Phil Chen of Christie’s is hoping to beat out Elon Musk — when it comes to real estate, at least.
The newly minted trillionaire had one of Hillsborough’s highest sales ever in 2021, when he sold his 16,000-square-foot mansion on 45 acres for $30 million. That 1912 chateau had been in the same family for over a century before Musk bought it in 2017.
Now Chen, an agent at Christie’s International Sereno, thinks his Hillsborough listing, a newly built nearly 14,000-square-foot home on 2.5 acres, has all the high-end bells and whistles to attract AI founders and the young VCs who fund them. Given that, and the flood of cash cascading in from secondary stock sales and soon IPOs, he’s set his asking price at just under $40 million.
“Atherton is obviously Atherton,” Chen said, referring to the wealthy enclave that’s home to the bulk of Peninsula sales at this price point but is burdened by a stodgy reputation. Palo Alto attracts a younger buyer pool, but it’s farther from San Francisco and doesn’t have homes with the square footage or privacy this group seeks…