Billionaire Elon Musk has the courage to press the United Nations to see if they can actually back up their claims. And if so, Musk will make a very large gesture. The UN’s World Food Programme director David Beasley issued a plea to billionaires, saying $6 billion would help 42 million people who are starving. Beasley says they are “literally going to die if we don’t reach them.”

Musk said if the UN can show the math behind the figure, he will sell Tesla stock and donate the proceeds “if the UN could prove that just a tiny percentage of his wealth could save tens of millions of lives” reports Business Insider.

Beasley made the comments on CNN’s “Connect the World” last week. He specifically said a $6 billion donation from billionaires like Musk and Jeff Bezos could help a whopping 42 million people dying from starvation. Beasley tweeted the video of his appearance on CNN with the caption:

“The world needs to wake up. We’ve got a global humanitarian crisis on our hands that is spiraling out of control. 42M people in 43 countries face famine NOW. All we need is $6.6B – just .36% of the top 400 YS billionaires’ net worth increase last year. Is that too much to ask??”

The world needs to wake up. We’ve got a global humanitarian crisis on our hands that is spiraling out of control. 42M people in 43 countries face famine NOW.

All we need is $6.6B—just .36% of the top 400 US billionaires' net worth increase last year. Is that too much to ask?? pic.twitter.com/YMD7zuPwsf

— Cindy McCain (@WFPChief) October 27, 2021

Musk responded publicly via his personal Twitter account writing, “If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.” He then added, “But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent.”

But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021

Surprise, surprise, Beasley immediately backtracked, saying he was not insinuating $6 billion would “solve world hunger” just that it would be “a one-time donation to save 42 million lives during this unprecedented hunger crisis.” So basically, he’s saying $6 billion could give a meal to a lot of people. A notion even preschoolers could have told us.

Beasley tweeted, “I can assure you that we have the systems in place for transparency and open source accounting. Your team can review and work with us to be totally confident of such.”