Billionaire to give away $9 million to Twitter followers to see if money makes them happier

More than 4 million people heeded his call and retweeted. A lottery will determine the winners, and Maezawa will personally notify them in a direct message within two to three days.

Maezawa also said he would contact the lucky winners afterwards to ask about the impact, and called for social scientists to help analyze the results of the experiment.

The billionaire pulled the same stunt in January 2019. He promised 100 million yen, roughly $914,000, to be shared among 100 Twitter users. They ended up with a bit more than $9,000 each.

He broke a record in the process: His January 2019 tweet was the most retweeted ever at the time, with 4.68 million retweets.

Maezawa is worth an estimated $2 billion, according to Forbes, and has made a name for himself as an eclectic billionaire — a rock musician, hopeful moon tourist and high-rolling art collector. He dropped $111 million on a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting in 2017 — the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by an American artist.