Elon Musk wants proof US$6 billion can solve world hunger

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, challenged a United Nations official’s claim that just a small percentage of his wealth could help solve world hunger.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, challenged a United Nations official’s claim that just a small percentage of his wealth could help solve world hunger.

Musk was responding to comments by David Beasley, director of the UN’s World Food Programme, who repeated a call last week following an earlier tweet this month asking billionaires like Musk to “step up now, on a one-time basis.” 

Beasley specifically called for action from Musk and Amazon.com Inc. co-founder Jeff Bezos, the two men atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Just US$6 billion could keep 42 million people from dying, Beasley said.

If the World Food Programme, using transparent and open accounting, “can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how US$6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it,” Musk wrote in a Twitter post. 

Musk is CEO of the electric-vehicle company, which last week joined the handful of companies valued at more than US$1 trillion. 

The US$6 billion amount would be just a small fraction of Musk’s current net worth of US$311 billion - and less than the US$9.3 billion his wealth increased on Oct. 29 alone, according to the billionaires index.