Elon Musk Says He’s Currently Couch Surfing and Doesn’t Own a House

Elon Musk revealed in an interview with TED’s Chris Anderson that he currently doesn’t own a house and relies on the kindness of friends to keep a roof over his head. 

“I don’t even own a place right now, I’m literally staying at friends’ places,” Musk said at the 1:01:24 mark of the interview. “If I travel to the Bay Area, which is where most of Tesla’s engineering is, I basically rotate through friends’ spare bedrooms.” The revelation from the Tesla and SpaceX CEO comes after Anderson asked him about the general disdain that people have for billionaires like himself. 

The richest person in the world said that he doesn’t have the same frivolous spending habits as those in the same tax bracket as him, claiming his biggest purchase was a plane that he uses because without it, he “would have less hours to work.” 

Musk posted a tweet last June where he claimed that his only residence was a rental from SpaceX in its Texas location for about $50,000. TMZ shared photos of the modest 375-square-foot, one bedroom living arrangement. 

The previous year, Elon tweeted that he was selling all of his personal items, leaving him without a home. 

Musk flexed his wealth last week by offering to buy Twitter for $43 billion. Twitter responded by exercising the “poison pill” defense that would lower his share totals, which stand at 9.2 percent. Elon said he believed he could unlock the platform’s “extraordinary potential” with the acquisition and threatened to reconsider his investment in the company if his offer wasn’t accepted.