Business

Elon Musk donated £1.6bn in Tesla stock to charity last year

Elon Musk donated around $1.95bn (£1.6bn) worth of Tesla stock to charity last year, according to documents filed in the US.

The billionaire gifted about 11.6 million shares between August and December of 2022, the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed.

It didn’t list which organisations were the recipients of the shares.

Musk, currently the world’s second richest person, now owns around 13% of the electric car manufacturer.

Analysts have suggested that Musk might benefit from gifting Tesla stock if he donated it to charity, since shares donated to charities do not have to pay capital gains tax, as they would if they were sold.

In 2021 he donated around $5.7bn (£4.7bn) worth of shares.

Musk signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, a commitment by some billionaires to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy in their lifetime or upon their death.

Read more:
Musk cleared of deceiving investors with 2018 tweet
Twitter ‘to make millions’ from ads next to once-banned users

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

The Tesla boss has previously pledged to donate around $20m (£16.5m) to schools in Cameron County and $10m (£8.2m) to the city of Brownsville in Texas for “downtown revitalization” after relocating the firm to the state from California in 2021.