On November 13, Billie Eilish shared a carousel from the activist group My Voice, My Choice titled, “Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire -- here’s what he could do with it.”
The slides laid out bold proposals: spending roughly $40 billion annually to end world hunger by 2030; allocation of $140 billion over seven years in order to deliver clean water globally; investment of $1-2 billion yearly to lift all 10,443 critically endangered species to being endangered; and more than $793 billion to rebuild regions including Ukraine, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank.
After she shared the graphic, Eilish added her own commentary on a plain black background: “etc…. f—ing pathetic p—-y b—-h coward.”
Her message was crystal clear: she thinks Musk's astronomical wealth puts him in a position to solve serious global problems, and he has not.
That puts him even closer to officially becoming the world's first "trillionaire."
Shareholders of Tesla Inc. in early November approved an executive compensation plan for Musk that could yield the CEO stock worth as much as $1 trillion if performance targets are met, including reaching an $8.5 trillion market value for Tesla by 2035 and deploying millions of robot-taxis and humanoid robots.
Eilish's outburst was in line with one larger theme in public appearances. Just weeks earlier, she received the Music Innovator Award at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards and took the stage in front of a room full of billionaires and cultural figures, including Mark Zuckerberg.
She asked, "If you're a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? … No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties." Meanwhile, she announced that $11.5 million from her "Hit Me Hard and Soft" tour would go to causes focusing on food equity, climate justice and pollution reduction.
Musk has not publicly responded to Eilish's comments, but the interaction has set off a loud discussion among social media and commentators alike. Some laud her for using her platform to call out wealth disparity; others question whether such attacks are productive.
Either way, the incident underlines something of a cultural moment: celebrities with increasing frequency holding ultra-rich figures to account amid the extension of the gap between the richest and the rest of society.
In all, Eilish's sharp words to Musk do more than express personal frustration: They reflect a larger conversation about the role immense wealth should play in addressing global crises, and the degree to which billionaires must be held accountable if they fail to act.
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