On April 7, Twitter and Square Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey pledged US$1 billion of his stake in Square, Inc. to help fund relief efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The donation amounts to around 28% of his total wealth. The donation which mostly comes from his companies’ equities is to be made to his charity fund, Start Small LLC.
“I’m moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief. After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl’s health and education, and UBI. It will operate transparently,” Dorsey tweeted. Dorsey added that he was pledging his stake in mobile payments company Square instead of the social networking site Twitter, because he owns a greater stake in Square.
More pledges from US magnates
American talk show host Oprah Winfrey has pledged US$10 million to coronavirus relief funds across cities in the United States, with US$1 million to be directed to America’s Food Fund, a new initiative to feed local communities.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife American pediatrician Priscilla Chan, are donating US$25 million to the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, a global initiative launched in March by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard. The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator identifies potential treatments for the disease, accelerates their development and makes preparations for the production of millions of doses for global use, backed by a funding of US$125 million.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is dedicating US$100 million to fund the COVID-19 response in South Asia and Africa.
Chinese billionaires assist in battle
Co-founders of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, billionaires Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, facilitated a gift of 1,000 ventilators for coronavirus patients in New York State in the US.
Jack Ma has also donated medical equipment to Africa, sending a total of 1.5 million laboratory kits to member states of the African Union.
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