New York
CNN
—
Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated his 11.5 million shares in the electric car maker to an undisclosed charity last year, worth about 1.9 billion shares. USD at the time they are donated.
This donation will make him the second largest charity donor in 2022, as ranked by Charity Chronicles, compiled prior to Musk’s filing. The Chronicle’s rankings list Bill Gates at number 1 with $5.1 billion in donations, followed by Michael Bloomberg with $1.7 billion.
Musk’s net worth at the end of 2022 is $137 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire tracker, so $1.9 billion represents about 1.4% of his net worth at at that moment.
Musk’s 2022 contribution falls short of his estimated value donations reported for 2021, when he reported that he gave away 5 million Tesla
(TSLA) shares, then worth an estimated $5.7 billion, at the end of that year. Three-for-one stock split at Tesla
(TSLA) shares last August means that his donation in 2021 is also 30% more than his donation in 2022, on a split-adjusted basis.
Musk’s donations in 2021 also go to an undisclosed charity. They came at a time when David Beasley, director of the United Nations food program, challenged him. donate 6 billion dollars to fight global hunger. Beasley has said that a donation of that size could feed more than 40 million people across 43 countries who are “on the brink of famine”. musk replied on Twitter at that point, if the World Food Program “could describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6 billion would solve world hunger, I would sell Tesla stock right now and do it.” there.”
Musk’s 2021 Tesla donation was made shortly after that exchange, but there’s never been any confirmation of where those shares will go.
The most recent stock giveaway accounted for Musk’s 1.6 percent stake in the company late last year considering both the stock he holds outright and the options he holds to buy more shares. .
Since the end of the year, he has added 25.3 million options when the company achieve certain financial goals, a funding the company has said is possible. So Musk donated knowing he would soon receive the option to buy twice as many shares at nominal price.
Musk has sold a much larger portion of his Tesla shares in the past 18 months than he has donated. First, he sells $16.4 billion worth of Tesla stock in 2021, with most of it due a large income tax bill he has to face implementation selection in 2021 before they expire. Then in 2022 he sold for $22.9 billion Tesla stock when he raised cash for buy Twitter.
Tesla stock had its worst year on record in 2022, lost 65% of its value. The falling stock price knocked him out of his position of richest man in the world. But after a rough start to the year, they rebounded well into 2023, up 70% year-to-date. At Tuesday’s closing price, the 11.5 million shares Musk gave away last year were worth $2.4 billion.
Musk is currently the second richest person on the planet, after Bernard ArnaultPresident of the French luxury goods group LVMH, as estimated by Follow Forbes real-time billionaireswith a net worth of about $196.5 billion.
According to the most recent estimates by the Federal Reserve, a typical U.S. household has a net worth of about $121,700. So, the current $2.4 billion Musk donated last year, compared to his current net worth, is the equivalent of a typical family donating $1,500, or just under $30 a week.
