Musk’s charity sent most cash to his own entities – Bloomberg

The entrepreneur’s net worth has passed $400 billion, making him by far the richest person on the planet

Elon Musk’s charitable foundation has reportedly failed to give away the amount of money required by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to comply with its tax status, while also sending millions of dollars to other entities controlled by the billionaire, Bloomberg reported on Friday.  

According to the outlet, which has obtained the Musk Foundation’s latest tax filing, the organization grew to $9.5 billion in assets last year while handing out $237 million in gifts, most of which went to Musk’s other nonprofits, such as The Foundation, X Prize Foundation, and Fidelity Charitable.  

The New York Times has reported that the tax filings suggest that the Musk Foundation fell $421 million short of the amount it was required to give away in 2023, meaning that the billionaire now has until the end of the year to distribute that money or be required to pay a sizable penalty to the IRS.  

As noted by Bloomberg, the IRS mandates that all charitable foundations deploy, on average, at least 5% of their assets a year. Musk, however, has apparently missed that bar on numerous occasions.  

The entrepreneur, who is estimated to be the world's richest person, saw his net worth surpass a record $440 billion this week after an insider share sale of his privately held business, SpaceX, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

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Musk’s new fortune puts him nearly $200 billion ahead of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. He is also now worth more on paper than most US public companies, including Costco, Home Depot, and Netflix, as per Business Insider.  

Meanwhile, the entrepreneur has emerged as one of the top Republican donors this year and has become one of the most prominent members of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle.  

Following the Republican’s election victory last month, Musk also pledged to audit the entire US government and cut government spending by up to $2 trillion as the head of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.