The world's richest man is buying real estate. What's so surprising about that? Not much. But what if I told you he's bought three mansions, one that's behind another and a third that's a 10-minute walk away, all in Austin, supposedly for his children and their mothers.
全球首富正在购置房产。这有什么好大惊小怪的？其实也没什么。但如果我告诉你，他买了三座豪宅，其中两座相连，第三座步行十分钟可达，而且都位于奥斯汀，据说是为了他的孩子们和他们的母亲，你会怎么想？
据《纽约时报》报道，有知情人士透露，埃隆·马斯克似乎一直在尝试建造一种家庭庄园。马斯克最近显然向身边人透露，他希望看到自己的孩子（据《纽约时报》报道，至少有11个）和他们的三位母亲中的两位，都住在相邻的房产里共同生活。
One of the homes is a 14,400-square-foot mansion that resembles a Tuscan villa, according to the Times, and directly behind it is a six-bedroom mansion that Musk helped purchase. The cost of the two properties was about $35 million, per the publication's reporting. What's $35 million to a man worth $272 billion on paper? I would, however, care to know what mortgage rate the richest man on earth locked in.
据《纽约时报》报道，其中一座豪宅占地14400平方英尺，类似托斯卡纳别墅，而紧挨着它的是一座六居室的豪宅，马斯克也帮忙出资购买。据该出版物报道，这两处房产的总价约为3500万美元。对于一位身价2720亿美元的富豪来说，3500万美元算得了什么？不过，我倒是想知道，这位全球首富锁定的房贷利率是多少。
The third mansion isn't far, and it is apparently where Musk himself stays when he isn't galavanting with former President Donald Trump, appearing on the campaign trail. Musk pretty much runs six companies, and he's still found time to be Trump's fiercest backer and a top Republican donor. His political action committee is doing a $1-million-a-day giveaway to people who sign a petition supporting the first and second amendments (although the Philadelphia district attorney's office is suing him). Not to mention, he's given at least $132 million to elect Trump.
第三座豪宅也不远，显然是马斯克在没有与前总统唐纳德·特朗普四处闲逛或出现在竞选活动上时，自己的住处。马斯克经营着六家公司，但他仍然抽出时间成为特朗普最坚定的支持者，也是共和党最大的捐助者之一。他的政治行动委员会每天向签署支持第一修正案和第二修正案请愿书的人赠送100万美元（尽管费城地方检察官办公室正在起诉他）。更不用说，他还至少花费了1.32亿美元支持特朗普当选。
Either way, the plan for the makeshift compound filled with his children and their mothers "isn't just a personal matter for him; it is rooted in the existential anxieties that underpin his business empire," according to the Times. His fixation on birth rates and repopulating the planet, maybe, the publication highlighted. And it so happens that his personal and professional lives are intertwined anyways.
无论如何，据《纽约时报》报道，他计划打造的这座临时庄园，里面住着他的孩子和他们的母亲，“这对他来说不仅仅是个人的事情；它植根于他商业帝国赖以生存的存在性焦虑之中”。该出版物强调，他执着于出生率和地球人口再增长。而且，他的个人生活和职业生活本就相互交织。
Is Elon Musk a present dad?
埃隆·马斯克是个称职的父亲吗？
One of his children's mothers, Shivon Zilis, who is an executive at his company Neuralink, has actually moved into one of the homes with her three children, per the Times. That isn't the case for Grimes, a musician and mother of three of his children, who happens to be in a custody battle with Musk. Then there's Justine Musk, his first wife and mother of five of his children. It seems they aren't living at the compound either.
据《纽约时报》报道，他的一个孩子的母亲、Neuralink公司高管希冯·齐利斯已经带着她的三个孩子搬进了其中一座豪宅。而音乐家、他三个孩子的母亲格里姆斯则并非如此，她正与马斯克争夺孩子的监护权。还有他的第一任妻子贾斯汀·马斯克，五个孩子的母亲，似乎也没有住在这个庄园里。
Why Austin? Well for one, his companies are there, or near there. He even happens to be the biggest employer in Austin, a city sometimes called Silicon Hills because of its expanding technology industry—a wannabe Silicon Valley, some Californians might say. The average home value in Austin is about $526,000, but those aren't the kind of places he's probably looking at. Although he did supposedly offer some homeowners 20% to 70% above their home values, they claim. And some were even required to sign nondisclosure agreements just to see the offer, according to people familiar with the agreements, the Times reported.
为什么选择奥斯汀？首先，他的公司就在那里，或者附近。他甚至恰好是奥斯汀最大的雇主，这座城市因其不断扩张的科技产业而有时被称为“硅谷山丘”——一些加州人可能会说，这是一个想成为硅谷的地方。奥斯汀的平均房价约为52.6万美元，但这些显然不是他可能会考虑的地方。尽管据说他向一些房主开出了比他们的房屋价值高出20%到70%的价格，但据熟悉这些协议的人士和《纽约时报》报道，有些人甚至被要求签署保密协议才能看到报价。
Musk wanted to build the compound on hundreds of acres of land outside Austin near Tesla's headquarters owned by him and his companies, the Times reported, citing people familiar. It seemed to have fallen apart following an apparent federal investigation. The Wall Street Journal reported federal prosecutors were investigating Tesla's use of company funds on a secret project that had been described internally as a house for its chief executive. Even so, it isn't obvious who among his family will live in the homes he has purchased. It's only Zilis who seems to be living there so far; she is sometimes seen round the city, people familiar told the Times. When Musk is in town, neighbors said they can tell because of extra security. They also mentioned seeing a groomer pick up a small dog. Interestingly enough, the neighborhood is densely populated and not gated, per the Times.
据《纽约时报》报道，有知情人士透露，马斯克原想在特斯拉总部附近、奥斯汀城外数百英亩的土地上建造这座庄园，该地块归他和他的公司所有。但似乎由于联邦调查而落空。《华尔街日报》报道称，联邦检察官正在调查特斯拉使用公司资金用于一个内部被称为首席执行官住宅的秘密项目。即便如此，也不清楚他的家人中谁会住在他购买的这些房子里。目前似乎只有齐利斯住在那里；据熟悉情况的人士告诉《纽约时报》，她有时会在城里露面。当马斯克在城里时，邻居们说，由于加强了安保措施，他们可以看出来。他们还提到看到一位美容师来牵走一只小狗。有趣的是，据《纽约时报》报道，这个街区人口稠密，而且没有门禁。
"I just keep thinking with that much money, he's probably got lots of whims and he'll do something else soon," Jim Lewis, a retired rancher who lives near the house where Musk stays, told the Times.
“我一直在想，他有那么多钱，可能有很多奇思妙想，很快就会去做别的事情，”住在马斯克住处附近的退休牧场主吉姆·刘易斯告诉《纽约时报》。
