Elon Musk is selling all his possessions so people know he's serious about colonizing Mars

Elon Musk, who on Thursday surpassed Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person, says he is selling all his possessions.

The billionaire wants to have as much capital as possible to fund a future colony on Mars, he said in an interviewlast month with Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Insider's parent company, Axel Springer.

"I'm also just trying to make clear that I'm serious about this. And it's not about personal consumption. Because people will attack me and say, oh, he's got all these possessions," Musk said. "OK, now I don't have them anymore."