Mark Zuckerberg will give away 99% of his Facebook shares, worth nearly $45bn at the company’s current valuation, for the cause of human advancement.
The announcement came following Zuckerberg’s Facebook post welcoming his new daughter to the world.
In the letter, Zuckerberg outlined several ways he and his wife Priscilla Chan would like to support good causes.
The money will go to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which intends to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation.
Its initial areas of focus include personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.
An SEC filing suggests that Zuckerberg intends to sell or gift no more than $1bn of Facebook stock every year for the next three years. He plans to retain his majority voting position for the foreseeable future.
Some of the initiative’s plans are in line with Facebook’s Internet.org project, which is offering free basic internet services across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
