Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Monday that he donated more than $5 billion in Tesla stock to an undisclosed charity in November, a move that occurred weeks after he committed to sell 10% of his stake in the firm.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Musk transferred the 5,044,000 Tesla shares, which were valued more than $5.7 billion at the time, over the course of ten days in November.
The transfer was described as a “bona fide donation” to charity in the filing, although it did not specify which charity got the shares.
It’s unknown to whom Musk gave his shares, but Musk replied to an article about the United Nations World Food Programme a month earlier by tweeting that he will contribute $6 billion in Tesla stock to the agency if it can explain how his money can end world hunger.
WFP Executive Director David Beasley discussed a strategy on Twitter and tagged Musk days before the shares were donated to an undisclosed charity.
Musk and Tesla did not immediately reply to calls for comment from Forbes.
In November, Musk posted a poll to his fans asking if he should sell 10% of his Tesla shares to fight claims of tax evasion, and over 58 percent of the 3.5 million votes replied “yes.” According to Forbes, Musk would need to sell almost 17 million shares (worth over $15 billion as of Monday’s closing) to achieve this target, and he sold more than 9 million shares in November. The sale may be required to satisfy a multibillion-dollar tax burden Musk may face as a result of executing millions of Tesla stock options.
What number says?
$242.4 billion in total. According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth is that much, making him the world’s richest person, worth over $60 billion more than the family of the world’s second-richest person, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault.
