In March 2025, a rumor circulated online that Elon Musk, tech billionaire and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, offered to donate $10 million to Dawn Staley. Staley is head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks, the University of South Carolina's NCAA women's basketball team.
Some social media posts additionally claimed that Staley had refused the alleged offer. For example, a March 23 post (archived) from the Facebook page Women's Hoops read:
BREAKING: Dawn Staley Shocks the World by Rejecting Elon Musk's $10 Million Offer. She says "Keep It and Spend It on Something That Actually Helps People!".
Musk, known for his larger-than-life persona and penchant for making bold statements, expressed his admiration for Staley's leadership both on and off the court, stating, "I stand with you, Coach Dawn Staley." However, Staley's response shocks everyone.
(Facebook page Women's Hoops)
That post linked to an article on the website Btuatu.com that claimed to provide further details about Musk's offer and Staley's rejection of it. A different Women's Hoops post (archived) that focused only on the donation part of the claim — with no mention of Staley refusing it — contained a link to a corresponding Btuatu.com article.
Versions of the claim also appeared on platforms including X, Threads and Instagram, as well as the message board Democratic Underground.
But there was no evidence to support the claim that Musk ever offered $10 million to Staley. As a result, we've rated the claim false.
A Google search for the terms "Musk" and "Staley" found no credible media coverage of the alleged donation, which would have made headlines if it were a real story. We found no mention of either Staley or the South Carolina Gamecocks on Musk's X official account. Likewise, no mention of Musk appeared on Staley's official X or Instagram accounts.
Additionally, the website some of the social media posts linked to, Btuatu.com, has a history of posting made-up stories for clicks and shares.
Some stories on the website, including ones about Musk's alleged attempt to give Staley $10 million and Staley's purported refusal of the offer, appeared to be the product of artificial intelligence (AI) software. The AI text detectors ZeroGPT and GPTZero both reported a high probability that the two aforementioned Btuatu.com articles about the claim were AI-generated.
Although the exact origin of the rumor was unclear, it appeared to have
(Instagram user @keisha_mcmillan_rainey)
We've previously looked into other false stories about celebrities that appeared on Btuatu.com, including a rumor that the Kansas City Chiefs banned Musk from future NFL games.