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Elon Musk dares UN: Take my $6 bn and explain how will you solve world hunger – Mint

Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, threw a challenge at the United Nations. He said that he will sell $6 billion worth of Tesla stock and donate the proceeds to the United Nations’ food agency if it could show how the money would solve world hunger.

His statement came after United Nations World Food Program (WFP) director David Beasley – who told CNN that a one-time payment of 2 per cent wealth of Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and other billionaires can solve global hunger 

In the interview, Beasley said billionaires could give “$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them.”

“It’s not complicated,” he said.

The SpaceX founder posted Sunday on Twitter: “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.”

“But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent,” he added.

 

In 2020, the agency received $8.4 billion in donations, which it says was $5.3 billion short of its requirements. Its top donors include the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Beasley responded to Musk on Twitter, writing $6 billion will not solve world hunger, “but it WILL prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation. An unprecedented crisis and a perfect storm due to Covid/conflict/climate crises.”

He also offered to meet with Musk to discuss the topic.

“Please publish your current & proposed spending in detail so people can see exactly where money goes,” Musk said in a Twitter reply. “Sunlight is a wonderful thing.”

Meanwhile, Musk’s net worth rose by $24 billion to $335.1 billion on Monday as the electric automaker’s shares jumped 8.5% in New York. That widened his lead over Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos as the world’s wealthiest person to $143 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

-With agency inputs

 

 

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