Musk dismisses Eilish after the singer’s posts challenged his spending priorities, intensifying a public debate over billionaire philanthropy and impact.
Elon Musk has publicly pushed back at singer Billie Eilish after she shared a series of pointed social media posts accusing the billionaire of hoarding his wealth instead of using it to address urgent global crises.
The exchange began last week when Eilish posted multiple slides on Instagram highlighting what Musk’s fortune — estimated at more than $400 billion — could theoretically fund. The slides, citing data from advocacy group MyVoiceMyChoice.org, suggested that annual investments of tens of billions of dollars could help eradicate hunger, secure global access to clean water, or support reconstruction efforts in conflict zones such as Gaza and the West Bank. At the end of the posts, the 23-year-old artist added a profane message clearly directed at Musk.
A fan account later reposted the Instagram stories on X, the social platform Musk owns. In response, Musk wrote that Eilish was “not the sharpest tool in the shed,” escalating the dispute and drawing widespread attention online.
The clash unfolded against a broader debate about how much responsibility the world’s richest individuals bear in addressing social and humanitarian issues. Musk, who leads Tesla, SpaceX and X, has long been scrutinized for both his wealth and his philanthropic track record.
Read Also: Elon Musk Hails Cybertruck As “Alien Tech” For Speed, Strength
In January 2025, he donated 286,000 Tesla shares — then valued at roughly $108 million — to several undisclosed charities. Over the past three years, the Musk Foundation has distributed more than $450 million, according to public filings. But a New York Times investigation reported last year that the foundation had failed for a third consecutive year to meet the U.S. requirement that private foundations donate at least 5% of their assets annually to maintain tax-exempt status.
Eilish, who has built a reputation for using her platform to raise environmental and social concerns, has pledged $11.5 million from her recent world tour to the nonprofit Changemaker Program, which supports food security and climate-related initiatives. She was also honored in October 2025, at the Wall Street Journal’s Innovator Awards, where she challenged billionaires in attendance to give away more of their fortunes.
In her remarks at the ceremony, she questioned why so much wealth remained concentrated at the top, urging high-net-worth individuals to act with greater empathy during what she described as “a really bad and really dark” period globally.
While neither Musk nor Eilish has commented further, their public exchange has intensified an ongoing conversation about the influence of billionaires and the expectations placed on them in a time of mounting global instability.
