> Do you think that means nothing?

Yes.

Even as other commenters have pointed out his age, let's be realistic at what $1B is (let alone 16!)

Suppose you have an interest rate of 5% over the year. That's a pretty safe level and I'm sure he gets more. That means you're getting $50m for doing nothing (passive income), or just under $137k/day (overly simplified calculation based on yearly return divided by 365. No compounding, so consider lower bound). Try spending that much money a day! Then consider trying to spend that much money AFTER you've already bought a few nice homes, cars, and hell throw in a private jet (cheap is a few million, most are 10-20, and Elon's is $78M[0]). (At 16B, you're closer to $800m/yr or $2.19m/day!!!! $900k in fines isn't even half a day's "sitting on his ass doing nothing" for him, let alone work. [1])

The thing that often baffles me is why these people still work. You can do almost anything you want with that kind of money. But I think this also says something about money, power, and how these people think. It also makes me wonder why people get mad at tech workers with our high salaries (definitely not complaining!).

Maybe I just don't understand business (I'm a researcher, not a MBA, so assume this is correct). But I just don't see how these salaries do anything for these people other than be a high score. The only way I can personally think of spending $10m in a year is by buying a house and I can't imagine wanting more than 2 (and even a $10m house is often too big! In most locations. Yes, I'm aware SF exists).

I just wonder, can't you undercut everyone by taking a lower salary? Which would increase the company value? Or stop pushing deadlines so fast so there's higher quality? Or many other things because there's a ton of C-suit execs getting these salaries. I just don't understand, why work? I have to imagine, a key part must be addiction. Which I can get, I like a fair amount of work, but would rather take money to work as I see fit (but I guess they get this. But you're not at the technical level and personally (thus, highly biased) I find it is far less fun managing people).

I think there's a real disconnect. In how we see billionaires, how they see us, and how they see themselves. That money is just an insane level. fwiw, I'm not even against billionaires. I just don't understand why once people have $100m they don't pull a Anderson or John Bogle. Because money isn't real anymore.

Edit:

let's add some nice numbers at this 5% rate. If you have $20m invested (earning that 5%) you're going to make $1m/yr for life. $100m gets you $5m/yr and $500m gets you $25m/yr. 10B gets you 500M, and $20B means you're a forever billionaire.

Looking at Forbe's list, we got Bernard Arnault, Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, and Ellison (in order). That's $11.3B/yr ($31m/day), $9.9B/yr ($27.1M/day), $9.9B/yr ($27.1M/day (nearly tied)), $8.6B/yr ($23.7M/day), and $7.75B/yr ($21.2M/day) respectively.

With $7.3B you make the $1M/day, which makes you the 367th richest person in the world.

[0] https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/31983...

[1] (edit add) Let's say that's half a day's work for you and you're a L4 at Google. Using Levels.fyi data, you got a base salary around $178k/yr and so this is equivalent to you dropping $200 ($320 if you include equity) if compared to his passive income alone (which again, is probably >5%). Let that sink in. Technically it is even less than you should value that $200 because he doesn't need to save anything.

[2] If some billionaire wants to drop $50m on me, I'll go live my life reading math books, buy a B200 node (maybe even 2! Or a few more!), and research AGI for the rest of my life. I mean I'll also do that for a lot less too, but hey, that's 2 days of nothing for you Elon or Bezos. I'm sure it is worth more than that in publicity alone. ;)