How do wealthy tech entrepreneurs spend the millions and billions of dollars they've made?
Some give it to charities. Others party portions of it away and buy really expensive toys.
Here are some of the most extravagent ways people like Sean Parker and Larry Page have spent their fortunes.
Sean Parker may be spending up to $10 million on his wedding to Alexandra Lenas, complete with custom-made costumes for each guest, a backdrop, and man-made waterfalls.
Sean Parker is planning an extravagant wedding to the mother of his child, Alexandra Lenas, in June.
The wedding could reportedly cost Parker $10 million. He's hired “Lord of the Rings” costume designer Ngila Dickson to create custom-made outfits for each guest. In addition, the plants and flowers alone are estimated to cost $1 million, The Daily Mail reports. The dance floor that's being put in could be another $350,000. A lot of landscaping has been planned as well; there will reportedly be man-made waterfalls, ruins and more. So much has been leaked about the wedding though, the Parkers may move their wedding location.
The wedding isn't Parker's first jaw-dropping expense. He's known for throwing elaborate parties, and he's reportedly spending 1.5 years in NYC's Plaza Hotel while his 6-story apartment gets renovated.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos* invested $42 million in building a 10,000-year clock.
The clock Bezos is having built in Texas is meant to serve as a symbol to make people think long-term.
"If we think long-term, we can accomplish things that we couldn't otherwise accomplish," Bezos said in an interview. We humans are getting awfully sophisticated in technological ways and have a lot of potential to be very dangerous to ourselves, and it seems to me that we as a species will have to start thinking longer term. This is a symbol, I think symbols can be very powerful."
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through Bezos Expeditions.
Early Facebook investor Peter Thiel has invested millions in anti-aging technology because he wants to live forever. He also has invested heavily in establishing colonies of startups off the coast of California.
Peter Thiel gave $3.5 million in 2006 on anti-aging researcher and it's well known the early Facebook investor wants to live forever.
"He has put money into the projects of more than a dozen biotech companies, from DNA sequencing to cancer treatment to a mobile app called 100 Plus, which encourages healthy behaviors intended to extend lifespan beyond 100 years," Financial Times writes of his desire to cheat death.
Also, Thiel has invested in Seastead Institute which wants to "colonize the world's oceans." In other words, it is putting up structures in the oceans to avoid dealing with the rules and regulations of different governments. One in particular is Blueseeds, which is off the coast of California, and has the goal of helping non-U.S. entrepreneurs get access to Silicon Valley's resources without Visas. Thiel has donated more than half-a-million to Seastead.
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