Billie Eilish has taken aim at Elon Musk, calling the Tesla CEO "pathetic" and a "coward" after shareholders approved a pay package that could make him the world's first trillionaire. Per USA Today, the pop star on Thursday shared a series of slides from the advocacy group My Voice, My Choice on Instagram outlining hypothetical ways Musk could use his wealth for philanthropy—such as spending $40 billion a year to end world hunger, $10 billion for an infant vaccination campaign, or $53 billion to reconstruct Gaza—before adding her own pointed remarks on her own Instagram story, including three expletives.
Musk isn't a trillionaire yet, but he could get there if Tesla hits ambitious targets over the next decade, including an $8.5 trillion market value, 10 million paid subscriptions to its self-driving software, and sales of a million humanlike robots. If those targets are achieved, Musk's compensation package would give him a quarter of the company's stock, which would push his net worth into the trillions.
Musk, who's already the world's richest person, has previously donated to charity and signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, promising to give away at least half his wealth. He and his brother, Kimbal Musk, also run the Musk Foundation, which has donated more than $450 million over the past three years. However, the foundation has faced criticism for falling short of required minimum donations in recent years.
story continues below
Musk has also questioned the effectiveness of traditional charity, claiming his business ventures do more good for the world. As for the 23-year-old pop star, Eilish previously called out billionaires during her speech at the Wall Street Journal Innovator Awards last month, with People noting that Meta billionaire Mark Zuckerberg was in attendance.