A Nobel economist challenged Elon Musk to donate his entire $1T fortune by 2036. Musk’s reply: ‘I am actually going to do something along these lines’

The public has long questioned the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, about what he’s doing sitting on a trillion-dollar fortune. After all, other billionaires give away vast amounts of their wealth (take MacKenzie Scott, who’s donated more than $26 billion and is still worth nearly $35 billion). 

On social media, some have begged and pleaded for him to give at least some of his wealth away, or even all of it, but Musk has been pretty direct about his relationship with philanthropy. 

“I agree with love of humanity, and I think we should try to do things that help our fellow human beings,” Musk told Nikhil Kamath for the WTF podcast in an episode published in December 2025. “But it’s very hard.”

That’s an interesting conception from a person who also believes money won’t matter anymore because of AI, so Nobel Prize–winning economist Daron Acemoglu called Musk out for it on Monday.

“A proposed pledge for Elon Musk,” wrote Acemoglu in an X post on Monday. “An opportunity to put your money where your mo...