Tesla chief Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, challenges UN official’s claim

Tesla chief 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.

Official specifically called for action from Tesla chief Elon Musk and Amazon.com Inc. co-founder Jeff Bezos, the two men atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Just $6 billion could keep 42 million people from dying, he said. (REUTERS)

Tesla chief 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 $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 $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it,” Musk wrote in a Twitter post. 

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

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

Elon Musk Is Now Worth More Than Exxon's Market Capitalization

It's just one more arresting data point amid a flurry of superlatives, but Elon Musk's soaring net worth now makes him more valuable than Exxon Mobil Corp.

It's just one more arresting data point amid a flurry of superlatives, but Elon Musk's soaring net worth now makes him more valuable than Exxon Mobil Corp.

The wealth of the world's richest person jumped to $288.6 billion Monday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The $36.2 billion gain followed a surge in Tesla Inc.'s stock price after Hertz Global Holdings Inc. ordered 100,000 cars.

Eclipsing the value of an old-economy bellwether like Exxon may seem like an inevitable milestone in Musk's trajectory. But the oil company's own share price has been no laggard this year. Despite being overtaken by Musk at the start of 2021, Exxon has been on a tear since then. It outpaced the Tesla chief executive this year as oil and natural gas prices advanced. Still, that fossil-fuel rally, should it continue, may help spur even more sales of electric vehicles.