Elon Musk entered an Oakland, California courtroom on Tuesday to take the stand in his battle with OpenAI over the decision to ditch its nonprofit status, and to serve as the world’s foremost protector of charity—the one man standing between Altman and the very sanctity of philanthropic endeavors. “If we make it okay to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed. That’s my concern,” Musk said in initial remarks, according to Reuters.
That is a specific declaration about what’s driving Musk’s lawsuit. It’s the type of statement that you only make when you are so righteous in your actions and so pure in your cause that there definitely isn’t information out there that would completely undermine your whole message and call into question whether you actually mean what you say or are just cynically claiming something in order to win in court.
Anyway, you’re not going to believe this, but Elon Musk’s charitable organization, the Musk Foundation, primarily gives to other organizations controlled by Musk.
In 2024, Bloomberg found that of the $237 million in gifts the Musk Foundation gave out, $137 million went to The Foundation, which he runs, and $25 million went to a donor-advised fund at Fidelity Charitable, which he also effectively controls.
The New York Times reported similar findings in 2025, but added some new color to just how withholding the Musk Foundation is to sources outside of the Musk network. Per the Times, the organization failed to give away 5% of its assets, the minimum amount required by law, for the fourth consecutive year. While it did give out more than it handed out the previous year, more than three-quarters of the $474 million in charitable giving were charitably given to other Musk-linked organizations. That includes $370 million that went to The Foundation, which operates an elementary school in rural Texas near a town that is populated nearly entirely by SpaceX personnel.
Just yesterday, Forbes reported that Musk is among the least philanthropic wealthy people on the planet. Despite ranking as the world’s richest man, worth $839 billion by Forbes’ last estimate, only $500 million of his wealth has actually been disbursed. That is just 0.06% of his fortune, per Forbes.
For context, the median individual annual income in the United States is $45,140. If the median American gave at the same rate as Musk, they’d do about $30 of charitable giving per year. And, as we established, when Musk actually does give out money, it’s mostly to himself. So if the average American really wanted to follow the Musk model of philanthropy, they’d send about $23 of that to themselves.
But hey, let’s be generous to Musk (you know, unlike how is with everyone else). You don’t get rich by just giving away your money or, say, naming an extremely high purchase price for a social media company as a joke and then getting forced to actually pay it.
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