The public has long questioned the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, about what he’s doing sitting on a trillion-dollar fortune. After all, other billionaires give away vast amounts of their wealth (take MacKenzie Scott, who’s donated more than $26 billion and is still worth nearly $35 billion).
On social media, some have begged and pleaded for him to give at least some of his wealth away, or even all of it, but Musk has been pretty direct about his relationship with philanthropy.
“I agree with love of humanity, and I think we should try to do things that help our fellow human beings,” Musk told Nikhil Kamath for the WTF podcast in an episode published in December 2025. “But it’s very hard.”
That’s an interesting conception from a person who also believes money won’t matter anymore because of AI, so Nobel prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu called Musk out for it on Monday.
“A proposed pledge for Elon Musk,” wrote Acemoglu in an X post on Monday. “An opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. If money won’t matter in 2036, why don’t you pledge to donate your current wealth of approximately $1 trillion to charity no later than 2036. This would establish with great credibility your belief in the powers of AI and technology.”
Acemoglu also argued it would assuage people around the world who are concerned about the political and social power of billionaires and trillionaires.
“The charities chosen for this should be approved as effective and non-ideological by an impartial body,” he added.
And in somewhat of a shocking response, Musk replied to Acemoglu and said: “I am actually going to do something along these lines!”
While Musk didn’t elaborate on what this means, it’s a complete 180 of how the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has historically approached philanthropy. He’s also been openly critical of other major philanthropists like Scott, having recently said her efforts make the world worse off.
Musk’s history with philanthropy #
On June 27, Pubity, a major viral media and social news brand, posted on X about Scott’s giving, saying her $26 billion in donations has made her one of the “biggest individual donors in history,” and the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos indeed confirmed as the biggest megadonor in 2025.
Then, an account with 22,500 followers with the name @FrenlyOfficer, whose bio describes them as a “Heterosexual Alpha Male,” replied to Pubity’s post about Scott, saying, “Unfortunately, she’s spending it making the world a worse place.” Musk responded to @FrenlyOfficer agreeing with the sentiment, saying: “Sadly, yes.”
While Musk’s foundation stood at about $14 billion as of the end of 2025, according to files obtained by The New York Times, he’s only largely given to organizations that “narrowly track” with the interests of his own businesses. For example, three-quarters of Musk’s total giving in 2024, $370 million, went to a nonprofit in Texas led by his top aide. “That nonprofit appears to provide a benefit to Mr. Musk’s business empire,” according to the NYT. “It operates an elementary school in a rural area where many of his employees live, near a cluster of Mr. Musk’s companies.”
So with Musk saying in the past that philanthropy is hard and that his track record shows he’s only given to things within his own interest, it will be interesting to see whether the world’s richest man will live up to what he wrote on his own platform, X, this week.
The Fortune 500 Innovation Forum will convene Fortune 500 executives, U.S. policy officials, top founders, and thought leaders to help define what’s next for the American economy,
Nov. 16-17 in Detroit.