Elon Musk has gone after Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, who has become one of the world’s biggest liberal philanthropists since her divorce.
The Tesla boss deemed Scott’s massive charitable donations to left-wing nonprofits as ‘concerning’ on a post he shared on X on Tuesday.
Musk was reacting to a post that explained how Scott gave $2billion away in 2024 ‘to groups with with stated missions like “Empowering Latinx immigrants,” “Deportation Defense,” and “Justice and equality for LGBTQ immigrants.”‘
Scott acknowledged another $2 billion in donations in 2023 in a blog post on Wednesday, bringing the total she’s given away since 2019 to $19.2 billion.
She does not comment on her giving beyond the rare post on her website, has shaken up the nonprofit sector with her embrace of ‘trust-based philanthropy,’ providing big grants with no strings attached to over 2,450 nonprofits.
Scott has written previously that she doesn’t respond to press inquiries in an effort not to overshadow the work of the organizations to which she donates.
Following her divorce from Bezos after 25 years of marriage, Scott became one of the richest women in the world, with a 4 percent stake in Amazon.
Musk previously said Scott and other ex-wives of billionaires are destroying Western civilization.
Through her philanthropic company Yield Giving, Scott has allocated the funds to nonprofits who responded to an open call for applications
The Tesla boss deemed Scott’s massive charitable donations as ‘concerning’ on a post he shared on X on Tuesday
In a since-deleted post on X, Musk wrote: ‘Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse should be listed among “Reasons that Western Civilization died.”
Scott revealed new information on her latest blog post about how she was managing her wealth, saying she had directed advisors to invest her funds into ‘mission-aligned ventures.’ Most of the grants she made in 2024, she said, went to bolstering economic security and opportunities.
‘I’ve asked the investment team helping me manage the assets I’m working to give away to source funds and companies focused on for-profit solutions to these challenges,’ Scott wrote.
That is in contrast to ‘withdrawing funds from a bank account, or from a stock portfolio that increases the wealth and influence of leaders who already have it.’
In 2024, she also gave repeat gifts to several organizations — something of a new development in her giving, which has set a high bar for how much and how fast megadonors can give. Two organizations, CAMFED, which supports girls education in Africa, and Undue Medical Debt, which was formerly called RIP Medical Debt, both got third donations from Scott this year.
Most of Scott’s wealth comes from shares of Amazon that she received when she divorced the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos. Forbes estimates her current wealth to be $31.7 billion, even after giving away her money for five years.
Scott became the world’s third-wealthiest woman and one of the 50 wealthiest people on earth when she divorced Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in 2019.
The divorce settlement left Scott with $35.6 billion in Amazon stock. Scott has since joined The Giving Pledge, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet’s campaign to encourage extremely wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
Following her divorce from Bezos after 25 years of marriage, Scott became one of the richest women in the world, with a 4 percent stake in Amazon
Her giving includes donating her $55 million Beverly Hills estate to a charity that will use a large portion of the proceeds to house the homeless and go toward an immigrant integration program
Scott has given most of her donations to liberal causes, including $122 million to funds supporting migrants.
The Florida Immigrant Coalition, Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition and Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project are just a few of the groups getting Scott’s largesse.
Another $117 million was gifted to at least 67 so-called ‘prisoner advocacy groups.’
The Innocence Project, Art For Justice Fund, Anti-Recidivism Coalition, North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services all got cut a check as part of the pledge.
Perhaps most controversially, $18 million of the $72 million earmarked for LGBTQ causes goes to funds that help out transgender athletes amid a culture war over preserving sports for biological women.
Initially, Scott publicized the gifts in online blog posts, sometimes naming the organizations and sometimes not. She launched a database of her giving in December 2022, under the name Yield Giving.
In an essay, she wrote: ‘Information from other people – other givers, my team, the nonprofit teams I´ve been giving to – has been enormously helpful to me. If more information about these gifts can be helpful to anyone, I want to share it.’
Forbes estimates her current wealth to be $31.7 billion, even after giving away her money for five years
Since her split with Bezos, she has devoted much of her time and energy to identifying the most worthy and effective charitable organizations to donate her cash to.
This includes donating her $55 million Beverly Hills estate to a charity that will use a large portion of the proceeds to house the homeless and go toward an immigrant integration program.
Meanwhile, in November 2023, Bezos announced that he will be giving $118 million to nonprofit groups supporting families experiencing homelessness.
