Elon Musk Donated $6 Billion In Shares Last Year, Days After Tweet About Ending World Hunger

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has disclosed that he gave away nearly $6 billion (roughly Rs 45,127 crores) of his fortune to charity last year. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk donated over five million of Tesla shares in November. Based on the price of Tesla shares at the time, the value was worth $5.7 billion (roughly Rs 42,871 crores). This makes Musk the second-biggest donor last year, behind only Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates who gave $15 billion in donations, according to a report in the Chronicle of Philanthropy cited by The New York Times.

In November and December, Musk sold more than $16 billion (roughly Rs 1,02,000 crores) worth of his shares, many of which were meant to cover tax obligations. At the time, he wrote on Twitter that he was likely to pay more than $11 billion in taxes, one of the largest individual bill in US history. The $6 billion stock donation, as pointed out by NYT, could be useful in covering that bill. Now, there is little information about where Elon Musk’s donation went. It is not known as to where Musk’s $6 billion donation went. The donation came a few weeks before the Tesla CEO tweeted that he would give $6 billion if the United Nations could prove that money could help solve world hunger. Days after, the UN’s World Food Program outlined how it will spend $6.6 billion.