Things Elon Musk could have bought with $44 billion
What's the story
Elon Musk's big bag of gold has finally swayed Twitter's board to sell the company to him. You can't blame them because $44 billion is a LOT of money. Well, it is actually 44 followed by nine 0s. On converting to INR, it becomes nearly Rs. 33,685 crore. Let's have a look at all the things that Musk could have done with $44 billion.
Context
Why does this story matter?
The world is still reeling from the impact of Elon Musk's imminent takeover of Twitter. People are trying to make sense of how the world's richest man went from a passive shareholder to the sole owner in a span of three weeks. We, on the other hand, would like to do something fun and come up with all the things $44 billion can do!
Countries
Countries you can buy with $44 billion
Do you know that there are over 100 countries in the world with a GDP of less than $44 billion? That money can buy you Jamaica, Bahamas, and the Maldives; you can create your own trio of tropical hotspots! And guess what, you will still be left with over $6 billion, which will be enough to get all the luxuries of life.
Companies
Musk could have bought more than one company with $44bn
If not Twitter, what other companies (yes, plural) could Musk buy? He could have bought both Spotify ($21.6 billion market cap) and Tata Steel ($19.68 billion market cap), and still have a few billions in hand. Apropos, the net worth of Savitri Jindal and family ($19.1 billion), Uday Kotak ($14.2 billion), Jack Dorsey ($6.8 billion), and Donald Trump ($3.0 billion) is under $44 billion.
An odd case
$44 billion will 'almost' solve Sri Lanka's debt crisis
In a tête-à-tête with Musk on Twitter, David Beasley, the Executive Director of UNFP suggested that $6.6 billion can help the most vulnerable people survive 2022. If not hunger, $44 billion can certainly help a little island nation with its crushing debt. Sri Lanka needs around $51 billion to fix their issue, a little help from Musk could go a long way.