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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Alex Bellotti

How ultra-billionaires spend fortunes - Musk's $1m submarine car, Bezos' odd breakfasts

How would you spend a billion pounds? How about £10billion? Or maybe £146billion?

Jeff Bezos certainly has a few ways to while away his time as he steps down as the boss of Amazon today - boasting an eye-watering property portfolio that includes a £130million Californian mansion.

The US billionaire is the world's richest man, according to Forbes' latest rich list, with fashion tycoon Bernard Arnault in second place ahead of tech boffins Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

Between them, the moguls have a dazzling array of spectacular homes, supercars and yachts - as well as a few quirky indulgences like submarine cars, trampoline rooms and the odd space station.

Over the weekend, Facebook boss Zuckerberg also raised eyebrows when he zipped along on a wakeboard awkwardly waving an American flag to celebrate Independence Day.

So in that spirit, here are the weird and wonderful ways the world's super-rich spend their fortunes.

Jeff Bezos - £146billion

For Jeff Bezos, splashing out $100,000 is the rough equivalent of the average worker dropping £1.

It's no surprise then that he's ploughed his money into some serious real estate, with homes spread across New York, Washington, Texas and Los Angeles.

Bezos' sprawling estate in Beverly Hills (Calabrese, CelebrityHomePhotos)

The 51-year-old's estate in Washington DC, part of which is an £18.6million converted textile museum, is the largest home in the state - while his more recent purchase of a £130million mansion in Beverly Hills broke the record for a house sale in California.

While his garage is lined with supercars including a £3.7million Lamborghini Veneno, he's said to favour a more modest motor for the commute - rocking up to Amazon HQ in a Honda Accord.

Nonetheless, when he does decide to travel in style, he can call upon his $65million Gulfstream G650ER.

Bezos' high-profile divorce from ex-wife MacKenzie famously set him back $38billion, but the the Washington Post owner still has a few quid to spend on the finer things in life.

The former textile museum in Washington converted into one of the mogul's high-end homes (The Washington Post/Getty Images)

While entertaining the owner of a start-up he was planning to acquire, Bezos is said to have unusually ordered octopus for breakfast.

He apparently explained: "You're the octopus that I'm having for breakfast. When I look at the menu, you're the thing I don't understand, the thing I've never had. I must have the breakfast octopus."

Like any true ultra-billionaire, Bezos loves a rocket ship and plans to invest huge sums in his space exploration company Blue Origin - the base of which operates from his ranch in Van Horn, Texas.

The venture is currently developing the New Glenn rocket system, which is intended to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Bernard Arnault - £137billion

The world's second richest man keeps a far lower profile than his contemporaries.

Bernard Arnault's vast fortune comes from his investments in LVMH, an empire of 70 brands that includes Louis Vuitton and Sephora and saw the 72-year-old briefly top Bezos on the rich list earlier this year.

The Frenchman's full-time residence is a 150-year-old castle in north-west Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux, while he also hasfive separate homes in Beverly Hills worth a combined $125million.

Bernard Arnault on board his private jet between Beijing and Shanghai (Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Arnault is said to own Indigo Island, the 135-acre Bahamas retreat that rents out holiday getaways for $300,000 a week - with celeb fans including Johnny Depp and Katy Perry.

His $150million superyacht Symphony is more than 100m long and offers guests a glass-bottom swimming pool, an outdoor cinema, and a hot tub on the sun deck.

An avid art fan, his world-class collection features works by Picasso, Henry Moore, Andy Warhol, and Yves Klein.

Arnault owns the $150m superyacht Symphony (MEGA)

Following the Notre Dame fire of 2019, Arnault also pledged €200million to rebuild the famous cathedral.

Elon Musk - £121billion

Another who briefly took the crown as world's richest man this year, Elon Musk has so much money he even asked Twitter for ideas on what to do with it.

“Critical feedback is always super appreciated, as well as ways to donate money that really make a difference (way harder than it seems)," he said in January.

