Musk's Generous Donation... 6.8 Trillion Won Worth of Tesla Shares Given to Charity Organization

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
[Photo by AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] It was recently confirmed that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, donated 5 million Tesla shares worth $5.7 billion (approximately 6.8 trillion KRW) to a charity last November.

According to Bloomberg on the 14th (local time), Tesla reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that CEO Musk donated 5 million Tesla shares between November 19 and 29 last year. The value of these shares, based on the stock price on the day of sale, amounts to $5.7 billion.

Bloomberg described this as "one of the largest donations in history," adding that "an unidentified trust was involved in the donation, and the names of the charities receiving the shares were not recorded in the documents."

This donation came at a time when CEO Musk was engaged in disputes over wealth tax with Democratic Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. At that time, David Beasley, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), mentioned Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, stating, "(These wealthy individuals) need to make a one-time response. $6 billion could help 42 million people."

In response, CEO Musk tweeted, "If WFP can explain exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock immediately to do so," setting the condition that the hunger relief plan's accounting must be disclosed.

Bloomberg also noted that there is a view that this donation was made to reduce Musk's taxes. Last year, Musk exercised an unusually large number of stock options and is likely to owe over $10 billion in taxes to U.S. tax authorities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.