Elon Musk casually tweeted that he'll donate $1 million to tree-planting cause. Jack Dorsey and YouTube are following suit.

October 29, 2019

Elon Musk casually tweeted that he'll donate $1 million to tree-planting cause. Jack Dorsey and YouTube are following suit.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk promised to donate one million trees to #TeamTrees, a campaign started by YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, otherwise known as "MrBeast."
The tech giant caught wind of the campaign on Monday, replying to Donaldson's tweet calling the campaign "cool" and inquiring "where are the trees being planted" and "what kind of trees." Upon explanation, Musk responded in the thread: "Ok, sounds legit, will donate 1M trees."
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also made a significant contribution to the campaign following Musk, donating 150,000 trees to the tree-planting cause. YouTube is also planning on matching the next million dollars donated to TeamTrees through the YouTube donate button, Donaldson wrote in a tweet.
According to the campaign's website, one dollar is equivalent to one tree, and each tree will be "planted in a variety of forests on public and private lands in areas of great need."
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk casually made a massive contribution to a YouTuber's tree-planting campaign, announcing the donation via tweet.

Musk promised to donate one million trees to #TeamTrees, a campaign started by YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, otherwise known as "MrBeast." The tech giant caught wind of the campaign on Monday, replying to Donaldson's tweet calling the campaign "cool" and inquiring "where are the trees being planted" and "what kind of trees."

Upon explanation, Musk responded Tuesday in the thread: "Ok, sounds legit, will donate 1M trees."

Donaldson replied to Musk's tweet, calling him "Treelon Musk," which prompted the Tesla CEO to change his Twitter name to "Treelon" and make his profile picture an image of a forest. He also tweeted, "For Treebeard," in reference to a character from "Lord of the Rings."

Treelon Musk

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also made a significant contribution to the campaign, donating 150,000 trees to the tree-planting cause. YouTube is also planning on matching the next million dollars donated to TeamTrees through the YouTube donate button, Donaldson wrote in a tweet.

Musk's massive donation comes in the wake of reports that he is "financially illiquid," following a recent defamation lawsuit. Musk is worth about $23.6 billion, though a majority of his net worth is in the form of stock in his companies, SpaceX and Tesla.

Donaldson's social media followers challenged him in May 2019 to raise money to plant 20 million trees by next year to commemorate hitting the 20 million subscriber milestone on Youtube.

Donaldson partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation, the longest-running tree planting NGO, to roll out the endeavor. According to the campaign's website, one dollar is equivalent to one tree, and each tree will be "planted in a variety of forests on public and private lands in areas of great need."

Among the big donors (besides Musk) are fellow YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober, and beauty YouTuber Jeffree Star donated 50,000 trees. EDM musician Alan Walker donated 100,001 trees in an attempt to overtake the number one spot, which was held by Donaldson to challenge donors for bigger contributions.

The campaign has raised nearly $8 million as of Tuesday evening.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Apple just revealed its AirPods Pro for $249, which feature noise cancellation. Here's everything that was wrong with the $159 pair of the wireless headphones.