Gary Zhou 
Elon Musk is the world’s richest man, but he admits that giving money away to do good is difficult.
“When it comes to donations, I’d say it is very difficult to give away money effectively,” Musk stated in a recent interview with Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Insider’s parent company, Axel Springer.
Musk said he cares more about the outcomes of donation than the optics of it when questioned about the goals of his foundation. This, he claims, makes it more difficult for him to “effectively” give money away.
“If you care about the reality of doing good and not the perception of doing good, then it is very hard to give away money effectively,” he remarked. “I care about reality. Perception be damned.”
Despite what he called philanthropic efforts being difficult, Musk stated, “I’m always looking for ways to give away money that are effective,”
During the discussion, the CEOs of SpaceX and Tesla raised a number of social issues.
“There’s obviously environmental causes, there is education, especially science and engineering education,” he said. “Pediatric healthcare. Hunger these days is more of a political and logistics problem than it is not having enough food. There is a lot of food. In the US and many countries, the issue is more obesity than it is hunger.”
Musk also mentioned how he thinks SpaceX and Tesla can bring about positive change.
“I do want to emphasize that SpaceX and Tesla fundamentally intend to improve the quality of the future,” he said. “Especially in terms of usefulness to humanity. Tesla by accelerating sustainable energy. And SpaceX by making multi-planetary intercourse possible. This is more than I can do myself.”
With a net worth of around $260 billion, Musk is one of the wealthiest people in human history. Musk responded that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “significantly richer than me.” when asked how he feels about this.
Musk also discussed Putin and Russia’s now-monthlong invasion of Ukraine at another point in the interview, saying, “We cannot let Putin take over Ukraine.”
