Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to a regulatory filing on December 30, gave 268,000 Tesla shares, valued at over $112 million, to a charitable organization. Musk has previously made large philanthropic contributions.
Between August and December of 2022, he made multiple charitable donations totaling $1.95 billion in Tesla shares. He donated $5.7 billion worth of Tesla stock in 2021, however it was later discovered that the money went to his own charity
Musk’s “year-end tax planning” involved donating the shares to “certain charities” that have “no current intention to sell such stock,” as stated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. The charities that were given the shares are not identified and have no immediate plans to sell them.
Through a trust he established in 2003, Musk, the richest person in the world with a net worth of over $415 billion (per Bloomberg), continues to hold about 411 million Tesla shares in spite of this donation. According to a 2024 corporate report, Musk owned almost 13% of Tesla’s total shares as of last year.
In 2018, Musk, who also serves as the CEO of SpaceX and the social media network X, received 304 million options for Tesla stock. However, a Delaware court twice rejected this pay plan, and Tesla shareholders are currently contesting it.
