Silicon Valley star entrepreneur Elon Musk promised to donate at least half of his fortune to charity. Since the beginning of this year, as the shares of Tesla, the electric car company he leads, have soared, Musk has become one of the richest people in the United States. But so far, he has donated about 100 million U.S. dollars to charity, which is far from fully fulfilling his promise.
As early as 2012, Tesla and Musk, the star entrepreneur behind the space exploration company SpaceX, signed the “Donation Pledge”, promising to donate at least half of his wealth to charity-he was worth $2 billion at the time. Eight years later, Musk is richer, so he has more money to donate.
Thanks to the rising market value of Tesla, Musk ranks seventh in the latest 2020 Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans with a net worth of US$68 billion. After this year’s Forbes US 400 list was confirmed (based on the stock price on July 24, 2020), Musk’s personal net worth soared to more than $100 billion in late August. Then as Tesla’s stock price fell, Musk’s net worth fell to $87.9 billion on September 4.
So far, Musk has donated about 100 million US dollars to charity. Because the donated money is less than 1% of his net worth, Musk’s charity score is 1.
As we all know, Musk is a cash-strapped billionaire. Except for the few houses currently on hand, almost all of Musk’s wealth comes from shares in Tesla and SpaceX, and he has put about half of his Tesla stock as loan collateral. Musk, 49, said he plans to increase donations in the future. In 2018, he stated on Twitter that he would sell about $100 million worth of Tesla shares for charity “every few years” and donate large sums of money “for about 20 years of Tesla’s steady development” .
Since the creation of the Musk Foundation in 2002, Musk has donated approximately US$25 million to non-profit organizations through the foundation. Over the years, he has transferred tens of millions of dollars from his foundation to two donor guidance funds; a Musk spokesperson said that he has provided grants totaling approximately $75 million to these funds. But these funds are a bit like charitable bank accounts. They do not need to allocate funds to charities every year or publicly disclose donations.
Since 2002, the Musk Foundation has made 350 donations. Approximately US$17 million, which accounts for half of the grant, was mainly given to non-profit organizations that focus on scientific research or education, including the experimental private school Ad Astra located in the SpaceX office park. This school was co-founded by Musk and others in 2014, and his own children and the children of company employees are attending this school. According to public information, the school ceased operations this year and established a new school, AstraNova, in Los Angeles. So far, the largest donation from the foundation is a donation of US$10 million to YC Org in 2016, an entity owned by Sam Altman, the founder of Y Combinator, a startup incubator. According to the latest documents submitted, the organization’s “overall goal” is “to conduct in-depth scientific research and ultimately provide the results to the public for free.”
YC Org is also the financing platform of OpenAI. OpenAI is a non-profit organization co-founded by Musk and Altman in 2015. The purpose is to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit all mankind, without being constrained by economic returns.” Musk started in 2018 The board of directors resigned on the grounds that as Tesla continues to focus more on artificial intelligence, there may be a conflict of interest between the two institutions in the future. In the following year, OpenAI established a profitable department and received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft. In May of this year, Microsoft and OpenAI released a new supercomputer built specifically to “train” super-large-scale artificial intelligence models.
Other beneficiaries of Musk’s philanthropy include his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania (Musk’s alma mater), the Wikimedia Foundation and the Kitchen Community. The kitchen community is now renamed Big Green, a charitable organization headquartered in Colorado, led by Musk’s younger brother Kimball, mainly in remote areas to use the “learning garden” to help children grow and prepare fresh food. It has received a donation of $483,000 from Musk.
Musk also donated $10 million to the non-profit organization Future of Life Institute, an organization dedicated to making artificial intelligence “good for mankind.” Musk also sponsored US$10 million to the Global Learning XPrize, and donated more than US$6 million to the environmental organization Sierra Club.
Obviously, if Musk really wants to fulfill his donation promise, it will be a long way to go. According to calculations, based on Musk’s personal wealth of US$68 billion, to donate half of it, he must donate US$2.3 million every day for the next 40 years.
For more such interesting article like this, app/softwares, games, Gadget Reviews, comparisons, troubleshooting guides, listicles, and tips & tricks related to Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS, follow us on Google News, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.