Why do you keep so much of your wealth?

“I mean, I, like, I need to have sufficient voting control in the companies to, you know, still be in charge. So it’s the, you know, my sort of so-called wealth is simply a percentage ownership in the, in the, in SpaceX and Tesla essentially, and this is going to be taxed quite heavily, and there’s not some magical way to avoid taxes. If, if it were, I would know about it. So, you know, at the end of the day, the, this will get whittled down, and a few generations from now, so if money still matters, which I don’t think it will, you know, my descendants would have a tiny fraction of what I have.”

— Elon Musk, 6 August 2026 · Watch: YouTube (22:05) ↗