The filing does not name the recipients of the 5,044,000 Tesla shares that Mr. Musk said he donated over more than a week in November. Mr Musk, chief executive of Tesla and the world’s richest person, did not respond to a request for comment.

The donations were made amid a series of stock sales by Mr. Musk, who sold more than $16 billion worth of Tesla stock in the last two months of 2021. Tesla Chief Executive, which is paid in shares and doesn’t accept a cash salary from the electric vehicle maker, also converted about 22.9 million vested stock options into stock last year.

Such activity likely triggered a hefty tax bill in 2021 that charitable donations could help offset. Gifts of appreciated stocks are particularly attractive to wealthy individuals. Lost capital gains are not taxed. The value of the shares is a charitable deduction, subject to limits. And the stock leaves the person’s taxable estate.

Mr Musk estimated in December, weeks after the November donations, that he would pay more than $11 billion in taxes in 2021.

The Internal Revenue Service evaluates stock giveaways based on the average of a stock’s highs and lows on the day of a reported trade. Mr. Musk’s donations disclosed on Monday would amount to about $5.7 billion according to this methodology.

Tesla stock, which was trading above $1,060 at the time of Mr. Musk’s donations, closed Monday at $875.76.

According to a list of last year’s top charitable donors in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Mr. Musk’s November donations would make him the second-biggest donor of 2021. Only Bill and Melinda French Gates donated more, according to the magazine, having donated an estimated $15 billion.

Mr Musk signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, pledging to donate the majority of his wealth to charitable causes.

Some of Mr. Musk’s philanthropic activities have remained behind closed doors. He established the Musk Foundation in 2002. According to the foundation’s website, grants are awarded to groups that support causes such as renewable energy research and human space exploration. In 2015, he was part of a group of Silicon Valley investors who collectively committed $1 billion to ensure that artificial intelligence serves societal needs rather than commercial interests.

While the exact dollar amount Mr. Musk has donated to charity is unknown, he has occasionally provided information on social media.

In March, Mr. Musk tweeted that he was donating $20 million to schools in a Texas county and $10 million to a city in Texas for downtown revitalization.

And in 2018, Mr. Musk tweeted that he had sold more than $100 million worth of Tesla stock for charity.

Last year, he got into a debate over how some of the wealthiest Americans should be taxed and challenged a humanitarian organization over a request for charitable donations.

In October, after the executive director of the United Nations World Food Program called on billionaires to fight world hunger, Mr Musk tweeted that he would sell shares of Tesla if the organization described how 6 billion dollars would solve world hunger.

A spokesperson for the World Food Program declined to say whether Mr Musk had donated any stock to the organization.