Musk's $5.7 billion donation went to his own foundation
It was revealed that the $5.7 billion Tesla stock donation announced by famous billionaire Elon Musk in November 2021 went to his own foundation. According to the foundation's tax forms, its assets as of the end of 2021 were worth $9.4 billion. It was revealed that $5.7 billion of Tesla stock, which Elon Musk announced that he donated to an unnamed charity at the end of 2021, went to his own charity, making the foundation one of the largest organizations in the U.S. According to a tax return obtained by Bloomberg News, the Musk Foundation had assets of $9.4 billion at the end of 2021. The foundation sent approximately $160 million to nonprofits last year, making this the largest donation by the foundation of the world's richest person in a calendar year. The billionaire’s largest donation during this period went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis with $55 million, while the second place went to the X Prize Foundation, which Musk partnered with to create a prize for carbon removal projects, with $54 million. He has a fortune of $167.7 billion. Other donations on the tax form indicate that Musk has fulfilled his commitments to school districts and nonprofit organizations around Brownsville, Texas, which is near the SpaceX spaceport in Chica, Texas. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index states that Musk, 51, has a personal fortune of $167.7 billion. The famous billionaire moved his companies, including Tesla, from California to Texas during the pandemic and changed his charitable foundation. The foundation’s tax forms show that Musk, his right-hand man Jared Birchall and Matilda Simon hold director positions. There is no record of any other employees on the relevant form. As of the end of 2021, the largest foundation in the US was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which had assets of $55 billion. The foundation gave away about $6.2 billion last year, according to a foundation spokesperson. Political controversy Musk has previously clashed with politicians including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over inequality and wealth taxes, and in November 2021 he announced that he donated $5.7 billion worth of Tesla stock to charity. However, the billionaire never said which organization the money went to. A large donation to charity could help reduce what Musk described as the largest tax bill in US history. The Tesla CEO tweeted that he would pay more than $11 billion in taxes this year, days before completing a series of stock sales worth more than $16 billion, most of which involved the exercise of about 23 million options.