America’s wealthiest listed in the 2023 Forbes 400 list have collectively given just 6 per cent of their combined net worth. That’s approximately $250 billion. 

In its latest rankings of charitable giving from the super wealthy, Forbes assigned the richest a philanthropy score, ranging from 1 to 5. 

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and the chief of X, formerly known as Twitter, has given less than one per cent of his wealth.  

Musk has previously raised eyebrows when he declared last year that his for-profit ventures (Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink) were “all philanthropy”, claiming his business ventures had a higher social purpose. According to Forbes, Musk is worth $253 billion. However, the billionaire broke the world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history in January, losing approximately $182 billion (£150 billion) since November 2021.  

Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have meanwhile given away between an estimated 1 per cent of 4.9 per cent of their wealth.  

In 2020, Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan announced a $300 million donation to protect America elections, one of the billionaire couple’s largest-ever single gifts – although it was not done via their foundation, the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative. 

That same year, Bezos pledged $10 billion in grants through the ‘Bezos Earth Fund’ initiative to fight the impacts of climate change. 

Warren Buffet, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Mackenzie Scott have all given away 20 per cent or more of their wealth.  

US philanthropist Mackenzie Scott is estimated to have given away more than $14 billion over the last three years, approximately half her wealth.

A Chronicle of Philanthropy made its calculation in August using public announcements from recipients of Scott’s wealth; 17 nonprofits have announced donations from Scott’s Yield Giving Fund this year, with gifts ranging from $1 million to $15 million.  

Scott is known to leave it up to recipients on whether they make publicise her name attached to donations.

Shafi Musaddique is a news editor at Alliance magazine.