Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Picture: Noah Berger/Reuters.
Elon Musk will not be giving his children control of his companies.
The 51-year-old business magnate is one of the richest men in the world with a reported net worth of $188bn thanks to his companies SpaceX and Tesla but has insisted he is “not in the school” of leaving everything to any of his 10 children – who he has from various relationships.
Speaking in an interview with The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council, he said: “I am definitely not of the school of automatically giving my kids some shares of the companies, even if they have no interest or inclination or ability to manage the company. I think it’s a mistake.”
Musk went on to hint that there are some “particular individuals” he recommended taking over if something were to happen to him unexpectedly but did not say if these individuals would gain control in the event of his death.
He said: “There are particular individuals identified that I’ve told the board look, ‘If something happens to me unexpectedly, this is my recommendation for taking over.’ So in all cases, the board is aware of my recommendation.”
Earlier this month, Musk revealed that he was ready to step down from his role as CEO of social networking site Twitter – just months after he purchased the platform in a $44bn deal – and revealed that his shoes would now be filled by an unnamed female, later revealed to be Linda Yaccarino.
He tweeted: “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks! My role will transition to being exec chair + CTO, overseeing product, software + sysops.”