世界首富埃隆·马斯克向来蔑视慈善事业，他不仅曾主导几乎拆解了美国对外援助机构，将慈善称为“胡扯”，还在今年8月赞同加密货币老板布莱恩·阿姆斯特朗将许多慈善机构视为“对世界净负面”的说法，并在几周前攻击亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝佐斯的前妻、史上最大捐赠者之一麦肯齐·斯科特“让世界变得更糟”。然而，马斯克却掌管着美国第五大私人慈善基金会。马斯克基金会最新统计的资产高达147亿美元，仅略小于福特基金会，是洛克菲勒基金会规模的两倍多。但与这些老牌机构不同，马斯克基金会的网站仅有区区33个英文单词，且仅由马斯克本人、其家族办公室负责人贾里德·伯查尔及另一名员工玛蒂尔达·西蒙三人管理。对2020年7月至2024年底税务申报文件的分析显示，马斯克最大的几笔捐赠是在2021年和2022年面临巨额税单时向基金会捐赠的总计约80亿美元特斯拉股票；到2024年底，基金会所持股票的账面价值约为570万美元，而市场价值估计高达140亿美元，使他既免交资本利得税，又能按市值申报慈善抵扣。
为了换取税收减免，美国法律要求仅提供拨款的基金会每年必须分配约5%的投资资产，否则在一年宽限期后将面临罚款。然而，数据提供商FoundationMark指出，马斯克基金会在有记录的过去四年中每年都动用了宽限期，截至2024年底仍欠缴4亿美元的应发善款。此外，在2020年至2024年间已拨付的10亿美元中，有近十分之一流向了富达慈善基金会（Fidelity Charitable）运营的捐赠者建议基金（DAF），这类账户允许资金无限期留存且无需披露去向。在真正发放出去的资金中，超过58%流向了由伯查尔领导、与马斯克基金会共用同一地址的神秘慈善机构“The Foundation”。该机构声称致力于建设STEM教育学校，而马斯克此前在加州SpaceX旧总部附近资助的私立学校Ad Astra（学生不足50人，包括马斯克自己的孩子）已在新冠疫情期间关闭，目前正计划在得克萨斯州筹建新校。
其余的捐赠大多显得颇为利己或缺乏明确战略。2021年，亿万富翁贾里德·艾萨克曼（现任美国宇航局局长）出资包下SpaceX的四人轨道飞行任务为一家儿童医院筹款，马斯克捐赠了5500万美元，成为该基金会史上最大单笔捐赠之一；2021年SpaceX火箭在得克萨斯州南部爆炸并洒下碎片后，基金会向当地非营利组织进行了零星捐赠。若剔除“The Foundation”和富达慈善，马斯克基金会2024年的平均单笔捐赠不足140万美元，零散分布在海龟保护和脊柱医学等领域。讽刺的是，该基金会采取了类似斯科特的放任管理模式：不发工资，三人团队平均每周总共仅投入2.1小时。相比之下，马斯克对政治捐款热情高涨，近几个月在美国中期选举前向共和党捐赠了至少2.75亿美元，而在慈善领域，这位全球首富依然是最吝啬的富豪之一。
Though the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, despises philanthropy—having nearly demolished America’s aid agency, called charity “bullshit”, attacked mega-donor MacKenzie Scott, and agreed in August with crypto boss Brian Armstrong that many charities are a “net negative”—he runs America’s fifth-largest private charitable foundation. Holding $14.7bn in assets, the Musk Foundation is just smaller than the Ford Foundation and over twice the size of the Rockefeller Foundation, yet its website has just 33 words and its staff comprises only Mr Musk, family-office head Jared Birchall, and employee Matilda Simon. Tax filings from July 2020 to late 2024 reveal that Mr Musk’s largest gifts—some $8bn in Tesla stock in 2021 and 2022—coincided with massive tax bills, yielding a double benefit of avoiding capital-gains tax while claiming deductions on market value; by late 2024, the foundation’s stock had a book value of $5.7m versus an estimated $14bn market value.
Despite tax breaks, the foundation is slow to distribute funds. American law requires grant-making foundations to disburse roughly 5% of investment assets annually with a one-year grace period, yet FoundationMark notes the Musk Foundation used the grace period in each of the past four years and owed $400m by the end of 2024. Moreover, nearly one-tenth of the $1bn disbursed between 2020 and 2024 went into donor-advised funds at Fidelity Charitable, which require no reporting or distribution timetable. Of the money actually handed out, over 58% went to The Foundation, a STEM-education charity led by Mr Birchall at the exact same address; Mr Musk previously funded the sub-50-student Ad Astra school near SpaceX’s old California headquarters before closing it during the pandemic and planning a Texas replacement.
Other grants appear self-serving or scattershot. In 2021, Mr Musk gave $55m—one of his largest donations—to a children’s hospital fundraiser tied to a four-person SpaceX orbital flight bankrolled by billionaire Jared Isaacman (now NASA chief), and gave small grants in southern Texas after a 2021 SpaceX rocket explosion littered the area with debris. Excluding The Foundation and Fidelity, the foundation’s average 2024 grant was under $1.4m across random causes, managed hands-off by a three-person team working a combined 2.1 hours weekly for no salary. While Mr Musk has enthusiastically donated at least $275m to the Republican Party ahead of the midterms, his charitable record remains among the most miserly.
Source: Elon Musk's foundation is opaque, miserly and self-serving
Subtitle: The world’s richest man disdains charity. His money is where his mouth is
Dateline: Oct 15th 2026\n