Elon Musk has made waves again, but not for a revolutionary project. Musk offered to contribute $1 billion to Wikipedia with a whimsical twist.

In his typical tone, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla made it clear that there was a catch to this kind of offer: Wikipedia would have to rebrand itself as "Dickipedia." Elon Musk said his unusual request was for accuracy, adding playfulness to his proposal.

(Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with one of his sons walks on the pit lane after the 2023 United States Formula One Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on October 22, 2023.

Elon Musk's unusual offer to Wikipedia rapidly attracted the attention of X (formerly Twitter) users worldwide. A user urged Wikipedia to take up the challenge, and Musk, never one to pass up a chance for comedy by adding a twist: Wikipedia would have to keep the name "Dickipedia" for a minimum of one year, as reported by India Today.

The tech magnate posted a snapshot of Wikipedia's main page with the prominent notice, "Wikipedia is not for sale," to support his idea. Another addition to the site was a "personal appeal from Jimmy Wales," one of the Wikipedia co-founders. Musk joked that the Wikimedia Foundation did not require such large donations as Wikipedia's whole text could fit on a smartphone. Jokingly, he requested this information for his Wikipedia page.

Elon Musk carried on the lighthearted social media conversation by asking Wikipedia to add an emoji of a cow and a poop to his Wikipedia article, which attracted lots of attention on X, which he purchased last year.

Wikipedia Founder Replies

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, seems to have responded to Elon Musk's offer in a statement headlined "Wikipedia: not beholden to anyone but you" on the website, as reported by Unilad. Wales asked visitors to consider paying $3 to the Wikimedia Foundation for the value they have gained from Wikipedia.

He recognized in other parts of the world the difficulties of navigating the internet in a world full of fraudsters and false information.

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Elon Musk and Wikipedia have already engaged in the past. Jimmy Wales has lambasted Musk for suppressing Recep Tayyip Erdogan's detractors before a pivotal election. Musk had granted Turkey's request to impose content restrictions, contrary to Wales' position. Wales said that Wikipedia had fought free speech in a similar circumstance, even bringing it to the Turkish Supreme Court.

In response, Elon Musk offered two options at the time: completely shut down Twitter or limit access to certain messages, with no clarity on which option would prevail.

Notably, Turkey's laws permitted the blocking of websites judged offensive or a danger to national security, which is why Wikipedia was restricted there for more than two years.

Elon Musk's Other Firm is Now Worth $7 Billion

In a piece of separate news, Elon Musk's business, The Boring Company, recently attained an implied worth of $7 billion via the sale of investor and employee shares. The amount at which these shares were sold was 22% more than what the firm had asked for during its last investment round.

According to The Street, the firm's shares were reportedly valued at $24 each, compared to $19 apiece during the company's $675 million Series C investment round in April of the previous year. Currently, it's speculated that the Boring Company allowed investors to purchase additional shares worth as much as $20 million during its recent sale.

The primary appeal of The Boring Company is its ability to utilize advanced technology to increase tunneling speed and decrease expenses. Their machine, named 'Prufrock', can dig a mile in just one week, representing a major advancement in tunnel construction. It is expected that its later versions will exhibit even higher efficiency.

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