It appears that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now looking to start a school, eventually expected to expand into a university in his home state of Texas.
According to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday citing a filing with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Musk is looking to start a STEM-based primary and secondary school in Austin, with a $100 million investment. The filing also says that Musk will eventually look to expand the schools to include a University once the primary and secondary schools are operational.
“The School intends ultimately to expand its operations to create a university dedicated to education at the highest levels,” the filing says.
The application also notes that the school was expecting 50 initial students, and the group is currently looking for an executive director. Trustees listed in the application include Musk’s family office lead Jared Birchall, Withersworldwide tax attorney Steven Chidester, and Catalyst family office workers Ronald Gong and Teresa Holland.
The application submitted to the IRS was seeking tax-exempt status for the learning center, and it was originally filed in October 2022 and was later approved in March. Last year, Musk also sent roughly $2.2 billion worth of Tesla stock to the Musk Foundation.
Musk has started a school in the past, and he and his companies have also made charitable donations to other educational organizations.
He also founded the Ad Astra school for his children and those of some SpaceX employees, which began in Hawthorne, California, and later moved to Texas when Musk moved in 2020.
In October, Tesla was approved for $750,000 in donations to local organizations near its Gigafactory in Austin, some of which went directly to the Del Valle school district, to its high school for upgrading technology, and other parts of which also went to educational organizations.
Musk also donated $5 million to Khan Academy in 2021, a non-profit educational organization geared toward equipping both students and teachers with free education.
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