Wikipedia

Musk Foundation

The Musk Foundation is a US-based charitable foundation funded and directed primarily by entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk. The foundation is dedicated to promoting renewable energy, manned space exploration, pediatrics, science and engineering education, and the “development of safe artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity”.[1] At the end of 2022, the foundation had assets of $5 billion, $4.5 billion of which were in the form of shares in the carmaker Tesla.[2]

Musk Foundation
Formation2001; 23 years ago (2001)
Founders
TypeNon-operating private foundation
EIN 85-2133087
Legal status501(c)(3) organization
HeadquartersAustin, Texas
Elon Musk
Revenue$2,554,831,265 (2022)
Endowment$5,050,766,050 (2022)
Websitewww.muskfoundation.org

Formation and organization

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The Musk Foundation was established by Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk in December 2001. It was initially registered in Los Angeles.[3][4] It is now based in Austin, the capital of Texas.[5] The foundation has no employees or full-time staff. It is managed by an unpaid board of directors consisting of Elon Musk and employees of his family office.[6]

Assets and inflows

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The foundation was initially endowed with $2 million.[7] From 2012 to 2015, it received a further $3 million. In 2016, Elon Musk donated Tesla shares worth $254 million to the foundation, thus avoiding tax payments that would have been due if he had sold the shares.[8] In 2020, the foundation received another $4 million.[9] Due to the increase in the price of Tesla shares, the foundation's assets rose to $3 billion by the end of 2020.[10]

In 2021, Musk donated more Tesla shares to the Musk Foundation, worth $5.7 billion at the time. According to estimates, he may have avoided up to $2 billion in taxes that would have been incurred if he had sold the shares.[6]

Musk also donated Tesla shares in 2022, this time worth $1.95 billion. It is not yet known whether and to what extent these went to the Musk Foundation (as of February 2024).[11]

Donations

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From 2002 to 2018, the foundation gave $25 million directly to nonprofit organizations, nearly half of which went to Musk's OpenAI,[12] which was a nonprofit at the time.[13] By 2020, the foundation had granted around 350 donations with a total volume of an estimated $100 million, including for Musk's non-profit organizations Ad Astra and OpenAI. Other donations went to the University of Pennsylvania, the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, the AI think tank Future of Life Institute, the X-Prize Foundation for the Global Learning X-Prize, the nature conservation organizations Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation, Oxfam and the Clinton Foundation.[14][15][6][16] Other beneficiaries included the Wikimedia Foundation and his brother Kimbal's nonprofit Big Green.[17] Elon Musk's favorite event – the Burning Man Festival in Nevada – was also donated to.[1] Most of these donations were anonymized.[18]

In September 2021, the Musk Foundation donated $55 million to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as part of a fundraiser by SpaceX customer Jared Isaacman.[6][19] In the same year, it provided $100 million for technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.[20]

In 2022, the foundation awarded – as in the previous year[21] – a total of 160 million dollars in donation.[6] 10 million of this went to The Foundation, a new foundation set up by Elon Musk, which is preparing to establish a school in Austin. The Foundation received a further $100 million in 2023.[22][23]

Criticism

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Both the selection of recipients of donations and a relatively low payout ratio have been criticized.

In 2021 and 2022, the Musk Foundation awarded less than 5% of its assets in donations, after its assets grew to several billion dollars. This means that it fell short of the legal minimum donation required to maintain its tax-exempt status.[6]

The Guardian criticized the fact that the foundation financed various projects of Musk and his family members, although this is not unusual for billionaires and wealthy donors.[1] The New York Times concluded that through 2022, about half of the Musk Foundation's grants went to organizations “tied” to Musk, one of his employees, or one of his companies. Musk's philanthropy would be “largely self-serving.”[6]

According to the biographer Walter Isaacson, Musk has little interest in philanthropy. He believes that he can do more for humanity by leaving his money in his companies and pursuing the goals of sustainable energy, space exploration and AI safety with them.[24]

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Harris, Mark (2019-01-23). "How Elon Musk's secretive foundation hands out his billions". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  2. ^ "2022 Form 990 for Musk Foundation | Cause IQ". www.causeiq.com. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  3. ^ Form 990-PF for period ending June 2002 ProRepublica
  4. ^ Insider, WIRED. "Elon's empire: the sprawling, intertwining web of Elon Musk's vested interests". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  5. ^ "Musk Foundation". CauseIQ.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g David Fahrenthold, Ryan Mac (2024-03-20). "Elon Musk Has a Giant Charity. Its Money Stays Close to Home". New York Times. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  7. ^ Form 990-PF for period ending June 2003 Pro Republica
  8. ^ Millard, Drew. "Why did Elon Musk stash a quarter-billion dollars of Tesla stock in a non-profit back in 2016?". The Outline. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  9. ^ Musk Foundation. Pro Publica, abgerufen am 18. Februar 2024.
  10. ^ "2020 Form 990 for Musk Foundation | Cause IQ". www.causeiq.com. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  11. ^ "Musk donated around $1.95 billion in Tesla shares last year". Reuters. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  12. ^ Schleifer, Theodore (January 11, 2021). "The big decision before Elon Musk, now the richest person in the world". Vox. Archived from the original on February 17, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  13. ^ "OpenAI shifts from nonprofit to 'capped-profit' to attract capital". March 11, 2019. Archived from the original on April 25, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  14. ^ Calayag, Keith (2022-02-17). "Elon Musk Won't Leave All His Billions To His Kids: Here's Why". International Business Times. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  15. ^ "Elon Musk's Philanthropy Is Still Big Philanthropy". capitalresearch.org. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  16. ^ Allison Morrow (2024-03-12). "Musk's haphazard philanthropy is under scrutiny". CNN Business. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  17. ^ Cuccinello, Hayley C. (September 8, 2020). "Elon Musk Has Promised To Give at Least Half His Fortune To Charity. Here's How Much He's Donated So Far". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  18. ^ Cuccinello, Hayley C. "Elon Musk Has Promised To Give At Least Half His Fortune To Charity. Here's How Much He's Donated So Far". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  19. ^ Michael Sheetz. "Stories from orbit: Q&A with SpaceX Inspiration4 commander Jared Isaacman". Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  20. ^ Neate, Rupert; correspondent, Rupert Neate Wealth (2021-02-08). "Elon Musk pledges $100m to carbon capture contest". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-12-09. {{cite news}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
  21. ^ "Musk's $5.7 Billion Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity". Bloomberg.com. 2022-12-12. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  22. ^ Hull,Bloomberg, Sophie Alexander,Dana. "Elon Musk wants to create new schools in Austin—from elementary to university—that he's funding with a $100 million gift". Fortune. Retrieved 2024-12-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ Kay, Grace. "Elon Musk plans to launch his own university in Texas, report says". Business Insider. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  24. ^ Isaacson, Walter (2023-09-12). Elon Musk. Simon and Schuster. p. 439. ISBN 978-1-9821-8130-7.
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