Elon Musk
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla Motors
FUNDING AREAS: Energy, Environment, Pediatric Health, Education
OVERVIEW: Elon Musk formed The Musk Foundation in 2002 and prioritizes renewable energy, science and engineering education, and pediatric health. While initially off to a slow start, Musk’s philanthropy has undergone a sudden acceleration, giving away around $5.7 billion in 2021. Musk is a signatory of the Giving Pledge.
Musk also created a nonprofit in 2021, called either The Foundation or The X Foundation, but aside from funding a large education project in Texas, not much is known about it.
BACKGROUND: Elon Musk grew up in South Africa, but he moved to Canada at the age of 17 after obtaining citizenship through his mother. He attended the Queen's School of Business before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where he received his bachelor's. He also pursued a Ph.D. in applied physics at Stanford, but left to pursue entrepreneurial interests, becoming a known quantity for Paypal, Space X, and Tesla Motors. He is the world’s richest person.
ISSUES:
SPACE EXPLORATION: A committed supporter of space exploration, Musk once planned a project he called "Mars Oasis," in which he would place an experimental greenhouse on the Red Planet. The idea was to grow food crops in the greenhouse, which could eventually lead to a colony. Musk eventually put the project on hold when he realized that the lack of appropriate rocket technology made it impossible. Therefore, in response, he did what any problem solver would do, and created SpaceX to guide the development of new, more advanced interplanetary rockets that could make such a colony possible.
Musk's philanthropic vision reflects that same view of the future, but all of it includes an element of space exploration. Overall, his stated long-term goal is to help humanity by making common space travel a reality through SpaceX. In a way, it could be said that SpaceX, besides being a profitable enterprise, guides Musk's philanthropic vision, as well.
ENERGY: Musk has announced his support for an effort to preserve the site of Nikola Tesla's lab by remodeling it into the Tesla Science Center and Museum, and through his foundation, is engaging in a series of projects to donate solar power systems in areas hit by disaster through his solar power company, Solar City. The first one was donated to the South Bay Communities Alliance's Hurricane Response Center in Coden, Alabama, on the Gulf Coast. It was built at Solar City's cost. The 25-kilowatt system is one of the largest in the state of Alabama, consisting of 108 solar panels manufactured in Tennessee, and it will produce 90 percent to 100 percent of the center's electricity use. Musk donated $1 million toward the construction of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.
The foundation also donated $250,000 to build a similar solar power system in the Fukushima prefecture of Japan after its devastating earthquake.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Near the end of 2015 Musk and colleague Sam Altman founded OpenAI, a $1 billion research center for artificial intelligence. The center seeks to investigate safe and beneficial ways of ushering a potentially uncertain era of artificial intelligence. Musk has also donated $10 million to the Future of Life Institute, for similar purposes. In late 2015, Musk suggested he might back development of a neural lace to insert AI into the human brain.
EDUCATION: In early 2021, Musk pledged $20 million to local schools in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley as part of a total $30 million commitment to the area. Musk has also gifted $5 million to the online Khan Academy. He also donated to the UNICEF Giga Connect initiative to help bring the internet to schools in low-income and developing countries. In 2023, Musk committed $100 million toward starting a STEM-focused primary and secondary school in Austin, Texas, with the ultimate goal of opening a University in the area.
HEALTH: Despite early skepticism about the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, Musk donated $5 million to two Boston-area researchers to further their work on the coronavirus, including for vaccines and diagnostic tools.
LOCAL GIVING: Since relocating to the Lonestar State, Musk has committed $10 million to support revitalization efforts for Brownsville’s downtown district and $1 million to Feeding Texas, a foodbank focused on the state.
OTHER: On January 21, 2021, Musk announced, via a tweet, that he is “donating $100M towards a prize for best carbon capture technology.” According to XPRIZE Foundation, which is running the competition, the Innovation Prize will run for four years, from April 22, 2021 (Earth Day) through Earth Day 2025. Musk also donated $50 million to the children’s charity St Jude in honor of the successful SpaceX flight in September 2021. Musk donated five million Tesla shares, worth about $5.7 billion at the time of donation, to an undisclosed charity in November 2021.
LOOKING FORWARD: Musk has given no indication whether his recent gift of $5.7 billion in Tesla shares to his charity signals a long overdue focus on philanthropy. He has said that he intends to make his future philanthropy multiplanetary, earmarking half for Earth and half for Mars. What this means in practical terms with regard to both his immediate and long-term grantmaking is anyone’s guess. Additionally, a 2024 New York Times piece criticizing the way Musk seems to benefit from his own philanthropy may spur him toward either increasing or diversifying his giving in the future, but that remains to be seen.
CONTACT:
Musk Foundation, 11075 Santa Monica Blvd., Ste. 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025, 310-473-7575
LINK:
