Richard Branson’s picture with Elon Musk has sparked a fierce debate about the billionaire’s kitchen

Richard Branson and Elon Musk are two of the richest men in the world so why is everyone so obsessed with a kitchen they were pictured standing in?

Last weekend, Branson became the first billionaire to travel into space, thanks to his successful Virgin Galactic flight into the stratosphere.

However, the British billionaire probably didn’t expect the majority of people to be talking about his kitchen rather than his trip to space. Hours before the flight on Sunday, Branson shared a photo of himself with a bare-footed Musk in a kitchen.

The photo is certainly a curious one to share as it didn’t do much to promote the flight, but it soon got people talking after writer and producer Kelsea Bauman-Murphy was distracted by the kitchen itself – which didn’t exactly scream “expensive billionaire’s house”.

The viral post kicked off a debate about whether billionaires are actually quite smart for not spending thousands on fancy kitchens and instead, saving and investing their money elsewhere. Also, why should we be upset that their house doesn’t look like something off the set of Star Trek?

Others thought it could have looked a bit better, especially the floor.

Amazingly, Musk did respond to this and actually agreed that the cabinets could have been a bit better, but clarified that this was only one of Branson’s rental home. The SpaceX entrepreneur seemed to have a bigger grievance with the fact that this photo of him, which was apparently taken at 3 am, was shared on social media.

After the flight, Branson revealed in a press conference that Musk had simply popped by the house to wish them luck as the South African hadn’t gone to sleep.

Branson said: “It was great this morning to find Elon Musk in my kitchen at 3 o’clock, to come to wish us the best. I’d already been to bed and he still hadn’t gone to bed. He’s an all-nighter, and our time clocks are completely different. But so nice of him to come all this way to wish us well.”

Musk later congratulated the Brit on the successful flight by tweeting: “Congratulations on a beautiful flight.”