In November, Elon Musk said that he gave about $6 billion in Tesla stock to charity. As per a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the world’s wealthiest individual gave more than 5 million shares of Tesla between November 19 and November 29.
Based on average prices on the days he sold the shares, the contribution was worth roughly $5.7 billion, making it one of the largest ever given to charity. The transaction was facilitated through an unnamed trust, and the charity’s name was not included in the paperwork.
The report came while Musk, Tesla’s CEO, was battling Democrats such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over inequality and a potential wealth tax. Around the same time, Musk said he’d sell shares if the UN could show it was helping to address world hunger, after the head of the organization’s food-aid arm proposed billionaires like Musk “sign up now, on a one-time basis.”
Musk said that a huge charitable donation made last year would assist decrease what he believed would be the largest tax payment in American history. According to Bloomberg, Musk might owe the Internal Revenue Service more than $10 billion as a result of exercising an abnormally large number of options in 2021.
Musk’s namesake organization has gotten increasingly active in recent years, with substantial, eight-figure grants offered to a city near his South Texas spaceport, a $100 million carbon elimination contest, and $5 million to two researchers for COVID-19 research. Prior to then, the majority of his foundation’s contributions went to donor-advised contributions, or DAFs, where philanthropic assets may be held in perpetuity.
The Musk Foundation, which formerly included Musk’s brother Kimbal on its board of directors, has just added a fresh face to its ranks. Several grantees interviewed by Bloomberg claimed Igor Kurganov, a prominent poker player turned philanthropist involved in the effective altruism field, is their principal point of contact at the organization.
