Elon Musk donates $5.7 billion in Tesla stocks to end world hunger
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Elon Musk donates $5.7 billion in Tesla stocks to end world hunger

This gets a huge thumbs up from us.

In November 2021, Elon Musk donated $5.74 billion to charity, only a few weeks after he tweeted that if the UN World Food Program showed him how $6 billion would solve world hunger, he would "sell Tesla stock right now and do it".

It’s unclear, however, where exactly the donation went. Looking at Musk's tweets, the amount of the donation and the timing, we can assume that the donation was towards the UN World Food Program.

What we know for certain is that Musk sold 5,044,000 of Tesla shares worth $5.74 billion and gave the money to undisclosed organisations between November 19th and 29th, according to SEC, US Securities and Exchange Comission. 

Weeks prior to the donation, executive director of the World Food Program David Beasley told CNN that the world’s elite needed to “step up” to end global food insecurity, specifically calling out billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Following Musk's tweet above, Beasley responded “$6 billion [would] help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated.”

The donation gives 50-year-old Musk the title of America's second-biggest donor behind Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates for 2021, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

The Tesla CEO, who has an estimated net worth of $283.6 billion, doesn't receive a cash salary for his role but instead, gets paid in Tesla stock awards. 

Musk estimated in December 2021 that he would pay "over $11 billion” in taxes. Coincidentally, a large donation like the one Musk has just made could help to decrease that amount. 

Either way, it's an respectable move from Musk and is definitely something we can get behind.