Tim Cook will donate his fortune to charity
Openly gay Apple CEO wants to "create the ripple for change"
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, will follow in the footsteps of other philanthropic tech moguls and leave his fortune to charity.
In an interview with Fortune, Cook — who came out last year — revealed that he’s much more open to giving his vast sums of wealth away than his predecessor, Steve Jobs. With an estimated net worth of $112 million, plus another $665 million in restricted stock options, he plans to establish a college fund for his nephew and put the rest to good deeds.
Rather than leave money to a specific charity, Fortune reports that Cook plans to establish his own method of distributing his wealth, possibly in the style of Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — which has over $40 billion in endowment, with Gates himself providing $28 billion.
Cook has apparently already been donating his wealth, albeit without fanfare, but has also encouraged charitable giving throughout Apple. Indeed, just this month the company announced that it was donating $50 million to increase diversity in the tech industry, while charitable giving as a while under Cook’s reign has increased dramatically.
As Cook — who has taken stands recently on immigration, preventing the transmission of AIDS, and increasing human rights — says, “You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripple for change.”
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