After Twitter exchange with UN, Elon Musk donated over $5.7 billion in Tesla shares to charity: report

The UN World Food Programme chief had said 2% of Elon Musk's wealth ($6 billion) will solve world hunger.

Billionaire Elon Musk donated over $5.7 billion in shares of Tesla in November last year to a charity, days after the United Nations (UN) outlined a plan that could solve world hunger, news agency Reuters reported, quoting the automaker’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Elon Musk reported donated 5,044,000 shares in Tesla to a charity from November 19 to November 29 last year.

He had asked the United Nations to show him how $6 billion of his wealth could solve world hunger, following which, in November, the world body got back to him with an answer.

Musk had, on Twitter, responded to a CNN article in which the chief of the UN World Food Programme said two per cent of the Tesla CEO’s wealth ($6 billion) will solve world hunger.

David Beasley, who heads the food-aid programme, had called on the world’s billionaires - such as Musk and Amazon Inc founder Jeff Bezos - to “step up now, on a one-time basis” to help end world hunger. According to him “just $6 billion could keep 42 million people from dying” of hunger.

Reacting to this, Musk said, “if WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it”.

He added: “But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent.”

If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021

Beasley on Twitter shared with Musk, and the world, the UN World Food Programme’s call to the world's billionaires to donate $6.6 billion to save 42 million people from famine.

The UN plan includes a break-up of how the money would be used. These include food and its delivery, cash and food vouchers, country-specific costs to design, scale up and manage, global and regional operations management, administration and accountability. Tens of millions of people across 43 countries are on the brink of famine, according to the UN World Food Programme.