The LA Business Journal‘s annual list of the Wealthiest Angelenos includes a diverse mix of richies made rich by entertainment, finance, and real estate, but there are lots of young new tech faces in the mix, several of whom are celebrating their first years on the list. The Journal says, in fact, that tech is the new Hollywood: “In Los Angeles, a very similar dynamic was seen nearly a century ago with the establishment of Hollywood as the center of the motion picture world.” From Tesla’s Elon Musk to the bros at Snapchat, LA’s rising tech superstars have chosen some very different places to call home—some prefer blocky concrete pads along the coast, others are more interested in ostentatious hilltop spec houses decorated for a modern-day Scarface. We’ve rounded up the residences of a few of the big names off the LABJ‘s list to let them speak for themselves.
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Napster founder and first Facebook president Sean Parker (#9 on the list; net worth $5.6 billion) wins all the prizes. Parker bought the absolutely stunning Brody House from Ellen DeGeneres last July for $55 million. Built by the “Modernist dream team” of architect A. Quincy Jones, interior designer Billy Haines, and landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, the house is a livable showpiece.
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Tesla Motors CEO and Space X visioneer Elon Musk (#2; $13.9 billion) lives in a Bel Air mansion he paid $17 million for in 2013. Later that same year, he bought the long-time ranch of Blazing Saddles actor/comedian Gene Wilderacross the street too. What’s he going to do with it? Who knows! This is Elon Musk we’re talking about. It’s possible he’s thinking of a way to get it to Mars.
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Bobby Murphy (#39; $1.5 billion), the less-talked-about cofounder of sexting app Snapchat, dropped $2.1 million on a beachy Venice residence in 2013. (A freaking steal considering what shacks in Venice are going for these days.) Brushed concrete and a sweet rooftop deck are just a few perks of this house designed by architect Larry Scarpa and artist Randy West—and it’s not too far away from Snapchat’s headquarters, also in Venice.
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The more widely known and disliked of Snapchat cofounders, Evan Spiegel(tied at #39; $1.5 billion), has recently relocated out of his father’s Pacific Palisades home into this place in Brentwood, once owned by actress Julia Ormond. The three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom dwelling dates back to 1928 and underwent a renovation in 2012, while Ormond owned it. She sold it that same year for $2.575 million. Spiegel paid $3.33 million last November.
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Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson is not on the list of LA’s richest because apparently he calls his native Sweden home and therefore isn’t really an Angeleno. Regardless, he dropped $70 million—the highest price for a Beverly Hills residence ever— on this completely outrageous spec house with its own candy room and a giant turntable for his cars in the basement. If he were on the list, his net worth of about $1.5 billion would put him right around #39 with the Snapchat boys.