Elon Musk said he plans to donate his fortune after an MIT economist challenged him to back up his prediction that money will become obsolete. A timeline and amount remain unspecified.
Elon Musk said he plans to take a Warren Buffett-style approach to charity, responding to a challenge from MIT economist Daron Acemoglu to donate his fortune by 2036.
"I am actually going to do something along these lines!" Musk wrote on X hours after Acemoglu's post. Acemoglu had proposed that Musk pledge his roughly $1 trillion net worth to charity no later than 2036, to prove his belief that AI and technology will make money obsolete. Such a move would "establish with great credibility" Musk's vision and ease concerns about billionaire influence, Acemoglu wrote.
Musk did not provide details. Tesla, SpaceX and X did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Buffett set a template for mega-donors. He co-launched the Giving Pledge in 2010 with Bill Gates, committing to give away most of his wealth. Over 16 years, Buffett has donated about 60% of his Berkshire Hathaway shares to the Gates Foundation and four family foundations. Earlier this month, he said he plans to donate the rest of his Berkshire stake – worth roughly $140 billion – to family foundations within eight years. He hopes his children will distribute all of it by the end of 2034.
Musk's net worth stood at $709 billion at Monday's close, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It briefly crossed $1 trillion in the months after SpaceX went public. The aerospace company's stock has since roughly halved from its peak.
The comparison with Buffett extends to the vehicle of their wealth. Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B – where Buffett built his fortune through decades of insurance float and capital allocation – now carries an AlphaScala Alpha Score of 50 out of 100, a "Mixed" label. The score reflects the balancing act between Berkshire's record cash pile and a market where Musk's vision of tech-driven abundance is already shifting investor expectations.
Musk has argued in recent months that advances in AI and robotics will drive down the cost of everything from food to housing. He said that "saving for retirement will be irrelevant" if he is right, and recommended people stop "squirreling money away" because their nest eggs "won't matter." He has also said that universal high income will be the best way to handle job losses from AI, because technological progress will make goods so cheap that paying a high universal income won't cause inflation.
Business Insider reviewed hundreds of responses to Musk's comments across X, Facebook and Reddit, and reported widespread disbelief in his vision of a post-wealth world. Pledging to give away a huge sum could be Musk's way of showing he is serious, the report said.
Drafted by a large language model from the source reporting linked above, then screened by automated publishing checks. It is not read by a journalist before publication. Some articles cite our Alpha Score. Verify prices and figures against the original source. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.