Topline
Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated more than $5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to an unspecified charity in November, he disclosed Monday, a transaction that came weeks after he promised to sell 10% of his holdings in the company.
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, speaks during the Satellite 2020 at the Washington Convention … [+]
Key Facts
Musk transferred the 5,044,000 Tesla shares—which were worth more than $5.4 billion at the time—over the course of ten days in November, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The filing called the transfer a “bona fide gift” to charity, but it did not say what charity received the shares.
It’s unclear who Musk donated his shares to, but one month beforehand, Musk responded to an article about the United Nations’ World Food Programme by tweeting he will donate $6 billion via sold Tesla stock to the organization if it can explain how his money would solve world hunger.
WFP Executive Director David Beasley outlined a plan on Twitter and tagged Musk days before he donated the shares to an unspecified charity.
Musk and Tesla did not immediately respond to Forbes’ requests for comment.
Key Background
In November, Musk tweeted a poll asking his followers whether he should sell 10% of his stock in Tesla in an attempt to counter accusations of tax avoidance, to which nearly 58% of the 3.5 million voters said “yes.” Forbes estimated Musk would need to sell some 17 million shares—worth almost $15 billion as of Monday’s close—to reach this goal, and he sold more than 9 million shares in November. The sale could be necessary to cover a multibillion-dollar tax bill Musk would incur after exercising millions of Tesla stock options.
Big Number
$242.4 billion. That’s Musk’s net worth according to Forbes’ estimates, making him the world’s richest person, worth nearly $60 billion more than the family of the world’s second-richest person, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/2022/02/14/elon-musk-donated-over-5-billion-worth-of-tesla-stock-to-unnamed-charity-last-year/