A famous workaholic, the Tesla and Paypal founder, 50, insists he doesn't invest in superyachts or holidays, but instead devotes his fortune towards his space company Space X.

Elon Musk and his partner, the musician Grimes (Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)

"About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves,” he previously wrote.

The tech tycoon has certainly stepped back from a life of luxury, last year revealing that he planned to sell off most of his physical possessions and "own no house".

Shortly afterwards, a string of properties owned by the billionaire reportedly hit the market, including a £29million Bel Air mansion and a 47-acre estate in San Francisco.

Musk is reportedly trying to offload this home in San Francisco, the last that he owns, for $37.5million (REALTOR/PLANET PHOTOS)

Musk does, however, have a weakness for fast cars. His garage holds a 1920 Ford Model T, a 1967 Jaguar E-Type Roadster and even the Lotus Esprit 'submarine car' that featured in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, which he bought for $1million.

Shunning the traditional private jet, he instead owns a Aero L-39 Albatros Russian fighter jet, of which he once said: "Your butt hurts if you fly in it for more than an hour. The seats are really hard."

Bill Gates - £93billion

Bill Gates and wife Melinda shocked the world earlier this year when they revealed they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage.

Quite how they will split his £93million fortune remains to be seen, but over the decades they have built up a reputation as one of the world's most generous philanthropists, donating tens of billions to charitable causes.

When he has splashed the cash, the Microsoft genius, 65, has invested heavily in his stunning Xanadu 2.0 estate in Medina, Washington.

Bill Gates has donated billions to charity since emerging as a tech mogul in the 1980s (Getty Images)

Built for $63million after the lot was snapped up in 1988, the home is full of quirky customisations, including $80,000 worth of computer screens.

Gates revealed to US TV host Ellen DeGeneres that the pad includes a trampoline room for the kids, while he's said to pay to have sand imported from St Lucia to line its shores.

The property also features a 2,100 sq ft library, which houses a 16th century Leonardo da Vinci manuscript that he bought at auction for $30million in 1994.

Bill Gates' Washington home boasts a trampoline room and $80,000 worth of computer screens (Corbis via Getty Images)

Gates appears to have a love of Porsches - one of his earliest purchases was a 911 he later sold at auction for $80,000 and last year he snapped up a Taycan Turbo S.

For the longer hauls, there's always his Bombardier BD-700 Global Express private jet, which has 19 seats and set him back £31.4million.

He's also splashed out for luxury breaks with the family, who travelled on the 439ft superyacht Serene, which they chartered for £3.9million a week.

Mark Zuckerberg - £92billion

Mark Zuckerberg rarely shows off his flashy lifestyle - though he was ridiculed over the weekend for waving a US flag while riding his $12,000 electric surfboard.

The bizarre Independence Day stunt was a rare indulgence for the famously low-key entrepreneur, who appears at Facebook launches wearing scruffy sweaters and jeans.

Mark Zuckerberg is more known for wearing sweaters and jeans than high-end suits (Getty Images)

While the 37-year-old does boast a $1.3million Pagani Huayra sports car, he's more often seen turning up to work in a humble Volkswagen Golf, Acura TSX or a Honda Fit.

Like most of his rich rivals, Zuckerberg's cash usually ends up in property. He has owned at least 10 homes, including a townhouse in the trendy Mission District area of San Francisco, near Silicon Valley.

In 2011, he bought a 5,000-square-foot home in Palo Alto for $7million, which he has kitted out with a "custom-made artificially intelligent assistant" that can play music and even make toast for breakfast.

Two of his more expensive purchases were properties on Hawaii's Kauai island - the Kahu'aina Plantation, a former sugarcane plantation, and Pila'a Beach, a 393-acre property with a white-sand beach.

Like Gates, however, Zuckerberg has signed up to the Giving Pledge, which sees the world's richest moguls commit to spending most of their wealth to good causes.

He has also revealed plans to sell up to 99 per cent of his Facebook shares over the coming years.

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