Here's what we know about Musk's donation of Tesla shares to charity

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In February 2025, a claim spread that tech billionaire Elon Musk donated $112 million worth of shares in his company Tesla to help homeless people.

Users on Facebook spread the rumor, with one account writing: “BREAKING NEWS! Elon Musk donates $112 million in Tesla stock to homeless people, with special conditions” (archived, archived).

A user on Musk-owned X (archived) claimed the donation amount was even higher, saying Musk had gifted $119 million in Tesla shares “to help the homeless.”

Evidence confirms that Musk did donate around $112 million worth of Tesla shares, but there is no proof it specifically went to help the homeless.

A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing registered on Dec. 31, 2024, showed Musk donated 268,000 shares of Tesla stock. Aaron Beckner, a holder of power of attorney for Musk, signed the document (archived, archived).

The filing said the donation formed part of Musk’s “year-end tax planning” and the gifts would be given to “certain charities” but did not state the charitable focus of these organizations. It added that they had “no current intention to sell such stock.” We reached out to Musk via Tesla and will update this story if we get a response.

Reports from financial news outlets including Bloomberg UK and Barron’s wrote that Musk’s donation was valued at $112 million, whereas Reuters said it was worth $108.2 million according to the stock’s last closing price.

The SEC filing stated the transaction took place on Dec. 30, 2024. On that date, the stock trading platform Freetrade noted Tesla’s price per share was $417.41. When multiplied by 268,000 — the number of shares Musk donated — the value of the donation reaches $111,865,880. This number could have been rounded up in news articles to $112 million for ease of reporting.

(Freetrade)

Musk has made similar donations to unnamed charities before. An annual statement of changes in beneficial ownership SEC filing for 2021 shows he sent more than 5 million Tesla shares to charity (archived). Bloomberg UK reported they were worth $5.7 billion at the time and that it had obtained a tax filing in 2022 that showed those funds went to Musk’s own nonprofit, the Musk Foundation.

According to Forbes, Musk is currently the world’s richest person, with a net worth of $362.8 billion as of this writing.