Elon Musk has a huge charity. The money stays close to home.

“The really striking thing about Musk is the discrepancy between his outsized public persona and his very, very minimal philanthropic presence,” said Benjamin Soskis, who studies philanthropy at the Urban Institute. While other billionaires have sought to have a broad impact on society, Mr. Soskis said Mr. Musk’s foundation “lacks any direction or any real focus outside of his business ventures.”

Mr Musk did not respond to requests for comment.

A school for his children

Mr. Musk and his younger brother Kimbal founded the Musk Foundation in 2001, a year before the sale of PayPal, the online payments company he co-founded, to eBay for $1.5 billion. He made more than $175 million from the sale and would provide his eponymous foundation with about $2 million in eBay stock.

The Musk Foundation’s website initially featured slick animations, depicting satellite dishes and children in classrooms, while encouraging people to apply for grants. However, in 2005 it was swept clean and replaced by solid black text stating that the foundation was interested in “science education, pediatric healthcare and clean energy.”

No contact details were listed. It still is doesn’t.

By September 2014 Forbes estimated that Mr. Musk’s net worth was more than $10 billion, driven by the value of his Tesla stock holdings. But he gave little to his own charity. That year, tax returns show, his foundation had done just that $40,121 in the bank.

That fit with Musk’s public stance on philanthropy. He believed his for-profit companies were his way of changing the world.