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- New SEC filing revealed Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated more than 5 million Tesla shares worth about $5.7 billion to charity.
- The donations made in November came days after the UN gave Musk details of its plan to fight world hunger.
- The filing did not specify which charity Musk donated to but noted that a trust was involved in the transactions.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated more than 5 million Tesla shares in November, just days after the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) gave details of a plan on how $6 billion could help fight world hunger.
Musk’s charitable donation was disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission made public on Monday. It showed Musk gifted a total of 5.044 million Tesla shares from November 19 to November 29. The filing did not specify which charity Musk donated to but noted that a trust was involved in the transactions.
Based on the average prices of the Tesla shares on the days Musk sold them, the donations were worth $5.7 billion in total, according to a Bloomberg calculation.
Musk made the donations just as he was in the process of selling shares to cover taxes on the exercise of options set to expire in August this year.
Around the time, Musk was involved in a Twitter exchange with WFP executive director David Beasley, who told CNN’s “Connect the World” on October 26 that a $6 billion donation from billionaires such as Musk and Jeff Bezos could help 42 million people who he said were “literally going to die if we don’t reach them.”
On October 31, Musk challenged the claim that the specific amount will solve the hunger crisis, saying on Twitter that if the WFP could show its math, then he would “sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”
Beasley got back with a plan to Musk on November 16, detailing how WFP would use $6.6 billion to combat famine.
Tesla did not respond to Insider’s requests for comment on where the donations went. MarketWatch noted that Musk runs his own philanthropic organization, the Musk Foundation, which offers grants for renewable energy research and advocacy work, among other causes.
WFP spokesman Steve Taravella declined to tell Insider whether WFP was the donation recipient. He told Insider its practice “has always been to leave any disclosure of possible contributions up to donors themselves.”
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk is the world’s richest man with a current net worth of $227 billion.
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