Elon Musk is funding a new school planning to open in Austin, Texas

By Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — Associates of Elon Musk are planning to launch a new primary and secondary school, and ultimately a university, in Austin, Texas, with the help of a nearly $100 million donation from the billionaire, tax documents show.

The move may be a sign that Musk is seeking to further expand his empire of influence beyond X, the massive communication platform he now runs, as well as the multiple other companies he owns and leads, his investments in artificial intelligence development and his engagement with world leaders.

Members of Musk’s inner circle — including Jared Birchall, who runs Musk’s family office — are named as leaders of The Foundation, a new school planning to teach “STEM subjects and other topics,” in an application to the Internal Revenue Service asking for tax-exempt status last year. Birchall is also a director of Musk’s own charitable arm, Musk Foundation. (Many of the world’s richest people use family offices to guide their investing.)

The IRS filing, dated October 2022, was obtained and posted publicly by Bloomberg, which first reported plans for the school on Wednesday. CNN was not able to independently confirm the authenticity of the filing.

However, in a letter posted publicly on the IRS website, the agency approved The Foundation’s tax-exempt status in March. Both the filing posted by Bloomberg and the IRS letter used the same employer identification number.

“The School is being designed to meet the educational needs of those with proven academic and scientific potential, who will thrive in a rigorous, project based curriculum,” the filing posted by Bloomberg states.

The school plans to initially enroll about 50 students and grow over time, according to the filing. It expects to be funded through donations and tuition fees, although it notes that the school will offer scholarships to support students who couldn’t otherwise afford to attend. The filing also noted that the group was in the process of hiring an executive director, as well as teaching and administrative staffers, and eventually plans to seek accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

“The School intends ultimately to expand its operations to create a university dedicated to education at the highest levels,” according to the filing.

A spokesperson for Musk’s X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the billionaire about the new project.

Musk’s foray into education comes as he is increasingly under scrutiny for promoting conspiracy theories and fringe figures, including an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which he later apologized for, and the dangerous 2016 Pizzagate conspiracy theory.

It also comes as Austin emerges as a growing alternative education hub. The city is home to the University of Texas’ flagship Austin campus, as well as a start-up university called University of Austin, launched by a group including conservative journalist Bari Weiss, that’s aiming to combat perceived “illiberalism” at mainstream schools and plans to begin enrolling students next year.

Musk moved to Austin from California in 2020 — and Tesla’s headquarters moved with him a year later — after expressing frustration with California’s Covid-19 safety measures at the height of the pandemic.

Musk was involved in starting the Ad Astra school a decade ago at SpaceX’s California headquarters to educate his own young children and those of other employees, which has since expanded to an online education program, according to its website.

The billionaire has also previously discussed the possibility of starting a new university. In 2021, he tweeted that he was considering starting a school called the “Texas Institute of Technology & Science” — although it was unclear if the post was a joke given the raunchy potential acronym and a follow-up post that said the school would have “epic merch.”

The Foundation said in its filing said that it had raised around $100 million in contributions since mid-2022 for the new Austin school. The 2022 annual 990 tax filing for the Musk Foundation, also made public by Bloomberg, notes that the Musk charity donated $10 million in cash to the group that year, as well as nearly $90 million worth of Tesla stock.

Birchall is listed as the school’s president and trustee. Also involved in the school project are Ronald Gong and Teresa Holland of Catalyst Family Office, a group that provides accounting services to Musk’s charity, as well as Steven Chidester, a partner at the law firm Withers Bergman, which also works with the Musk Foundation, according to tax documents.

Chidester declined to comment on the plans for the school. Birchall and Gong’s Catalyst did not immediately return a request for comment.

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