This $83 million Palisades house was bought by a 26-year-old billionaire
Even though Dirt prides itself on accuracy, we occasionally get it wrong. One of those times was in July, when we reported an erroneous $83 million Pacific Palisades house sale. Despite months passing and still no one was able to name the crypto billionaire, rumors swirled at the time that the buyer was a “mystery crypto billionaire,” who had quickly ridden the bitcoin wave to overnight riches.
The camera-shy “mystery crypto buyer” doesn’t actually exist, which is probably no surprise. Austin Russell, the 26-year-old tech wunderkind who founded self-driving car automation pioneer Luminar, was the buyer, according to multiple sources — and verified by a thorough cross-examination of property records.
The company was founded in 2012, but was initially a stealth operation. It was unknown to the public until 2017, when it began partnering with some of the biggest car manufacturers in the world. With a headquarters in Orlando, Luminar develops laser-based radar sensor technology for automobiles, specifically those models with yet-to-be-released autonomous driving capabilities.
In December, Luminar went public, making Russell an overnight billionaire. Forbes crowned him the world’s “youngest self-made billionaire.” His net worth is estimated at $1.7 billion today.
Russell, born and raised in the swanky Southern California city of Newport Beach by well-to-do parents — his father Michael Russell is in commercial real estate, and his mother is Shannon Cleye, an actress and model who appeared on “The Young and the Restless” — is not unfamiliar with wealth. After dropping out of Stanford University, he received a $100,000 grant from Peter Thiel, which enabled him to start Luminar. Alec Gores, who serves on the board of directors of the company, was also one of its earliest and biggest financial backers.
Luminar’s IPO might have made Russell a billionaire on paper – the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, remember – but it didn’t necessarily make him rich in cash. As per public SEC documents, the SoCal native earns a paltry $300,000 annually, a much smaller salary than mogul cash flow and a down payment for an 83 million-dollar home
As a result of selling 10.5 million shares of Luminar stock earlier this year, Russell made a cash gain of $220 million. According to Luminar’s public disclosures, the sale was conducted “for the purpose of personal estate planning and financial planning.” That estate planning included buying nearly $100 million in luxury real estate in California and Florida. Russell closed on his $83 million Los Angeles estate on July 2, 2021, immediately following his $220 million stock sale. Two months later, he paid $10.6 million for a 13,000-square-foot mansion in Winter Park, Florida, just 11 miles from Luminar’s Orlando headquarters. It was reportedly Central Florida’s second-largest residential deal.
