Elon Musk set it up in 2001 to fund five causes.
What it funds. Its grants go to renewable energy, human space exploration, pediatric research, science and engineering education, and safe artificial intelligence (AI).
How it is funded. Its endowment is mostly Tesla stock, so its giving power rises and falls with the share price.
The pledge. Elon Musk signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away most of his wealth.
Each card shows the largest documented gift for a cause and links to its source.
That is the value of the Tesla shares Elon Musk gave to charity from 2021 to 2025. About $5.7 billion of it went to the Musk Foundation in 2021. Form 5 filing, Feb 2022 →
The Musk Foundation funded the XPRIZE Carbon Removal purse. Mati Carbon, which spreads crushed basalt on farms in India to pull carbon dioxide out of the air, won the $50 million grand prize on April 23, 2025.
xprize.org →The Musk Foundation's 2021 grant to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital covered the $50 million Elon Musk pledged after the all-civilian Inspiration4 flight.
Fortune, Dec 2022 →Most of the foundation's record 2024 giving went to The Foundation, a nonprofit Elon Musk set up to run a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) school in Texas.
Bloomberg, Nov 2025 →Every stop links to the pledge, filing, or report behind it.
Elon Musk publicly commits to giving the majority of his wealth to philanthropic causes during his lifetime or in his will.
The pledge at givingpledge.org →An experimental school opens on the SpaceX campus and later becomes the nonprofit Astra Nova online school.
astranova.org →The night the Inspiration4 crew splashes down, Elon Musk answers its St. Jude fundraiser on X: count me in for $50 million.
X post, Sep 2021 →Elon Musk gives about 5 million Tesla shares, counted before the 2022 stock split, to the Musk Foundation in one of the largest charitable gifts on record. A Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing disclosed the gift in February 2022.
SEC Form 5, Feb 2022 →Elon Musk gives about 11.6 million Tesla shares, worth about $1.95 billion, to charity in 7 gifts. The filing does not name the charities.
SEC Form 5, Feb 2023 →The foundation gives away a record $474 million, including about $35 million to a Fidelity Charitable donor-advised fund, an account that holds money for later grants.
990-PF tax filing → Bloomberg, Nov 2025 →The New York Times reports that the foundation's 2023 grants came in $421 million under the 5% annual payout rule, as in 2021 and 2022.
The Times report, via The Salt Lake Tribune →Elon Musk gives 268,000 Tesla shares, worth more than $100 million, to charities as year-end tax planning, his filing shows.
SEC Form 4, Dec 2024 →Mati Carbon wins the XPRIZE Carbon Removal grand prize funded by the Musk Foundation.
xprize.org →Elon Musk gives another 210,699 Tesla shares, worth about $100 million, to unnamed charities.
SEC Form 4, Dec 2025 →Starlink's service for Ukraine, and the free service it offered after hurricanes and in Venezuela, are SpaceX programs, covered in the Starlink explainer.
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