Tesla CEO Elon Musk has donated roughly $5.7 billion worth of the company’s shares to charity. The donation of 5,044,000 shares was revealed on Monday in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, having been gifted last year between November 19th and November 29th. Tesla’s stock was trading above $1,000 per share at the time of donations.
Shares donated were worth $5.7 billion based on the average of the highest and lowest quoted price on the date of the transaction. This would make Musk the second biggest US donor in 2021 as the CEO now trails only Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. The latter gave $15 billion last year, according to an annual ranking by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Previous filings show that Musk sold Tesla shares worth over $16 billion in the final two months of 2021. Donated shares are not subject to capital gains tax. Tesla did not immediately respond when asked for more details on the donated shares.
This comes after the director of the UN World Food Programme challenged Musk, the world’s richest man, to make a donation that would help solve world hunger. The WFP did respond with a plan to a tweet by Musk, but there hasn’t been any word by the CEO yet.
David Beasley, the WFP executive director, said that there are millions of people around the world on the brink of starvation. He exclaimed excitement that Musk had engaged with the donation but it remains to be seen whether Musk will go through with it.
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