Elon Musk donated nearly $2 billion worth of Tesla stock to a charity last year, report says

Elon Musk.
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A Tuesday SEC filing revealed Elon Musk donated $1.95 billion worth of Tesla shares to a charity last year. 
The donations were made from August to December 2022 in a turbulent year for the EV maker’s stock. 
Musk has gifted Tesla shares to charities in the past. In 2021, he gave away 5 million worth of stock to an unknown charity.

Elon Musk donated $1.95 billion worth of Tesla shares to a charity last year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. 

The world’s second richest person gave away about 11.6 million shares from August 12 to December 27 last year, per the filing. It did not state which charity organisation Musk gifted the shares to. 

“Represents a bona fide gift of the Issuer’s common stock by the Reporting Person to charity,” the report said. 

The Tesla CEO has made hefty donations to charities in the past. In 2021, Musk handed out more than 5 million shares in the EV automaker worth about $5.7 billion in total, based on average prices of the stock at the time.

Musk made the giveaway just after the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) gave details of a plan to help fight world hunger that would cost $6 billion. 

His most recent donation came at a turbulent time for Tesla stock, where it plunged in value thanks to the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes, recession fears and Musk’s chaotic $44 billion takeover of Twitter. The stock slumped 65% in 2022, but expectations of rate cuts in the new year have significantly boosted its share price to nearly wipe out all of last year’s losses. 

Meanwhile, analysts have slammed Musk for using Tesla as his own “ATM machine” to fund his Twitter takeover. At the end of 2022, the tech guru cashed in nearly $40 billion of Tesla stock to cover tax bills and service debts. 

Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.