Elon Musk Donates Nearly $2 Billion in Tesla Shares to Charity

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his security detail depart the company’s local office in Washington, on Jan. 27, 2023. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The CEO of Tesla and Twitter, Elon Musk, donated nearly $2 billion in Tesla shares to charity last year.

Currently the world’s second-richest person, the Tesla CEO owns around 13 percent of the company’s stock, Reuters reported.

Around a total of 11.6 million shares from the electric car company, worth $1.95 billion, were given away by Musk as “a bona fide gift,” according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Musk’s SEC filing did not name the recipients of his donations, which were made between August and December 2022.

Most of the donations were clustered toward the end of the year, with analysts suggesting that tax planning may have played a role, according to Marketwatch.

Shares given to charities do not have to pay capital gains tax.

Musk Has Been Donating to Charities for Over Two Decades

The billionaire CEO has given Tesla stock to charity in the past, and had donated around $5.74 billion worth of shares in 2021, according to an earlier SEC filing.

In March 2021, Musk wrote in a tweet that he planned to donate $20 million to schools in Cameron County, Texas, and another $10 million to the county’s seat in Brownsville, for “downtown revitalization.”

Musk had previously signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, which commits those who join the agreement to give at least half of their wealth to charity throughout their lifetime or upon their death.

In 2001, he set up the Musk Foundation, which offers grants for “development of safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity,” along with other causes, according to its website.

His foundation found reportedly has more than $200 million in assets and has made gifts worth $160 million, including $55 million to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and $54 million to the X Prize Foundation.

The latest publicly disclosed tax form filed by Musk’s charity is from 2020, which showed total charitable donations worth $23 million.

A New CEO of Twitter May Be Found by the End of 2023

Meanwhile, Musk announced on Feb. 15 that he planned to find someone to succeed him as the CEO of Twitter by the end of the year.

“I’m guessing probably toward the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company, because I think it should be in a stable position around, you know, at the end of this year,” said Musk on a video link at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

“I think I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it’s in a financially healthy place and that the product roadmap is clearly laid out,” he said. He has admitted in the past that Twitter was close to bankruptcy and that he planned to turn it around financially.

Musk acquired the social media platform last spring for $44 billion and has significantly restructured the company with mass layoffs, a revamped interface and members system, along with a relaxation of censorship rules.

He also exposed the previous management’s collusion with U.S. federal law enforcement and the Democrats’ attempts to go after former president Donald Trump.

However, Musk has taken criticism from many Tesla investors, who accuse him of spending too much of his time focusing on Twitter at the expense of his car company.

Back in November, while addressing the G20 Summit in Bali, Musk admitted that he was working too much while he manages his responsibilities as CEO of Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX.

“My workload has recently increased quite a lot,” said Musk, adding, “I have too much work on my plate, that is for sure.”

Reuters contributed to this report.