Elon Musk donated $1.9 billion worth of Tesla shares to charity last year. But it is not known what charity this donation donated to.
According to documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk sold 11.6 million shares of Tesla between August and December last year. Musk now owns about 13% of Tesla.
This donation makes Musk the second most generous person in 2022, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy list. The first position was held by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates who donated USD 5.1 billion.
According to Forbes data, Musk's personal fortune at the end of 2022 is USD 137 billion. So the shares donated represented 1.4% of his total wealth at that time. Currently, Musk is the second richest person in the world, behind LVMH boss Bernard Arnault.
The donation that the Tesla CEO donated in 2022 was less than the amount donated in the previous year. In 2021, Musk reportedly donated five million shares of Tesla which was valued at USD 5.7 billion at the time, as quoted by CNN, Thursday (16/2/2023).
The shares Musk donated in 2021 are also intended for an unnamed charitable foundation. However, the donation was made not long after Musk was challenged by World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley to donate $6 billion to fight global hunger.
Analysts say Musk may benefit by donating his shares. The reason is, shares donated to charity do not have to pay taxes, in contrast to shares sold.
But in the past year Musk has become more diligent in selling Tesla shares. In 2022, he sold $22.9 billion worth of Tesla stock to fund his purchase of Twitter.