Last October, Elon Musk made headlines with a series of tweets flirting with the idea of using his wealth to address world hunger. Recently, the Twitter exchange has returned to the spotlight due to his recent acquisition of the social media platform.
The conversation initially began when CNN Business published an article with the headline “2% of Elon Musk’s wealth could solve world hunger, says director of UN food scarcity organization.”
In the report, the executive director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley, gave the figure of $6 billion as an estimate for the cost of addressing world hunger. CNN wrote that $6 billion equated to just 2% of Musk’s net worth.
Four days after the article was written, Dr. Eli David, a tech researcher, lecturer, and entrepreneur, tweeted a screenshot of the story. He pointed out that the WFP had raised $8.4 billion in 2020, asking how it was possible that $6 billion could now solve world hunger if more than $8 billion had not done so the year before.
The Tesla and SpaceX founder replied to Dr. David’s tweet, challenging the WFP to explain how that amount of money would end world hunger and offering to hand over the funds if he deemed the organization’s answer acceptable.
If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021
Musk quickly followed up with another tweet, stating that as a condition of the donation, the WFP would have to make public the way it used the money.
WFP’s Beasley responded and first qualified that the headline was written in error; $6 billion would not solve world hunger, he said, but it would save 42 million people “on the brink of starvation.”
.@elonmusk! Headline not accurate. $6B will not solve world hunger, but it WILL prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation. An unprecedented crisis and a perfect storm due to Covid/conflict/climate crises.
— David Beasley (@WFPChief) October 31, 2021
He then replied to Musk’s tweet demanding that the money’s use be visible to the public, assuring the billionaire that the WFP would be transparent about how it employed the donation.
I can assure you that we have the systems in place for transparency and open source accounting. Your team can review and work with us to be totally confident of such.
— David Beasley (@WFPChief) October 31, 2021
Musk also instructed the WFP to publish its current spending reports and its proposed plan for the money he would be donating.
Please publish your current & proposed spending in detail so people can see exactly where money goes.
Sunlight is a wonderful thing.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021
Indeed, an audit coordinator for the UN Development Programme, Arora Akanksha, suggested looking into the WFP’s financial statements. She pointed to the organization’s substantial assets and asked why it did not use its own investments to help the cause.
What’s interesting is that no one has ever bothered to open @WFP financial statements: https://t.co/AfpFpcSTog
The organization is sitting on cash of “3.35 billion” and investments of “1billion”. @WFPChief why are to you using WFPs own cash & investments to solve world hunger? pic.twitter.com/MZ86xEhR5W— Arora Akanksha (@arora4people) October 31, 2021
CNN changed its headline the following day, clarifying that Beasley believed Musk’s wealth “could help solve” world hunger rather than solve it completely.
Between November 1 and November 3, Beasley returned to Musk’s Twitter thread, providing relevant links to the WFP website and offering a quick summary of how $6.6 billion could help save the lives of 42 million people. He also noted the organization’s records are all public and available on its website.
.@elonmusk, tweet plan to avert crisis for 42 million people on famine’s edge in 43 countries:
$.43 x 42,000,000 x 365 days = $6.6 billion.
Systems in place in all 43 countries. 115 million people assisted last year. Just a matter of scaling up.
— David Beasley (@WFPChief) November 3, 2021
On November 15, the WFP’s completed plan, as requested by Musk, was published. Beasley tweeted a link to the detailed strategy and tagged the entrepreneur in the post.
This hunger crisis is urgent, unprecedented, AND avoidable. @elonmusk, you asked for a clear plan & open books. Here it is! We're ready to talk with you – and anyone else – who is serious about saving lives. The ask is $6.6B to avert famine in 2022: https://t.co/eJLmfcMVqE
— David Beasley (@WFPChief) November 15, 2021
However, Musk did not respond to the plan, whether to deem it passable or unacceptable.
His only “answer” to Beasley after he hinted about donating the money came hours after the initial exchange on October 31.
Musk replied to Beasley’s initial tweet (in which the director had clarified the CNN headline) and asked, “What happened here?”
Linked in the tweet was an article published by Express in December 2015 that alleged starving children were forced to exchange sexual favors with UN peacekeepers for food in war zones the year before.
What happened here? https://t.co/WWfbZURtdh
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021
This would be his only discussion of the $6 billion donation to world hunger on Twitter.
The billionaire did donate $5.74 billion worth of Tesla stock between November 19 and November 29 to an undisclosed charity. That information came this past February as part of a filing with the Security and Exchange Commission.
Although it is not publicly known where the donation was made, it is alleged that it could have been placed into a donor-advised fund, or DAF. This is an investment account where assets can continue to grow with the promise they will go to a charity. Doing this allows for immediate charitable giving tax breaks with the option to choose a specific charity later.
Musk has been more open about some of his other charitable donations, including one of $30 million to different Texas nonprofits and public schools in the Brownsville, Texas, area where SpaceX is located.
Musk’s private foundation also handed out $23.6 million in grants from July 2019 to June 2020. The year after, Musk donated $50 million in 2021 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
After being contacted by Fortune magazine in February about Musk’s mysterious charitable donation, the UN WFP issued a statement indicating it had not received anything from him at that point.
Though the Twitter thread between Musk and Beasley has long ended, Musk’s purchase of the social media giant has now stirred the topic up again.
Many pointed out that the billionaire had elected not to provide $6 billion to help solve world hunger, yet he had shelled out $44 billion to buy Twitter.
On April 25, the day that Twitter accepted Musk’s offer, several users of the platform brought up the October 2021 exchange.
Bryan Tyler Cohen, who hosts a podcast on big names in politics, noted that Musk never seemed serious about giving the money to the UN.
Elon Musk told the United Nations he would give them $6 billion to end world hunger if they showed him a detailed plan of how they would use the money. They called his bluff and gave him their plan— and then they never got the money. Now he’s buying Twitter for $45 billion.
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 25, 2022
Another user simply accused Twitter’s new owner of going back on his word.
Remember like two weeks ago when Elon was like “tell me how to end world hunger and I’ll do it” and then he bought twitter for $44 billion instead
— river buddy butcher 🤠 (@rivbutcher) April 25, 2022
At the 2022 Met Gala on May 2, Musk was asked about his charitable giving directly by an Entertainment Tonight reporter.
“My compаnies аre intended to do good for the future of humаnity,” he said. “I’m trying to do good for humаnity аnd civilizаtion’s future.”
The entire content of the website for Musk’s foundation is a five-bullet list of the goals its grants support:
– Renewable energy research and advocacy.
– Human space exploration research and advocacy.
– Pediatric research.
– Science and engineering education.
– Development of safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity.
Given the lack of further information from Musk, it remains unknown if he has made any donation to the UN WFP. Whether any of his future philanthropy aligns with the organization remains uncertain.
