San Francisco: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said he is willing to sell his stock to help solve world hunger if a top United Nations official, who said that just 2 per cent of the entrepreneur’s income could help solve world hunger, can back up the claim.
Speaking to CNN, David Beasley, the director of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), called on Musk and Jeff Bezos (the second richest person on the planet) to reconsider where they are putting their money.
“$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated,” he had said.
Replying to Beasley, Musk posted late on Sunday that he is ready to help if the WFP can describe on the same Twitter thread how $6 billion will help solve world hunger.
“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”, Musk posted.
“But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent,” he added.
The WFP provides assistance to over 115 million people in 84 countries through food or cash distributions in emergencies, nutrition support programmes and other activities.
Musk is currently worth a colossal $300 billion and Beasley claimed that just two percent of his wealth could save more than 40 million people “who are literally going to die”.
The increase in wealth was due to a rise in Tesla shares after the electric car firm inked a huge deal with Hertz for the rental giant to buy 100,000 of its vehicles.
Musk is now worth more than the annual GDP of nations like Egypt, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Greece, Qatar, and Finland. He’s also worth more than the market value of PayPal, the company he co-founded, as well as streaming giant Netflix.
