Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose relationship had gone sour with Tesla chief Elon Musk, has instructed advisors to sell his personal investments in Musk’s companies after knowing that the world’s richest man had a "brief affair" with his wife, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The exact details of Brin’s investments in Musk’s companies are not known and it’s not clear whether there have been any sales as of yet, according to Bloomberg.
Musk had an alleged intimate relationship with Brin's wife Nicole Shanahan in December 2021 in Miami, the Wall Street Journal said citing sources.
The alleged affair has dented the long association between Musk, 51, and Brin, 48, who helped support the electric carmaker during the 2008 financial crisis. The 48-year-old businessman had filed for divorce from Shanahan earlier this year. Brin and Shanahan are presently negotiating a settlement, with Shanahan seeking more than $1 billion, the Journal said, even though there’s a prenuptial agreement.
Musk remains the world’s most prosperous entrepreneur with a $242 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Brin comes at the eighth spot with a net worth of $94.6 billion.
Meanwhile, Musk refuted the reports of his strained relationship with the Google co-founder over the alleged affair with Brin’s ex-wife Nicole Shanahan.
Musk said that all is well between the two business leaders: "This is total bs. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night."
“I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic," the Tesla CEO added in his tweet.
On asked if anything could be done about the report, Elon Musk replied: “Call them out on it, I guess. WSJ is supposed to have a high standard for journalism and, right now, they are way sub-tabloid. WSJ should be running stories that actually matter to their readers and have a solid factual basis, not third-party random hearsay."