Elon Musk, who moved to Texas during the pandemic, plans to found a university in the city of Austin, according to tax filings from the billionaire’s latest charity called The Foundation.
The new institution, funded with a roughly $100 million donation from Musk, will start with an elementary and high school focused on STEM, the acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Once up and running, it “will intend to expand its operations to create a university dedicated to education at the highest level,” according to an application submitted to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status obtained by Bloomberg.
The university will employ “experienced faculty” and feature a traditional curriculum “along with hands-on learning experience including simulations, case studies, manufacturing/design projects and laboratories,” according to the application, which was submitted in October 2022 and approved in March. It will seek accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
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Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This is not the first time Musk, 52, has started a school or expressed interest in opening a college. About a decade ago, the Tesla Inc. co-founder created Ad Astra on SpaceX’s California campus for his five children and some children of his space company’s employees. When Musk moved to Texas in 2020, the school moved with him.
Austin, home to the main campus of the University of Texas, has become a hotbed of innovation in higher education. The University of Austin-launched two years ago as an alternative to the “illiberalism” of traditional U.S. universities-plans to start classes in the fall with an initial cohort of 100 students. The school, backed by leading figures in academia and finance, including historian Niall Ferguson, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, has raised nearly $200 million in private donations.
Musk’s new STEM school expected an initial class of 50 students and was looking to hire an executive director, teacher and administrator, according to the filing. Foundation trustees include Jared Birchall, head of Musk’s family office; Steven Chidester, a tax attorney at Withersworldwide; and Ronald Gong and Teresa Holland, who work at Catalyst Family Office in California.
In 2022, the billionaire transferred $2.2 billion worth of Tesla stock to his Musk Foundation. In addition to donating nearly $100 million to start his new charity, he also donated to disaster relief nonprofit World Central Kitchen, Khan Academy and a donor-advised fund at Fidelity Charitable, according to his most recent tax return.
Musk, the world’s richest person with a net worth of $220.8 billion-according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index-is also creating his own city outside Austin, with recreational facilities, a school and subsidized housing for Tesla, SpaceX and Boring Co. employees, the Wall Street Journal reported in March. If approved, the city would occupy thousands of acres it has acquired in recent years.