Elon Musk says will donate $6bn if UN can prove it will end world hunger

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has said he is willing to donate $6 billion if the UN can prove how the money will end world hunger.

Musk tweeted that “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.”

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 was responding to comments by Director of the UN’s World Food Programme David Beasley, who repeated a call last week, following an earlier tweet last month, asking billionaires like Musk to “step up now, on a one-time basis.”

Last week, Beasley told CNN’s Connect the World that even just two per cent of Musk’s current net worth – about $6 billion – would “help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated.”

Musk’s current fortune is valued at $311 billion. The $6 billion ask is less than the $9.3 billion his wealth increased on 29 October alone, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.

Around the world, as many as 811 million people go hungry. From 2019 to 2020, the number of undernourished people grew by as many as 161 million, a crisis-driven largely by conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Action Against Hunger International.

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