ELON MUSK IS THE WORLD'S RICHEST PERSON AFTER SELLING ALL HIS POSSESSIONS TO COLONISE MARS

Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, has officially been crowned the world's richest person after surpassing Jeff Bezos early on Thursday.

The billionaire wants to have as much capital as possible to fund a future colony on Mars and confirmed that he is selling all his possessions. The SpaceX founder stated that he plans on sending one million people to Mars by the year 2050. To do so, he plans on building a fleet of 1,000 Starships to ferry them there and aims to launch three of the 387-foot rockets SpaceX is developing for deep-space travel each day.

Musk also has grand plans for spending his roughly $188 billion net worth. He recently confirmed that he aims to dedicate as much money as he can to colonising Mars. The CEO is selling most of his material possessions in the process. "In fact, I'll have basically almost no possessions with a monetary value, apart from the stock in the companies," Musk said. 

"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."

This did not come as a shock as Musk announced his plans last year May already that he planned to sell "almost all" of his belongings and that he "will own no house."

Since this announcement in 2020, Musk has sold off several of his homes in his real estate portfolio. Some of the high-dollar properties that he has sold included three neighbouring homes in the Bel-Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles, and an estate which formerly belonged to the actor, Gene Wilder. The properties were once worth upwards of $100 million. Musk is also parting ways with his California real estate as he is moving to Texas, which has no state income tax.

The billionaire told Insider that the main reason he is accumulating wealth isn't for material possessions, but to fund a colony on 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. I want to be able to contribute as much as possible to the city on Mars. That means just a lot of capital."

In his efforts to sell his material possessions, Musk aims to inform people that he is committed to going to Mars. Musk added to the Insider that; "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. He's got all these houses. OK, now I don't have them anymore."

The CEO changed the pinned post on his Twitter profile to a 2018 tweet in which he promised to commit half of his wealth to build a city on Mars. It says "to ensure the continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor. Like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves."

In the journey to Mars Musk added that he intends for there to be "loans available for those who don't have money," and jobs on the Red Planet for colonists to pay off their debts.