NYT: Musk’s Charities Benefit His Own Businesses

The New York Times reports:

Unlike Bill Gates, who has deployed his fortune in an effort to improve health care across Africa, or Walmart’s Walton family, which has spurred change in the American education system, Mr. Musk’s philanthropy has been haphazard and largely self-serving — making him eligible for enormous tax breaks and helping his businesses. Since 2020, he has seeded his charity with tax-deductible donations of stock worth more than $7 billion at the time, making it one of the largest in the country.

The foundation that houses the money has failed in recent years to give away the bare minimum required by law to justify the tax break, exposing it to the risk of having to pay the government a substantial financial penalty. Mr. Musk has not hired any staff for his foundation, tax filings show. Its billions are handled by a board that consists of himself and two volunteers, one of whom reports putting in so little time that it averages out to six minutes per week.

Read the full article.

This is quite the deep dive. Gift link here.

The Musk Foundation is one of the US’s largest charities and Elon Musk has received huge tax benefits. But it isn’t doling out as much $ as is legally required.

When it does give, that $ often goes to causes benefitting its owner. We investigated: https://t.co/wa5aXkX9Yz

— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) March 10, 2024