Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk in November last year donated about 5 million shares of company stock worth roughly US$5.7 billion to an unidentified charity, a regulatory filing showed.
The shares were donated from Nov. 19 to Nov. 29, the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission said.
In late October, Musk, the world’s richest man, wrote on Twitter that he would sell US$6 billion in Tesla stock and give the money to the UN World Food Program (WFP) if the organization would describe how the money would solve world hunger.
Photo: AP
However, the filing did not name any recipients for the donation.
WFP executive director David Beasley on Tuesday said in a statement that the organization has not yet received anything from Musk.
“There are millions of people around the world on the brink of starvation. Whether WFP receives any of this money is yet to be seen, but I am excited to hear that Elon is engaged. This is an amazing and great first step,” Beasley said in a statement sent by a spokesman.
A message was left seeking comment from Tesla.
In a separate filing, Musk reported that as of Dec. 31 he held 231.7 million shares of the electric vehicle and solar panel maker’s stock, or 21.2 percent of the company’s total value.
The amount includes 172.6 million shares held by Musk’s trust and he had the option to buy another 59.1 million shares within 60 days of Dec. 31 last year.
In November, Musk began selling shares, which he said on Twitter would go to pay for his tax obligations on stock options that are part of his all-stock compensation package.
Analysts estimates his tax obligation at US$10 billion to US$15 billion.
So far he has sold more than 15 million shares worth about US$16.4 billion.
Musk had written on Twitter that he would sell 10 percent of his stake in the company.
With the sales in late December, he is close to selling 10 percent.
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
RSS