, Mercuria’s global head of metals and minerals, said in the statement.
Additional financing for humanitarian aid to Sudan and initiatives to strengthen civil society in the nation, where a conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions, will be announced by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the United Nations on Thursday.
Blinken will make many announcements when he leads a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan on Thursday, which will centre on humanitarian aid and civilian protection, Deputy U.S. Representative to the UN Ned Price told reporters on Wednesday.
According to Price, the announcements would include more money for humanitarian help, initiatives to strengthen civil society, and the return of democracy.
“Sudan, unfortunately, has risked becoming a forgotten conflict,” Price said.
“So part of the reason the secretary … opted to convene a signature event on this very topic is to make sure it remains in the spotlight,” Price said.
For almost 18 months, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and Sudan’s army have been engaged in combat, resulting in a severe humanitarian crisis that has forced over 12 million people from their homes and made it difficult for U.N. organisations to provide aid.
A power struggle between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces preceded a planned shift to civilian administration, which sparked the conflict in April 2023.
Although the army declined to join this year’s U.S.-mediated peace negotiations in Geneva, the warring parties did pledge to increase assistance access, which prevented any movement towards a ceasefire.
Price stated that before President Joe Biden’s term ends next month, the United States would keep collaborating with allies to enhance humanitarian access in Sudan and eventually end hostilities.
“We are going to leave nothing on the field in our efforts to work with allies, with partners, with the Sudanese stakeholders themselves, on the issues that matter most – humanitarian access, the provision of humanitarian assistance, ultimately, the process by which we can work to get to a cessation of hostilities, which is most urgently needed,” he said.