The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has pledged he will sell his Tesla stocks and use the proceeds to end world hunger providing the United Nations (UN) are able to provide an open plan of where how the money will be used.
Musk's sensational statement came after David Beasley, the Director of the UN' World Food Programme, claimed is could be done with 2% of the Tesla founder's net worth.
It is understood 2% of Musk's wealth equates to around $6 billion (£4.4 billion), at the time of writing Forbes reports Musk is worth some $300 billion (£219b billion).
Responding to a tweet questioning whether this sum could actually solve world hunger, Musk wrote: "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.
"But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent."
In response Beasley wrote: "We’ve never said $6B would solve world hunger. This is a one-time donation to save 42 million lives during this unprecedented hunger crisis.
"We need $6B plus NOW on top of our existing funding requirements due to the perfect storm from the compounding impact of Covid, conflict and climate shocks.
"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!"
Musk then said: "Please publish your current & proposed spending in detail so people can see exactly where money goes. Sunlight is a wonderful thing."
The exchange comes a a little over a month after the UN Secretary-general António Guterres lamented "billionaires joyriding to space while millions go hungry on earth."
Later in the Twitter conversation, musk linked to an article from the Express from 2015, reporting that UN officials had been exchanging food for sex.
The discussion came weeks after Musk's space tourism rivals, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, launched former Star Trek actor William Shatner out of the earth's atmosphere, making him the world's oldest person in space and ushering a new ear of celebrity-focused space travel.
The move came under harsh criticism from the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, who said: "We need some of the world's greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live."
