The aspiring Mars coloniser had vowed to let go of almost all his earthly belongings, including his $100-million real estate portfolio. He appears to have followed through on that promise, with the reported sale of a mansion in Los Angeles for nearly $30 million.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that Elon Musk has sold one of his homes in Los Angeles for $29 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The grandiose five-bedroom mansion, which overlooks the Bel-Air Country Club, was reportedly sold to a firm linked to Chinese tech billionaire ‘William’ Ding Lei for just under the $30-million asking price.

Ding Lei is the chief executive of Netease, a sprawling online and mobile games corporation that is second in China only to Tencent. Lei’s net worth was pegged at $17.2 billion in 2019, making him the eighth richest person in China.

According to public listings, Elon Musk bought the house for $17 million in 2012 from Mitchell Julis, co-founder of Los Angeles hedge-fund Canyon Capital Advisors.