Jake Paul's $10 Million Hunger Pledge and the Musk–WFP Challenge

Originally published 2021-11-06.

In November 2021, YouTuber and boxer Jake Paul offered to give $10 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) if Elon Musk donated $6 billion, and only if his tweet reached 690,000 retweets. The pledge was a sideshow to a much bigger public argument between Musk and WFP chief David Beasley over whether $6 billion from the world's richest man could solve world hunger. The short answer: it could not end hunger, but WFP said it could keep about 42 million people from famine for a year.

Here is how the exchange started, what Paul and Musk actually promised, what the WFP's plan contained, and what happened next.

How the Musk–WFP argument began

In late October 2021, Beasley gave an interview to CNN in which he urged billionaires, naming Musk and Jeff Bezos, to make a one-off contribution to stop millions of people from starving. He described the need in stark terms: "$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don't reach them."

The figure was striking because, according to Bloomberg's estimate at the time, Musk was worth nearly $289 billion, so $6 billion amounted to roughly 2% of his fortune. CNN's first headline said Beasley believed 2% of Musk's wealth could solve world hunger. The network later corrected it: Beasley had said the money could help solve it, by preventing deaths in the worst crises.

Musk replied on Twitter with a challenge: "If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it." He followed up by asking the agency to publish its current and proposed spending in detail so the public could see where the money went.

Beasley answered that the headline had been inaccurate, and that the money was about saving people on the brink of starvation and preventing the instability and mass migration that famine can cause. He also invited Musk to talk in person:

.@elonmusk With your help we can bring hope, build stability and change the future.

Let’s talk: It isn’t as complicated as Falcon Heavy, but too much at stake to not at least have a conversation. I can be on the next flight to you. Throw me out if you don’t like what you hear!

— David Beasley (@WFPChief) October 31, 2021

Jake Paul's conditional pledge

On 1 November 2021, with the exchange trending, Jake Paul joined in. He promised $10 million to the UN's hunger effort if Musk gave $6 billion, adding the extra condition of 690,000 retweets. The number was a playful nod to internet meme culture rather than a fundraising target.

Yo @elonmusk if you donate $6 billion to the UN to end world hunger

I’ll also donate $10 million if this gets 690k retweets

— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) November 1, 2021

It is worth reading the offer carefully. It depended on two things Paul did not control: a $6 billion gift from Musk to the UN, and a very large number of retweets. A conditional pledge like this is not a donation, and it should not be counted alongside money actually given. We found no public record that the tweet reached its retweet target or that Paul made the $10 million gift.

What the WFP's $6.6 billion plan said

In mid-November 2021, the WFP answered Musk's challenge by publishing a plan on Twitter. It priced the work at $6.6 billion, slightly more than the headline figure, to reach more than 40 million people in 43 countries who were at risk of famine. The plan broke down as follows:

• $3.5 billion to buy food and deliver it directly to people in need.
• $2 billion for cash transfers and food vouchers in places where local markets still worked.
• $700 million to set up and run the new food programmes.
• $400 million for operations, administration, accountability and supply chains.

Beasley's arithmetic was simple: about 43 cents per person per day, for one meal a day, for 42 million people over a year. That cost included the work of getting aid to the most remote communities and checking that it reached them.

The crises behind the numbers were real. A WFP report at the time found that half of Afghanistan's population, about 22.8 million people, faced acute hunger, including roughly 3.2 million children under five. In Ethiopia's Tigray region, the agency estimated that 5.2 million people needed urgent food aid.

Could $6 billion end world hunger?

No, and Beasley himself said so once the headline was corrected. A one-year emergency programme can stop people from dying of starvation, but it does not fix the causes of hunger: war, climate shocks, poverty, weak farming systems and economic collapse.

Development experts quoted by NPR made this point. Ian Mitchell of the Center for Global Development noted that governments already spend upwards of $100 billion a year on extreme poverty and hunger and that this is still nowhere near enough. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda of the University of Pretoria argued that big donations should also fund long-term solutions such as better farming techniques and social safety nets, asking in effect what happens after the year of aid runs out.

Researchers from the Overseas Development Institute added that studies of WFP food aid suggest it does protect recipients from the worst hardship, which is the job it is designed for.

Why Musk's transparency question still landed

Musk's demand for open accounting resonated with many people, and it is a fair question to ask of any large charity. The WFP, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, publishes annual reports and audited accounts, and in 2020 it reached about 115.5 million people in 84 countries. Asking where money goes is reasonable; it is also something donors can check for themselves.

What happened next

Musk did not publicly announce a gift to the WFP. However, a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2022 showed that between 19 and 29 November 2021 he had given about 5 million Tesla shares, then worth roughly $5.7 billion, to charity. The filing did not name the recipient.

Asked about it, Beasley said the WFP had not received anything from Musk and that it was yet to be seen whether it would. He nonetheless described Musk's engagement as a positive first step.

How to judge celebrity charity pledges

The episode is a useful reminder of how to read viral promises:

• Look for conditions. "I will donate if…" is a promise about a hypothetical, not a gift.
• Check the recipient. A donation to an unnamed charity or a private foundation is not the same as money reaching the cause in the headline.
• Read past the headline. The claim that 2% of a fortune would end world hunger came from a headline CNN later corrected.
• Follow up. Real donations usually leave a trace in annual reports, filings or statements from the charity.

If you want to help with hunger relief yourself, organisations such as the WFP and national food banks publish how donations are spent, and even small, regular gifts make a difference.

Sources: CNN, October 2021: WFP chief on billionaires and world hunger; CNN via ABC17, 18 November 2021: UN to Elon Musk, here's that $6 billion plan; NPR via KAXE, 11 November 2021: How $6 billion from Elon Musk could feed millions; AP via ClickOnDetroit, 15 February 2022. Original reporting: IFL Science.