Tesla chief executive officer and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has sold a sprawling Los Angeles mansion to the tune of $29 million, achieving a small step in a promise to dispose of all his earthly belongings.
The 48-year-old tycoon visionary had priced the Bel Air real estate earlier last month for $30 million after disclosing on Twitter last month that he would not own a home. The 16,000-square-foot structure has six rooms, 11 baths, and comes with a customized tennis court plus a two-story library.
The new owner of the 10911 Chalon Road property is an LLC linked to Chinese tech mogul they call William Ding, who founded Net Ease, the Wall Street Journal reported, Friday.
The sale was 40 percent more than the $17 million that Musk paid for the mansion back in 2012. Despite a volatile Los Angeles real estate market, the price was only a million dollar less compared to what Musk priced it for last May.
The inventor-entrepreneur also listed a 2,800-square-feet mansion at 10930 Chalon Road; one that's listed on the market for $10 million. Musk would later go on listing five more properties: four in Bel Air and one in the Bay Area, for a total $97.5 million.
Musk revealed to the Journal in May this year that he is not selling the mansions to raise money for his business ventures, but to "make my life as simple as possible right now," a TRD Los Angeles staff, wrote.
In late March, Musk sparked a bit of a controversy by tweet-bombing his criticism to Gov. Gavin Newsom's shelter-in-place mandate, a step that kept SpaceX and Tesla workers from commuting to work. Musk then threatened that he would restart his Tesla facility, and later stated he would transfer his businesses out of California. He eventually had a change of heart, Matthew Blake of Wall Street Journal reported, as posted on TRD L.A.
Records show that the mansion's buyer, Mr. Lei, is a Chinese national who remains unknown in the US but was once listed as the wealthiest person in China. Today, Lei is valued at over $25 billion, based on a Forbes record.
Ding founded the NetEase titan group of holdings firms that all in all make up one of the world's biggest online gaming conglomerates, second in only to China's Tencent.
Musk has pledged to dispose of all his mansions and belongings in order to focus his existence "to Mars and Earth." "I don't need the money," the eccentric tycoon tweeted last month. "Possessions just weigh you down," he said, Nicolas Vega of the New York Post, wrote.
