Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and current richest man in the world, announced Thursday night that he would give $ 100 million, about five hundredths of its net worth, for a prize to reward the best carbon capture technology.
“I donate $ 100 million for a prize for the best carbon capture technology,” Musk tweeted. “Details next week.”
Musk spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It would be its largest known contribution to date and represents about 0.05 percent of its net worth, mainly from its Tesla shares, whose value has risen since 2020.
In 2012, Musk became one of the billionaires in the world to sign ‘The Giving Pledge’, promising to donate half of their fortune to charity in their lifetime or in their wills. At the time, its net worth was about $ 2 billion. Now he is estimated at about $ 183 billion.
So far, the pace of its giving has not kept up with its dazzling net worth. In September, Forbes reported that Musk had given about $ 25 million to nonprofits and transferred tens of millions of dollars to donated funds, which paid out about $ 75 million in grants during his lifetime.
In days gone by, industrialists like Rockefeller and Carnegie had plucked fantastic wealth before switching to philanthropic works later in life.
It seems that some of the richest people in the world these days are having more trouble dividing their wealth for charity. The new rich say he wants to ensure that resources are used for the greatest and long-term human good.
Outside of work, Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon, put more of his fortune into exploring space through his rocket business than solving problems on earth.
“Our people must go to space if we are to have a prosperous civilization,” Bezos said in 2019. “We are destroying this planet.” Bezos did not sign ‘The Giving Pledge’.
In 2020, he continued to climb the annual list of donations with the $ 10 billion donation to the newly established Bezos Earth Fund with the goal of fighting climate change. He also started the Day One Families fund and donated $ 2 billion to homeless charities, and there are few grants associated with it.
The fund was set up 15 months after he tweeted a ‘request for ideas’ in 2017 about what he should do with his wealth shortly before he became the richest person in the world shortly afterwards.
The indecision is not shared by novelist MacKenzie Scott, formerly married to Bezos, who in 2020 donated more than $ 4 billion to hundreds of charities helping people affected by the pandemic’s economic crises. She has also donated to social and racial health-oriented non-profit organizations and black colleges and universities.
Musk’s announcement comes on the same day that the Biden administration appointed Jennifer Wilcox, a carbon capture expert and professor of engineering and energy policy at the University of Pennsylvania, Musk’s alma mater, as chief assistant secretary for fossil energy at the US Department of Commerce. energy.
