Elon Musk has so much money he could buy every major US sports league

Elon Musk ,currently the richest man in the world, technically has the means to buy the teams in every major sports league in the US.

But before finance experts bite my head off in the comments, it’s important to note that the X owner’s $779.7 billion net worth isn’t all liquid, obviously, and to buy every league would include a lot of moving parts, also assuming that club owners would want to sell without any restrictions.

For context, the NFL is worth around $181.95 billion, the NBA $135.50 billion, the NHL $42.46 billion, and the MLB would cost $73.66 billion.

Now, net worth is the value of all assets minus liabilities, and for billionaires like Musk that’s shares in companies and not cash in the bank.

Because the majority of Musk’s wealth is tied up in companies like Tesla and SpaceX, by selling a load of shares, that would most likely drive down the share price and could limit how much he could take out.

Forbes says Elon Musk’s net worth is around $779.7 billion (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Elons stocks aren’t wealth. If the number of Tesla shares doubled the world isn’t any richer. If the number of Tesla cars doubled, it’s measurably richer,” Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko explained on X.

Responding to the post, Musk admitted: “My Tesla and SpaceX shares make for almost all my wealth.”

How Musk could buy major sports league in the US

Now that we’ve established that he doesn’t have the liquid cash to do it, he could – in theory – use a mix of cash, bank loans and financing to make the deals.

A way the rich get richer is by borrowing, and because they’ve got millions, even billions, invested in companies, they can essentially use that as collateral to borrow huge amounts from the bank.

In theory, Musk could probably buy every major sports league in the US (ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images)

There’s also the possibility of partnering with sovereign wealth funds or private-equity firms to create holding companies.

He then would probably have to negotiate with each league who would have to approve each sale. Although in the Premier League, for example, an owner cannot own two teams at once.

So in reality it’s highly unlikely mainly due to unwilling sellers, league restrictions, and regulatory barriers.

What Musk spends his money on

Most of Musk’s money goes into his businesses and other technology ventures he views as advancing humanity.

He does, however, splurge on specific interests like rare and unusual cars, including a James Bond submarine car and private jets to maximise work time.

Musk also spent $44bn buying Twitter/X, and has donated millions to charity and political campaigns through the Musk foundation.