The Blubber

Elon Musk’s charitable foundation grew to $9.5 billion in assets last year while distributing $237 million in donations, the majority of which went to organizations under Musk's control.

These details are outlined in the Musk Foundation’s latest tax filing, obtained by Bloomberg News on Thursday. The filing reveals that the foundation benefited significantly from Tesla Inc. shares it holds, allocating $137 million to another Musk-led nonprofit, The Foundation, which aims to establish a STEM-focused primary and secondary school.

Once this lower school is operational, it plans to expand into a university offering advanced education, according to an application filed with the IRS last year.

The Musk Foundation also contributed $25 million to a donor-advised fund (DAF) at Fidelity Charitable—a philanthropic vehicle Musk effectively controls. Musk has consistently directed tens of millions of dollars annually to DAFs, but whether the funds reach operating charities remains unclear unless recipients disclose them. Since 2016, he has funneled approximately $140 million into DAFs managed by Fidelity Charitable and Vanguard Charitable.

Other donations listed include contributions to the X Prize Foundation, several Texas-based education organizations, the Air Force Aid Society, and Boston University.

These nonprofits represent just a fraction of Musk’s expansive empire, which also includes Tesla, SpaceX, a social media company, and an increasingly prominent political apparatus. Meanwhile, Musk’s net worth hit a record $400 billion this week, boosted by an insider sale of shares in his privately held SpaceX, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Neither Musk nor his representatives immediately responded to requests for comment. The New York Times first reported the filing.

Despite Musk’s standing as the world’s richest person, his philanthropy remains modest. Over the past three years, he reported giving away roughly $559 million, with 2023 being his most generous year. For comparison, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a DAF with $13.6 billion in assets in 2023, distributed $4.7 billion in grants during the same year.

IRS regulations require private foundations to distribute an average of 5% of their assets annually. Musk has frequently fallen short of this benchmark. Despite the foundation’s growing wealth, its operations remain lean, with the latest filing listing the same small group of individuals, including Musk himself and his confidant, Jared Birchall.