Facebook founder set to give it all away
It is set to receive the most “likes” of any Facebook posting ever.
And it is an accolade few would grudge after the social media site’s owner Mark Zuckerburg announced the birth of his baby daughterMax alongside the news he is to give away 99% of his shares in the company.
In cash terms it amounts to around £30 billion with Zuckerburg and his wife Priscilla Chan saying the cash will go to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to enable Max to grow up in a better world.
Zuckerberg said the aim of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is "to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation".
Its initial areas of focus will be personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.
"Like all parents, we want you to grow up in a world better than ours today," the 31-year-old social media mogul and his wife wrote in a letter to their daughter, which they also posted on Facebook.
"Your mother and I don't yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future," Zuckerberg said at the start of the letter to Max.
"You've already given us a reason to reflect on the world we hope you live in," it added.
While Zuckerberg promised to release more details in the future, he said the couple will transfer most of their wealth to the initiative "during our lives." The couple will be in charge of the initiative, although Zuckerberg won't be quitting his day job.
"I have a full time job running Facebook," he said in a recent interview during which he discussed the couple's approach to philanthropy.
The Facebook co-founder is one of the world's wealthiest men. He and Chan, a 30-year-old paediatrician, have previously donated $100 million to public schools in Newark, New Jersey, and pledged $120 million to schools in poor communities of the San Francisco Bay Area.
They've also given $75 million to the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where Chan did her medical training.
In comparison, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has an endowment of just over $41 billion, which includes wealth donated by the Microsoft founder and his friend, the businessman Warren Buffett.
