Elon Musk Donates Nearly $2 Billion in Tesla Shares to Charity
Epoch TimesFeb 15, 2023
The Facts
On Tuesday, a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing showed that CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter, Elon Musk, donated 11.6M shares in the electric vehicle company — worth approximately $1.95B — to charity in 2022.
The donations were made between August and December, though the organization or organizations to which the money was given were not disclosed.
The Spin
Narrative A
This demonstrates that Musk is continuing in his philanthropy, having previously donated $5.7B in stocks in 2021 and pledging to donate millions to schools in Texas in the same year. In 2012, he signed the Giving Pledge and promised to donate at least half of his wealth to charity during his life or after his death. He is clearly sticking to it as, since then, the Musk Foundation has given $160M in gifts. Tesla's CEO understands the responsibility for charity and redistribution that comes with extreme wealth.
Narrative B
We should all hold off on exaggerating Musk's philanthropy. He donated less in 2022 than he did in 2021 and, across both years, the recipients of his donations were undisclosed. Musk is donating relatively small chunks of his stake in Tesla and doing so with a lack of transparency that makes the transfer of such sums seem more a cause for suspicion than reverence. He could do much more with his wealth.
Nerd narrative
There is a 40% chance that Elon Musk will be the richest person in the world on December 31, 2025, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
