Michael and Susan Dell’s unusual living situation following $20bn financial loss

Billionaire Michael Dell is the founder of Dell Technologies, and he’s found himself the centre of media attention since his wife Susan Dell’s notably different appearance at the White House. Social media users quickly noticed that Susan’s face had changed dramatically compared to previous years, prompting speculation about potential surgery.

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While we don’t know if Susan has altered her appearance intentionally, what we do know is that she has paid incredible attention to their family home, settling on a sprawling eight-bedroom mansion that has been nicknamed “The Castle”. They still retain this huge property, despite trying to offload a Boston residence after Michael’s company experienced a financial downturn. The couple share four children, Alexa, Kira, Juliette, and Zachary, who are now all adults, but they were all raised inside the impressive hilltop estate which was custom-built for the family. Located in Austin, near Dell headquarters, the project was completed in 1997.

The so-called castle features eight bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, a conference room, several swimming pools, and a tennis court. The property also has extensive security throughout.

Michael’s net worth

The tech mogul is the fifth-wealthiest person in the world, and has a net worth of an estimated $256.6 billion, according to Forbes. Whilst that may sound impressive, Michael has actually fallen from fourth wealthiest as his worth dropped $20 billion as the share price for Dell Technologies tanked recently.

Susan has been married to the tech founder since 1989, and enjoyed a successful career in fashion design before switching to philanthropy.

The couple’s charity efforts

The pair set up the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 10 years after getting married, and since then they have donated $2.9 billion through grant making, mission investments, scholarships and more towards children’s issues and community initiatives in the United States and abroad.

But there is still plenty of wealth left for large sums to be left to their four children. Kira is CEO of Adaptive Water in Austin, Texas, Juliette has a passion for horseback riding, Zach has founded a billion-dollar company, Base Power, which installs battery systems inside people’s homes to provide affordable and reliable energy, while Alexa works as an advisor to The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, as well as an investor.

Susan has called Michael “the greatest guy in the world” when reminiscing about when she first met her husband. “Most men I dated talked about themselves a lot and tried to impress me,” she told Texas Monthly. “He was the nicest guy I’d ever met… I always knew I would marry the greatest guy in the world.”