Elon Musk Quietly Donated Practically $6 Billion Final 12 months
In an not easily seen vogue — by way of a regulatory filing with the Securities and Alternate Fee — Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief govt, disclosed on Monday that he gave practically $6 billion price of the corporate’s shares to charity final yr, immediately propelling him into the higher ranks of philanthropic donors.
However the doc gave little details about the place he directed his wealth, the DealBook newsletter reports.
Mr. Musk donated simply over 5 million shares in November, in keeping with the submitting. Based mostly on the typical worth of Tesla shares on the times he offered, that’s price roughly $5.7 billion. That will make him the second-biggest donor final yr, behind solely Invoice Gates and Melinda French Gates and their $15 billion in giving, in keeping with the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
The present got here as Mr. Musk offered greater than $16 billion worth of shares in November and December, a lot of which was meant to cowl tax obligations after exercising inventory choices. On the time, he tweeted that he was more likely to pay more than $11 billion in taxes, one of many greatest particular person payments in U.S. historical past. The inventory donation could possibly be helpful in defraying that invoice.
The query is the place these shares went. The donation got here as Mr. Musk argued with populist lawmakers like Senators Bernie Sanders, the unbiased from Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, about wealth inequality and taxes. A number of observers famous that weeks earlier than his donation, Mr. Musk tweeted that he would give $6 billion if the United Nations may show that cash may assist resolve world starvation. Days afterward, the U.N.’s World Meals Program outlined how it would spend $6.6 billion to assist avert famine.
Mr. Musk’s different disclosed philanthropic efforts embody hundreds of thousands in items to Texas municipalities and a $100 million prize for growing applied sciences to take away carbon dioxide from the air.