Inside Elon Musk’s Bel Air Mansion

Inside-Elon-Musk's-Bel-Air-Mansion

Elon Musk has been making headlines lately, and for no small feats: the 42-year-old founder of electric car company Tesla Motors has been wildly successful in his recent endeavors. For proof, you need look no further than his $17 million home in Bel Air, Calif.

The South African-born billionaire purchased the 20,000-square-foot mansion earlier this year after several years of renting it. The home has seven bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, more than enough space to accommodate Musk and his five sons. It sits on 1.66 acres of prime real estate and includes perks like a private movie theater, gym and outdoor tennis court.

Here’s a look inside the luxuriant abode with Bloomberg’s Betty Liu:

Musk can easily afford his new home. With a net worth of $2.7 billion as of March, the entrepreneur is now No. 181 on Forbes’ list of the richest Americans.

Where did all this wealth come from? Musk had his first big payday after he cofounded PayPal and later sold his share of the company. He walked away from that deal with $200 million, but the money didn’t last. Amid divorce proceedings in early 2010, Musk said simply, “I ran out of cash.” He cited the divorce, as well as multi-million-dollar investments in Tesla, left him with a depleted cash reserve.

Since then he’s been busy rebuilding his entrepreneurial empire. Dubbed a serial entrepreneur, Musk’s two major projects now are Tesla and SpaceX, a space exploration company he cofounded in 2002.

Musk’s ceaseless work on these projects is paying off: His personal net worth is consistently increasing, and both companies are doing quite well. Tesla reported a profit of $15 million in the first quarter of 2013. SpaceX, on the other hand, is partnering with NASA to help streamline transportation between the International Space Station and U.S. soil.

Musk no doubt will be in the news for his technological innovations for years to come.

But despite such hefty undertakings, it seems Musk isn’t too busy to check Twitter and have a bit of fun with it. Last month he retweeted a cheeky definition of the word buttload.

It’s nice to see that after earning two bachelor’s degrees and billions of dollars, Musk still has a bit of a sense of humor left.