The $5.7 billion of Tesla shares that Elon Musk donated to an unnamed group on the finish of 2021 went to his personal charitable arm, immediately making it one of many largest foundations within the US.
The Musk Basis held $9.4 billion in property on the finish of 2021, based on a tax submitting obtained by Bloomberg Information. It despatched about $160 million to nonprofits final 12 months, by far essentially the most the world’s richest particular person has donated from his group in a calendar 12 months.
The billionaire’s largest present in the course of the interval was $55 million to the Memphis-based St Jude Kids’s Analysis Hospital, adopted by $54 million to the X Prize Basis, which he partnered with in 2021 to create a prize for carbon removing tasks.
Different donations listed within the tax kind present Musk following via on guarantees to high school districts and nonprofits within the space round Brownsville, Texas, close to his SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas.
Musk, 51, has a private fortune of $167.6 billion, based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He relocated his companies, together with Tesla, from California to Texas in the course of the pandemic, additionally shifting his charitable basis.
The muse’s tax types listing Musk, his right-hand man Jared Birchall and Matilda Simon as administrators. There aren’t any different workers listed within the submitting.
The most important basis within the US is the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis, which had property of just about $55 billion on the finish of 2021. It gave out about $6.2 billion in grants final 12 months, based on a spokesperson.
Political spat
Musk despatched $5.7 billion of Tesla shares to charity in November 2021 as he sparred with politicians together with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over inequality and a proposed wealth tax. He by no means stated the place the cash had in the end gone.
A big present to charity would have helped scale back what Musk has described as the largest tax invoice in US historical past. Days earlier than he accomplished a sequence of inventory gross sales value greater than $16 billion — a lot of which was to cowl the train of just about 23 million choices — the Tesla CEO tweeted he would pay greater than $11 billion in taxes for the 12 months.
Earlier this 12 months, a number of grant recipients stated their major level of contact on the basis was Igor Kurganov, an expert poker player-turned-philanthropist who’s lively within the efficient altruism area.
There are few apparent indicators that efficient altruism, a philosophical motion that tries to have the best impression by rigorously spending cash to resolve issues, has impacted Musk’s giving. The trigger was closely promoted by Sam Bankman-Fried, whose crypto alternate FTX declared chapter final month.
The Musk Basis despatched $4 million to the Way forward for Life Institute, which focuses on lowering the dangers of synthetic intelligence and biotechnology, each of that are prime priorities for efficient altruists. Musk is an adviser on the nonprofit, alongside Morgan Freeman.
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