Elon Musk donated $5.7 billion worth of Tesla shares to charity in 2021.
The 50-year-old businessman gave a total of 5,044,000 shares in the carmaker to unnamed organisations between November 19 and 29 last year, according to its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The donation came shortly after he tweeted promising to sell stock and donate $6 billion to the United Nations World Food Program.
He wrote at the time: "If [the United Nations World Food Programme] can describe... exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”
The SEC filings didn't make it clear which charity - or charitable groups - the shares have been donated to.
The donation means Musk is ranked as America's second-biggest donor behind Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates for 2021, according to date from the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
The entrepreneur - who is worth an estimated $283.6 billion - forgoes a cash salary for his role as CEO, and he gets paid in Tesla stock awards instead.
Meanwhile, he previously revealed on Twitter he would pay more than $11 billion in taxes in 2021 because he would be exercising stock options which were due to expire.
Bob Lord - an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies who studies tax policy - noted there would be a tax benefit for him potentially donating Tesla sock, as shares donated to charity aren't subject to the same capital gains tax than if they were sold.
Lord said: "His tax benefit would be huge. He’d save between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of the $5.7 billion in tax, depending on whether he could take the deduction against his California income, and he’d avoid the gains tax he would have to pay if he sold the stock.”
