Elon Musk is not donating the majority of his wealth for reparations

Elon Musk’s wealth is epic, and this week Forbes identified him as the first person worth more than $300 billion. But he isn’t giving most of it away to a single cause, contrary to recent social media posts.

A viral Instagram post says, "Elon Musk to donate $250 billion for reparations to African Americans in U.S."

The post, which appears as a video scrolling through what looks like the top of an internet news story, was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

But this claim originated on a site called Viral Cocaine, where the "about us" section says that it is "a satirical news blog about everything hip hop, celebrities and urban folklore, because who wants to hear the truth when a lie is more entertaining."

On the website, the original story about Musk is marked as satire, though that label is not visible on the Instagram post.

We could not locate any information that indicates Musk has made or will make a donation for reparations, or any single donation larger than $100 million. In response to a challenge from a United Nations official, Musk hinted that he would be willing to donate $6 billion to combat world hunger but has not committed to it.

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stated on November 20, 2024 in a Threads post

Says Elon Musk said he would suspend X “accounts calling me fat.”

The Viral Cocaine story includes fabricated quotes that are attributed to people including "Dragon Master Adolph White of the North Carolina Chapter of the Klu Klux Klan," and "Antwan Morehouse of the Atlanta Division of the newly reformed Black Panther Party." We could not locate any record of real people with those names or titles.

The story also falsely states that Musk is worth nearly $1 trillion. He is worth $306.4 billion as of Nov. 2, according to Forbes.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!