‘If you were miserable…’: Billionaire investor Mark Cuban replies to Elon Musk’s ‘Money can’t buy happiness’ post

Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor and Shark Tank panelist, has responded to Elon Musk's post in which the Tesla CEO struck a surprisingly sad tone despite becoming the first person on Earth to amass over $850 billion in wealth. The $84 billion single-day surge in his personal fortune followed the merger of SpaceX and xAI.“Whoever said ‘money can’t buy happiness’ really knew what they were talking about 😔,” the wealthiest man said in a post on social media platform X, sharing an old, popular quote.

Mark Cuban agrees with Elon Musk

Mark Cuban agreed with Musk to an extent but said linking wealth to happiness isn’t as straight forward as it may seem. He said that money doesn’t fundamentally change happiness so much but actually magnifies what you already got.“If you were happy when you were poor, you will be insanely happy if you get rich,” Cuban said, adding, “If you were miserable, you will stay miserable, just with a lot less financial stress.”

Bill Ackman provides his ‘two cents’

Meanwhile, hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman offered Musk some advice, asking him to focus more on philanthropy and perspective.“A lot of happiness comes from helping others. You have helped millions, and someday it will likely be billions. You just need to appreciate what you have accomplished for so many,” he wrote in a reply to Musk’s comment. Ackman also suggested it might be time for Musk to settle down with a long-term partner.

“Happiness can also be found in a long-term relationship with someone really special. It is time for you to find that someone for the long term. Just my two cents,” he added.But for Musk, it is ‘very hard’ to do good with philanthropy because he insisted that even giving away money is not as simple as it seems.“I agree with love of humanity, and I think we should try to do things that help our fellow human beings. But it’s very hard,” Musk said on the WTF podcast late last year.“The biggest challenge I find with my foundation is trying to give money away in a way that is truly beneficial to people. It’s very easy to give money away to get the appearance of goodness. It is very difficult to give money away for the reality of goodness. Very difficult,” Musk added.