Elon Musk says there’s a key distinction between him and the investor—he really makes stuff

“I’m not Warren Buffett.”

So declared Tesla CEO Elon Musk throughout the EV firm’s third-quarter earnings name on Wednesday. “I’m not an investor,” he mentioned. “I’m an engineer and manufacturing individual and a technologist.”

Musk was responding to an analyst’s query about whether or not he would incorporate all his ventures—from SpaceX to (quickly) Twitter—beneath a dad or mum company. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has constructed a big funding portfolio that owns all the things from Dairy Queen and Duracell to GEICO and Fruit of the Loom.

However, very similar to a choosy eater with a divided plate, Musk needs to maintain his firms separate. “It’s not clear to me what the overlap is. It’s not zero, however I feel we’re reaching.”

In Musk’s eyes, he’s a maker, not a shareholder: “I really work and design and develop merchandise,” he mentioned. “We’re not going to have a portfolio of investments or no matter.”

In different phrases, Musk thinks he’s a very completely different kind of entrepreneur than Buffett. It recollects the makers versus takers debate of the 2010s, which facilities round the concept that financiers are basically transferring cash round (like Buffett) whereas others are literally constructing one thing that creates new companies (like Musk).

Within the 2012 presidential marketing campaign, the financial critiques of Republican Mitt Romney, from a non-public fairness background, have been met with Barack Obama’s rejoinder, “You didn’t construct that.” Obama was talking in regards to the significance of presidency assist for entrepreneurship, an implicit rejection of the financialization of the financial system that made Buffett and Romney so rich, though his remarks on the time have been seen as a swipe at Romney.

Musk appears to be saying he’ll at all times be a builder and never an investor (even when he’s about to turn out to be Twitter’s biggest-ever investor).

However Musk and Buffett could have extra in widespread than Musk would possibly assume (or need). Each are billionaires, among the many 10 richest individuals on the earth, per Bloomberg. Because the precise richest individual on the earth, Musk is value an estimated $209 billion, up by greater than $163 billion pre-lockdown in February 2020. Buffett is valued at $97.8 billion.

Story continues

In the course of the pandemic, the world’s 10 richest males doubled their wealth, in response to an Oxfam report. “The highest 1% have captured almost 20 instances extra international wealth than the underside 50% of humanity,” defined the authors of the report, noting that “if the ten richest males misplaced 99.999% of their mixed wealth, every of them would nonetheless be richer than 99% of the world.”

It appears that evidently being a “taker” or a “maker,” if performed proper, can set you on a route to success. Musk is probably not trying to create an umbrella firm construction and has but to make the sweet that rivals See’s he as soon as promised to, however the two males aren’t as completely different as Musk would really like you to imagine.

At the very least, their financial institution accounts aren’t.

This story was initially featured on Fortune.com

Extra from Fortune:

One of the best high-yield financial savings accounts of 2022

Van life is simply ‘glorified homelessness,’ says a 33-year-old lady who tried the nomadic life-style and ended up broke

Mark Zuckerberg has a $10 billion plan to make it unattainable for distant staff to cover from their bosses

Individuals carry 4 bank cards on common. Right here’s what number of it is best to have, in accordance the the specialists