Elon Musk Gave $5.7 Billion of Tesla Shares to Charity Last Year – CNET
Elon Musk is currently the richest person in the world.
Theo Wargo/Getty ImagesElon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, donated around $5.7 billion worth of Tesla shares to charity last year. The donations were made in November, according to a security filing Monday.
The filing doesn’t mention the recipients of the five different donations, which totaled 5,044,000 shares of the electric vehicle company and the world’s most valuable automaker. The donation came as the billionaire sold $16.4 billion worth of shares after polling Twitter users about offloading 10% of his stake in Tesla in early November, according to Reuters.
The donations would make Musk the second-biggest donor of 2021, only behind Bill and Melinda Gates, who donated $15 billion, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The donations would represent, however, only 2.6% of Musk’s total fortune, which is valued at $227 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
The quiet disclosure of such large charity donation ignited speculation about the name of the charities that might have received Musk’s money. In November, days before these donations were made, Musk said he’d sell Tesla stock if the UN could prove “exactly” how it would solve world hunger. Days later, The New York Times noticed, the UN’s World Food Program outlined how it would spend $6.6 billion to help avert famine.
This is not the first time Musk, the world’s richest man, makes headlines for his philanthropic efforts. In January of 2021, Tesla’s CEO announced he’d donate $100 million toward a prize for best carbon removal technology.
Tesla does not operate a public relations department to field requests for comment.
